The person who died after authorities say he bombed a Palm Springs fertility clinic on Saturday was linked to antinatalism—the assumption that every one life is a type of struggling imposed on individuals with out their consent—in response to terrorism consultants who’ve been analyzing his on-line presence.
Authorities say Man Bartkus, who was 25, set off an explosion in a automobile outdoors American Reproductive Facilities, injuring 5 individuals and killing himself in addition to inflicting intensive injury to the constructing in an act of terrorism.
“The topic had nihilistic ideations and this was a focused assault,” Akil Davis, assistant director answerable for the FBI’s Los Angeles area workplace, mentioned in a press convention. Bartkus was making an attempt to stay stream the assault, Davis added. All embryos within the facility have been saved.
Because the assault, Bartkus’ digital footprint has surfaced, together with writings and recordings of his views. In accordance with the LAist, Bartkus appeared to explain himself as being promortalist and misandrist on an internet site that surfaced after the bombing and may very well be heard in an audio recording saying, “Principally I’m anti-life. And IVF is like form of the epitome of pro-life ideology.” He didn’t use his title on the location, however analysts from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) consider the web site was operated by him. WIRED has considered an archived model of the web site.
Reddit has additionally banned the antinatalist subreddit r/Efilism, telling NBC Information it was eradicating “any situations of the suspect’s manifesto or recordings and hashing to forestall reupload.” Efilism, a type of antinatalism additionally linked to promortalism, will get its title by spelling “life” backwards.
Nihilists consider that life is meaningless. Whereas promortalists and antinatalists additionally don’t worth human life, Katherine Keneally, director of risk evaluation and prevention US for the ISD, says Bartkus’ views have been considerably distinct from nihilism due to his perception he was on a mission.
“Promortalists acknowledge and search to reduce struggling relatively than embrace misanthropy and amorality,” Keneally says, noting that the writings attributed to Bartkus point out he rejected the “sociopath[ic]” tendencies of nihilists” in a Might 2025 discussion board publish. Keneally says a part of minimizing struggling, within the eyes of an antinatalist, is lowering the human inhabitants.
In a recording of the aforementioned web site, Bartkus reportedly mentioned, “ I’m indignant that I exist, um, and that, uh, you realize, no one obtained my consent to carry me right here.”
Keneally says the suspect’s statements and social media posts point out the bombing was motivated by promortalism, as he might have thought concentrating on a fertility clinic was stopping new life. ISD analysts don’t consider promortalism has been a major motivator of violence in earlier instances it’s been linked to, she provides.
The bombing comes over every week after ISD launched a report about how nihilistic worldviews are fueling violence within the US and Europe. The report discovered that two outstanding nihilistic subcultures, True Crime Group and No Lives Matter, have been linked by authorities to 9 faculty capturing plots and two Swedish stabbing assaults in 2024.
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