May 23, 2025

"The most extreme end of the promortalism movement is 'Efilism,'which takes its name from 'life' spelt backward..."

"... and argues that all sentient life should be extinguished to prevent suffering. Gary Mosher... one of its most prominent proponents... endorses violence towards women, even claiming he will murder any woman he gets pregnant who refuses an abortion. 'The end goal is for the truth [Efilism] to win, and once it does, we can finally begin the process of sterilising this planet of the disease of life,' he wrote in an online manifesto. But after the IVF clinic in Palm Springs was bombed, he distanced himself from the violence. 'The fact is that there’s people in the world who are lonely, and some that are crazy, and this, that and the other thing,' he said on [YouTube]. 'They have some reason to be despondent, and they have low investment in their existence, and those are dangerous people.'... [I]t is not hard to find members recommending various methods for killing oneself, or using the term 'CTB' — or catch the bus — for suicide...."

From "Inside the ‘strangest terrorist movement the US has ever seen’/Guy Bartkus tried to destroy an IVF clinic to save the embryos the pain of existence. Alarmingly for national security, his ‘promortalist’ philosophy does not die with him" (London Times).

33 comments:

Temujin said...

Sometimes I feel like I've awakened to find myself living in a Kurt Vonnegut novel.

n.n said...

Pro-Choice religion. Not that Choice. Not now. All's fair in lust and abortion. A wicked solution. An article of faith.

n.n said...

One-child. Selective-child. No-child deemed worthy of life. A progressive path and grade. #HateLovesAbortion

Rocco said...

Gary Mosher... one of its most prominent proponents... endorses violence towards women, even claiming he will murder any woman he gets pregnant who refuses an abortion.

Hard to believe this guy is still available on the dating market.
/s

Readering said...

Does not seem like one needs a philosophy against being born to come up with a philosophy for suicide. I had assumed the bomber was an anti-abortion extremist opposed to IVF byproducts. His form of extremism seems like a put on.

Ann Althouse said...

Wouldn't it be easier to get a vasectomy, Gary?

Rocco said...

Readering said...
had assumed the bomber was an anti-abortion extremist opposed to IVF byproducts.

The assumption part of your statement is wrong, but the second part is correct. After all, the main product of IVF is a bouncing little carbon emitter.

boatbuilder said...

This seems like a necessarily tiny and bizarre "movement" that ain't going anywhere. Has Gary ever even had a second date?

Jupiter said...

"... even claiming he will murder any woman he gets pregnant who refuses an abortion."
Interesting. Presumably, this is because he can stand the thought of everyone else's children suffering the appalling condition of life, but the idea of his own, precious child having to experience existence is more than he can bear. He cares, you see? Or maybe he's just virtue-signalling.

RideSpaceMountain said...

boatbuilder said, "This seems like a necessarily tiny and bizarre 'movement' that ain't going anywhere."

I'm sure many said the same thing about Margaret Sanger's "tiny and bizarre" perspectives 100 years ago, but they're not so tiny and bizarre now...

PM said...

Appears to be a movement with a simple home-solution.

Lee Moore said...

"... and argues that all sentient life should be extinguished to prevent suffering.

But the strange thing is - very few people commit suicide. From which we can conclude that the vast majority of people weigh their sufferings against their blessings and find the latter weightier. This is one of those subjective value things. The inclination to discount other people's own opinion of the value of their lives, and substitute your own, is not an attractive personality trait.

Still at least they're only going to destroy sentient life. Beetles are safe.

'The end goal is for the truth [Efilism] to win, and once it does, we can finally begin the process of sterilising this planet of the disease of life

Whoops ! I spoke too soon.

Tom T. said...

This is an Internet Age phenomenon. There are only a handful of nuts who think this way, and before society was so interconnected, they never would have found each other. Now they can call themselves a movement.

Gospace said...

Makes me wonder if Berserkers have detected us and sent in an advance tam to create a growing "Goodlife" movement before their arrival.

"Berserkers are real" and "God created us and only us" are the two universal explanations for the Fermi Paradox.

Not familiar with Berserkers except in the Viking sense? Fred Saberhagen's are worth reading.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

In the movies, the suicidal criminal often wants to take his kids with him. Why? Why not leave the kids alone? See the end of "Falling Down." These elflords say: non-sentient life presumably doesn't suffer; sentient life definitely does. If our goal is to eliminate all suffering, then by definition we must destroy all sentient life. Good point by Lee Moore: they don't seem to stop there.
In a way this is how the Old Testament starts, and no doubt many other books as well: granted that on a good day life can seem a great gift, why is there so much suffering?

The Middle Coast said...

Why would he limit his murder only to women he himself impregnated? The whole theory sounds like the product of late-night doom discussion after which everyone peels off and mumbles “That MF is crazy.”

chuck said...

Shades of the Saberhagen's Berserkers:
the Berserkers are ancient, self-replicating war machines created by an extinct alien race. Programmed to destroy all life, they roam the galaxy, annihilating any living beings they encounter, posing a relentless threat to humanity and other species.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

It's Elitism taken to the ultimate! Our "moral and intellectual betters" are going to murder us for our own good!

Hassayamper said...

Nihilism should commence with oneself.

Hassayamper said...

@Readering: I had assumed the bomber was an anti-abortion extremist opposed to IVF byproducts.

Because of course you did.

bagoh20 said...

It makes a lot of historical evil figures seem absolutely reasonable by comparison. Great Job!

bagoh20 said...

Legalizing weed might not have been such a great idea after all.

Deep State Reformer said...

General education needs a "Pol-Pot level" reset. Just as war is too important to be left to only generals, so the cultivation of knowledge and culture is too important to be left to the educrats. And their unions.

Laurel said...

HIS *suffering* requires EVERYONE die.

There must be a better word for this insanity, other than “Philosopher”.

MadTownGuy said...

"[I]t is not hard to find members recommending various methods for killing oneself, or using the term 'CTB' — or catch the bus — for suicide...."

Drinking the Kool-Aid is back in vogue, for a few people.

Readering said...

Hassayamper: Because at the time I had never heard of this basis for opposition to IVF. You had?

Lazarus said...

Time for John Goodman to tell the "Trump is a Nazi" crowd that "Say what you will about the tenets .... at least it's an ethos." It might make up for his loathsome, toadying Biden commercial.

Josephbleau said...

This guy is doing it wrong. The only reason for making a crackpot pseudo religion is to get laid.

Gospace said...

One minor correction Chuck. Programmed to destroy all life except that of their now extinct creators, made extinct by the enemy they created the Berserkers to fight and destroy.

Hassayamper said...

Because at the time I had never heard of this basis for opposition to IVF. You had?

Of course I had. You never heard of the "Human Extinction" movement? Never read Michael Crichton's State of Fear? Never heard of Paul Erlich, prophet of eco-doom who agitated for compulsory birth control?

Lance said...

They're not Nazis, Donny, they're nihilists.

Rocco said...

chuck said...
Shades of the Saberhagen's Berserkers:
the Berserkers are ancient, self-replicating war machines created by an extinct alien race. Programmed to destroy all life, they roam the galaxy, annihilating any living beings they encounter, posing a relentless threat to humanity and other species.


It has been widely believed that the Star Trek episode “The Doomsday Machine” was inspired by the Beserkers. However, the writer of the episode swears this is not true.

Rusty said...

Sure. Not every day is lime jello and strange, but I'm havin' a good time.

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