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Anti-natalists: The people who want you to stop having babies
They believe humans shouldn't have children. Who are the anti-natalists - and how far are they willing to push their ideas?
"Wouldn't it just be better to blow a hole in the side of the earth and just have done with everything?" Thomas, 29, lives in the east of England, and although his idea of blowing up the world is something of a thought experiment, he is certain about one thing - humans should not have babies, and our species should gradually go extinct.
It's a philosophy called anti-natalism. While the idea dates back to ancient Greece, it has recently been given a huge boost by social media. On Facebook and Reddit, there are dozens of anti-natalist groups, some with thousands of members. On Reddit, r/antinatalism has nearly 35,000 members, while just one of the dozens of Facebook groups with an anti-natalist theme has more than 6,000.
They are scattered around the world and have a variety of reasons for their beliefs. Among them are concerns about genetic inheritance, not wanting children to suffer, the concept of consent, and worries about overpopulation and the environment. But they are united in their desire to stop human procreation. And although they are a fringe movement, some of their views, particularly on the state of the earth, are increasingly creeping into mainstream discussion. While not an anti-natalist, the Duke of Sussex recently said he and his wife were planning to have a maximum of two children, because of environmental concerns.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday August 14 2019, @06:17PM
Well, no. The reason to think that way is that most people don't want to live in NYC. Population of cities normally doesn't reproduce fast enough for replacement. The reasons need a lot more research, because until there's a reasonable way to control population space colonies are going to have problems.
Also, we aren't just talking about living space, but also resource usage. That means we need to actually recycle garbage rather than just ship it to a place that will *say* they're recycling it. Most "recycled" garbage still ends up in land-fills. And we're currently driving other species into extinction at an unsustainable rate. (The bottom of the food chain is being hollowed out, and when it will collapse is uncertain...just that it will collapse at some point...and we *hope* we haven't passed it.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.