Latest news with #GuyEdwardBartkus
New York Times
25-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
A Fringe Movement
The attack on a Palm Springs, Calif., fertility clinic last week surfaced some unsettling ideas. Guy Edward Bartkus, the 25-year-old suspect, had posted an audio clip explaining why he wanted to blow up a place that makes babies. 'I would be considered a pro-mortalist,' he said before detonating his Ford Fusion, killing himself and injuring four others. 'Let's make the death thing happen sooner rather than later in life.' Investigators called it 'terrorism' and 'nihilistic ideation.' Trump administration officials called it 'anti-pro-life.' Bartkus was indeed espousing an extreme ideology. But it belongs to a larger intellectual movement, still fringe for now, that is slowly gaining adherents. My colleagues Jill Cowan, Aric Toler, Jesus Jiménez and I have spent the past week reporting on what experts call 'anti-natalism.' Hundreds of thousands follow accounts and podcasts about it. It holds that procreation is immoral because the inevitability of death and suffering outweighs the odds of happiness. Today's newsletter explains. The idea The calculus is ancient — to be or not to be? A South African philosopher's 2006 treatise, 'Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence,' popularized the idea in its modern form. 'You're stuck between having been born, which was a harm, but also not being able to end the harm by taking your own life, because that is another kind of harm,' the author, David Benatar, told us. This perspective draws partly on utilitarianism, a discipline of philosophy that asks how to achieve the most good for the greatest number. But even there, anti-natalism is seen as marginal. Besides Benatar, 'I don't know any other philosophers who share it,' said Peter Singer, an influential utilitarian. Online, however, anxieties including climate change and artificial intelligence have given it traction — as has the yearning for connection, even among people with antisocial tendencies. Scores of anti-natalist discussion boards, influencers and podcasts now debate whether all creatures should stop reproducing, or just humans. The concepts have bled into pop culture. Thanos, the supervillain in two films from Marvel's 'Avengers' franchise, wants to eradicate half of the universe's living beings because there are 'too many mouths to feed.' The number of Americans who don't want kids is rising, with many young people saying they don't want to hurt the environment. A few variants are even more extreme. An offshoot known as 'efilists' — that's 'life' spelled backward — argues that DNA should also be destroyed. Pro-mortalism, the position Bartkus staked out, is less well defined. But it suggests that birth should be followed as soon as possible by a quick, consensual death. Bartkus was a vegan from a small town in the California desert whose estranged father called him 'a follower, not a leader.' As a child, the father said, he loved rockets and once nearly burned the house down. As an adult, he set off explosions in the barren wilderness. Online, he had grown close to a woman who died last month in an apparent assisted suicide. Taking action That woman, Sophie Tinney, 27, was shot three times in the head on Easter Sunday near Seattle, according to court records. Officials have charged her roommate with second-degree murder. But Bartkus's manifesto says she was a suicidal anti-natalist — and may have persuaded the roommate, an Eagle Scout who liked to play Dungeons & Dragons, to shoot her in her sleep. (He has pleaded not guilty.) Bartkus said online that Tinney's death might have prompted the clinic bombing. 'I don't think I really knew how much it was going to affect me,' said a manifesto posted with the audio on a pro-mortalism website. Social media posts tied to him indicate that he had attempted suicide at least twice since she died. Then he videotaped a dry run for the bombing, mixing chemicals in the desert that could blow up his car. An F.A.Q. appended to his manifesto includes a list of pro-mortalist and efilist figures; at least two of them have killed themselves in recent years. This week, the moderator of an anti-natalism Reddit forum with nearly a quarter-million members called the bombing 'unjustifiable, incoherent, immoral and disgusting.' Benatar, the author, said that his philosophy explicitly abhors violence, the restriction of reproductive rights and, in almost all cases, suicide. But ideas have a way of twisting and transforming online. One such adaptation seems to have found a young man who loved pyrotechnics and hated life. War in Ukraine Democrats Trump Administration Five Years Since Floyd Other Big Stories Republicans want to add work requirements to Medicaid. Is that a good idea? No. Work requirements bury eligible people under paperwork to prove that they meet the new requirements. 'The most vulnerable will be made worse off, all to fund a tax cut that most benefits the rich,' Pamela Herd and Donald Moynihan write for The Times. Yes. Work requirements improved the economy in the Clinton years, when people left welfare and went back to work. 'More workers in the economy will mean more people paying into Social Security and Medicare, preserving those programs for years to come,' Stewart Whitson writes for U.S. News & World Report. Zombie apocalypses are appealing because there's no better distraction from whatever currently ails you than something worse, Rachel Feintzeig writes. Here are columns by Maureen Dowd on Trump's crypto gala and Lydia Polgreen on the Oval Office meeting with South Africa's president. Believing: After childbirth put a woman into a coma, she forgot her husband and her faith. Read how she recovered. Wrecked: With an underwater drone, archaeologists are capturing images of sunken vessels in the Great Lakes. Roommate tales: Stories of New Yorkers living alongside slobs, witches and eventual lifelong friends. Summer vacation: Staffing cuts could make national parks a mess this summer. Here are five great state parks to visit instead. Divorcing? There's a coach for that. The Gecko Gallery: A tiny Brooklyn zoo is host to dozens of species from across the globe. See inside. Vows: Their friend rigged the gala seating chart. It worked. Your pick: The most-clicked story in The Morning yesterday showed 15 looks from the Cannes red carpet. Trending: The soccer team Real Madrid. The coach Carlo Ancelotti is leaving the club this weekend to become head coach of Brazil, the BBC reports. Lives Lived: Susan Brownmiller was a feminist author and activist who helped define the modern view of rape, debunking it as an act of passion and reframing it as a crime of power and violence. She died at 90. Read this week's magazine. Try a soul-nourishing Filipino chicken soup. Workout in 20 minutes. Watch these comedy specials over the long weekend. Know your charcoal before you start grilling this summer. In this week's Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Emily Weinstein suggests making a recipe she will have on repeat this spring: Melissa Clark's miso-chile asparagus with tofu. She also recommends lemon-pepper chicken breasts, a Somali coconut fish curry, and salmon and couscous salad. Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangram was expunging. Can you put eight historical events — including the creation of the laser, Mickey Mouse and Godzilla — in chronological order? Take this week's Flashback quiz. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. P.S. The Interview is off this weekend. It will be back next weekend. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
The Dark, Nihilistic Philosophy Behind the IVF Clinic Bombing
Last weekend's bombing of an in vitro fertilization clinic in Palm Springs, California, was not merely shocking for its violence. The arguably more disturbing aspect of this tragic event is the bleak anti-life worldview underlying the attacker's motives. Twenty-five-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus detonated a car bomb outside the facility, killing himself and injuring four others, in an incident the FBI has designated a terrorist attack. In a short manifesto and a rambling, half-hour audio recording posted online—both of which are believed to be authored by Bartkus—he struggles to articulate a deeply unsettling worldview rooted in nihilist despair. 'Basically, it just comes down to, I'm angry that I exist,' he says at one point. 'Nobody got my consent to bring me here.' This sentiment, in which people express grim grievances for the lack of consent for their own birth, is the central premise of antinatalism, a philosophical position that argues procreation is morally wrong because life inevitably entails suffering. Efilism (life spelled backward), a more fringe offshoot of antinatalism, goes further by viewing all life as inherently harmful. In his manifesto, Bartkus describes himself as a 'promortalist,' that is to say someone who believes that death is always better than life. 'All a promortalist is saying is let's make it happen sooner rather than later (and preferably peaceful rather than some disease or accident), to prevent your future suffering, and, more importantly, the suffering your existence will cause to all the other sentient beings,' the manifesto reads. 'The end goal is for the truth (Efilism) to win, and once it does, we can finally begin the process of sterilizing this planet of the disease of life.' Bartkus, who discloses on his website that he was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, had long struggled with suicidal thoughts and the belief that he wouldn't live beyond his twenties. But to dismiss Bartkus as a mere madman is to miss the larger, more unsettling picture. His actions, while horrific, reflect broader crises with which we haven't fully reckoned. In a country where birth is politicized, life is unaffordable, and death is ambient, it's not hard to understand how anti-life philosophies might take root and flourish. In the manifesto, Bartkus traces the tipping point that pushed him 'over the edge': the suicide of his best friend, Sophie. 'Recently my best friend Sophie killed herself (she got the guy she was living with to shoot her while she was sleeping, her preferred method), and I don't think I really knew how much it was going to affect me,' he says. 'I've never related to someone so much, and can't imagine I ever would again.… We got along quite well and it was very nice, especially when you feel like you are in an apocalypse and nobody else seems to get anything.' This wasn't just an act of terror or mental illness. It was an extreme, mutated expression of a feeling many young people carry, and a sharp distillation of the anti-life undercurrents running through American culture. Climate change, debt, social isolation, and political disillusionment combine to form the background hum of everyday life. In this doomer environment, even the most grotesque ideologies can present themselves as the logical conclusions to a rigged existence. According to a recent study, 60 percent of Americans currently can't afford even a 'minimal quality of life.' For an economist, these measures of economic precarity are just statistics. For many others, they are fertile soil for despair. Despite outspending peers on health care, the United States has the highest suicide rates among wealthy nations. A 2024 study found that one in five high school students had seriously considered suicide that year. Against a backdrop of ongoing genocide and impending ecological breakdown, the idea that life itself is unlivable can begin to feel not just plausible, but logical. In this context, Bartkus's ideology doesn't arrive out of nowhere. It festers in the contradiction at the heart of American life. On the right, we have seen a surge in pronatalist rhetoric—which, alongside the collapse of reproductive freedom in the U.S., suggests a future of forced birth by state decree—coupled with policies and beliefs that undermine the material conditions necessary to sustain life. In the post-Roe landscape, birth is increasingly mandated—evident in cases like the brain-dead woman kept alive under Georgia's abortion ban—yet life after birth is systematically devalued. The Trump administration has floated the idea of $5,000 'baby bonuses' to incentivize Americans to have more children without addressing (or while actively exacerbating) crises in education, health care, and cost of living. It is within these contradictions that Bartkus's warped philosophy takes root. The fragmented, bleak worldview expressed by Bartkus reflects a growing sense of despair that's particularly acute among young men, who are splitting away from young women along social, political, and religious lines, with many increasingly finding solace in toxic online subcultures promoting reactionary or violent belief systems. Men account for 80 percent of suicides in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the manifesto, Bartkus briefly references Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old Sandy Hook shooter who killed his mother, six teachers, and 20 first graders before turning the gun on himself. Lanza too espoused a bleak, antinatalist worldview. On his YouTube channel, CulturalPhilistine, he described suicide as a way people have 'freed themselves' from the burden of living. 'I've always had an immense hatred for culture,' he said. 'I consider culture to be delusional values which humans mindlessly coerce onto each other, spreading it no differently than any other disease.' Lanza also expressed disgust at the idea of childbirth—'I think that you should say, 'I'm so sorry for your loss' whenever you hear that someone is pregnant'—and frequently returned to themes of childhood, control, and violence, including a fixation on pedophilia. His online footprint offers a disturbing case study in how alienation, untreated mental illness, and a toxic cultural and digital environment can fuse into something explosive. Bartkus's invocation of Lanza underscores a disturbing lineage of thought among disaffected young men who view existence as inherently cruel. Lanza's beliefs have appeared in certain corners of internet subculture—Reddit threads, YouTube essays, Discord servers—where irony, rage, and fatalism coalesce into something that resembles belief. In the wake of Bartkus's attack, Reddit banned the r/Efilism subreddit for violating its policies regarding self-harm, though other antinatalist threads remain on the platform. These aren't organized movements. They're more like moodscapes: ambient environments of digital despair that encourage withdrawal, contempt, and in some cases, violence toward self and others. Bartkus appears to have seen Lanza as a figure who articulated what he himself struggled to express. Their shared sense of existential betrayal—of being brought into a world without consent and then left to suffer within it—gave their violence a warped logic. It's not a cry for help so much as a declaration of war against life itself. This attack needs to force a larger reckoning with the way our political leaders have been poor stewards of our present and have undermined our collective future. For America to effectively grapple with the toxic systems of belief that Bartkus, Lanza, and a simmering mass of others have come to embrace, it must confront the systemic failures that feed them. It must acknowledge the material and psychic conditions that make the idea of erasing life seem like a form of justice. That means rejecting the impulse to label attackers 'lone wolves' and recognizing that these men are actually the pure products of a culture that celebrates birth but offers no real plan for life. Bartkus believed life was a disease. He didn't come to that belief on his own.
Sky News
24-05-2025
- Sky News
FBI names suspect in California fertility clinic bombing as Guy Edward Bartkus
The FBI has named the suspect in the car bombing of a fertility clinic in California as 25-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus. One person was killed and four hurt in Saturday's blast in Palm Springs, which the FBI said was an "intentional act of terrorism". The bureau said Bartkus held "nihilistic" views, while the US attorney in Los Angeles said his writings were "anti pro-life". On Saturday evening, Akil Davies, head of the FBI's Los Angeles branch, said authorities were still working to confirm the identity of the person who died at the scene. While he did not directly say whether that person was the suspect, he said authorities were not searching for anyone. The city's mayor, Ron DeHarte, said the bomb was "either in or near" a vehicle - with the FBI later identifying the car a silver Ford Fusion. Dr Maher Abdallah, who runs the American Reproductive Centers clinic, said the facility was damaged but all staff were safe and accounted for. The explosion damaged the office space where the practice conducts patient consultations, but the IVF lab and stored embryos were unharmed, he added. "I really have no clue what happened," he said. "Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients." On Facebook, the clinic said it was "heartbroken" to learn someone died in the explosion and added: "Our deepest condolences go out to the individuals and families affected." It continued: "Our mission has always been to help build families, and in times like these, we are reminded of just how fragile and precious life is. "In the face of this tragedy, we remain committed to creating hope - because we believe that healing begins with community, compassion, and care." The clinic will be fully operational on Monday, it added. "This moment has shaken us - but it has not stopped us. We will continue to serve with strength, love, and the hope that brings new life into the world," the statement concluded. The Palm Springs city government said on Facebook that the explosion happened on North Indian Canyon Drive, near East Tachevah Drive, before 11am local time (6pm GMT). The burned-out car can be seen in a car park behind the building in aerial footage of the scene. The blast caved in the clinic's roof and blew debris across four lanes of the road. Another person said he was inside a cannabis dispensary nearby when he felt a massive explosion. Nima Tabrizi said: "The building just shook, and we go outside and there's massive cloud smoke." Investigators from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have travelled to the scene to help assess what happened. A White House official also told Sky's US partner network NBC News that US President Donald Trump was monitoring the situation.
CBS News
24-05-2025
- CBS News
Palm Springs bombing suspect had access to chemicals to make explosives, FBI says
As the investigation into the bombing of a Palm Springs fertility clinic continues, the FBI revealed that the suspect had access to a large amount of chemicals that could be used to make a homemade explosive. Agents identified Guy Edward Bartkus, 25, as the person suspected of detonating the car bomb in front of American Reproductive Centers on May 17. The FBI described the attack as an "intentional act of terrorism," which is now the largest bombing in Southern California history. The explosion nearly destroyed the IVF clinic, damaged surrounding buildings and wounded four people. Agents found human remains in the debris field. DNA testing confirmed it was the 25-year-old suspect. Investigators also recovered a weapon, ammunition, a tripod and a cell phone near remnants of Barkus' 2010 Ford Fusion. Agents believe he tried to livestream the bombing but haven't found evidence it ever aired. "The subject had nihilistic ideations and this was a targeted attack," Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said on May 17. "We believe he was attempting to livestream it and yes, that is also part of our investigation." The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force said the suspect posted and recorded "anti-natalist beliefs," where he found it morally wrong or unjustifiable to have children. While the explosion forced the American Reproductive Centers to close its Palm Springs location, authorities managed to save all of the embryos at the IVF lab. A few days after the bombing, the clinic's director Dr. Maheer Abdallah vowed to rebuild the facility and promised that "it will be better than before." In the meantime, his team will continue their reproductive work at the Desert Regional Medical Center. During a news conference on Thursday, Abdallah said he forgives Bartkus for the attack and wishes his staff would not speak poorly of him in the future. On Thursday, Amer Abdallah revealed that his cousin, Dr. Maheer Abdallah, even offered to pay for Bartkus' funeral services.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Yahoo
Palm Springs clinic bomber had access to large quantity of chemical products, FBI says
The man who authorities believe detonated a powerful explosive device outside a Palm Springs fertility clinic had "access to a large quantity of commercially available chemical products which could be combined to create a home-made explosive device,' the FBI revealed Thursday. The agency said it was still investigating the case and did not provide further details. "Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, the FBI is unable to disclose specific case details regarding the makeup of the explosive device," the FBI said. On Saturday morning, a bomb was detonated at American Reproductive Centers in Palm Springs, destroying much of the building, injuring four people and killing the suspected bomber. Guy Edward Bartkus is the sole suspect in the bombing, which the FBI has labeled as domestic terrorism. Read more: Palm Springs bombing investigation turns to the explosives: How were they sourced and built? DNA tests of body parts found at the scene show Bartkus, 25, was killed in the blast. The FBI described the Palm Springs blast — powerful enough to damage buildings several blocks away — as 'probably the largest bombing scene that we've had in Southern California,' eclipsing the 2018 bombing of a day spa in Aliso Viejo. Law enforcement sources told The Times that the bomber used a very large amount of explosives — so much that the bomb shredded his remains. The sources said authorities recovered explosive materials from Bartkus' home and that he was skilled in assembling explosive devices and was a longtime rocket builder. The clinic posted a photo of the blast's aftermath that showed the building's roof caved in, debris flowing into the streets and smoke billowing from inside. Officials have not yet determined a motive in the bombing. But a website that contained no name but appeared connected to the bombing laid out the case for 'a war against pro-lifers' and said a fertilization clinic would be targeted. Authorities have yet to confirm if Bartkus was the author of that site. 'Here you can download the recorded stream of my suicide & bombing of an IVF clinic,' the site began, but no such file existed. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
