Officials say Saturday’s bomb in Palm Springs, California, was set off by Guy Edward Bartkus, a 25-year-old who was found dead at the scene and is believed to have been killed by the blast. Authorities seem quite certain that the fertility clinic damaged in the explosion was the target of Bartkus’ wrath. With the who and the what of the crime fairly established, the more complex question of why remains. What was the reason for the attack?
My initial theory was that the suspected bomber may have been angry that some fertility clinics discard some embryos that aren’t implanted.
The FBI quickly became the lead agency in this investigation when it determined the motive for the attack on the fertility clinic was ideological, and as I covered this event for MSNBC, my initial theory, based on my law enforcement experience, was that the suspected bomber may have been angry that some fertility clinics that provide IVF treatments discard some embryos that aren’t implanted into patients’ uteruses. The discarding of embryos has upset some anti-abortion-rights activists, but officials now believe it isn’t the potential discarding of embryos that motivated the bomber. They think it was the opposite: that the clinic was a tangible representation of human reproduction.
Based on what they believe to be Bartkus’ social media posts and online videos, law enforcement officials are describing the suspected bomber as anti-natalist, someone who believes that bringing children into this world is neither worth it nor justified. Among the social media the FBI is examining is a video Bartkus posted along with a website espousing the termination of life and mentioning plans to bomb an IVF clinic. Some anti-natalists may even believe it to be immoral for people to have babies. Because life is just too painful, they say, and no one asks to be brought into the world.
The frequently cited anti-natalist philosopher David Benatar, a former professor at the University of Cape Town and former head of its Bioethics Centre, wrote a book in 1996 called “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence.” There Benatar asserts, “While good people go to great lengths to spare their children from suffering, few of them seem to notice that the one (and only) guaranteed way to prevent all the suffering of their children is not to bring those children into existence in the first place.” Benatar isn’t known to advocate violence. He has written, “Anti-natalists are not committed to any particular views about when violence is and is not justified.”
However, the online platform Reddit confirmed Monday that it took down a 10,000-member anti-natalist subreddit community for violating an anti-violence policy. That community, which isn’t the only anti-natalist subreddit, is called Efilism, which, according to NBC News, “takes its name from ‘life’ spelled backward.” That news report describes efilism as “part of a constellation of anti-natalist philosophies that center on the belief that humans should stop procreating because of the ethical implications of continuing life on Earth.”
It’s unclear exactly what kind of anti-natalist teachings or philosophers the suspected bomber may have followed.
It’s unclear exactly what kind of anti-natalist teachings or philosophers the suspected bomber may have followed.
Though information about anti-natalism may give us some insight into the bombing suspect, there are multiple indications that Bartkus, over the course of his life, had dealt with serious challenges. His father, who hadn’t seen his son in 10 years, told The New York Times that when his son was 9, he burned down the family home while playing with matches and was sentenced to juvenile probation. In 2016, for reasons that aren’t clear, a court ordered the then-teenager to enter therapy.
Brian Levin, professor emeritus and founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, has a take on anti-natalism adherents that can help us further understand the suspect’s motivations. “Within this movement, I.V.F. is certainly disfavored, but so is procreative sex,” Levin told The New York Times. He said the suspect “probably targeted an establishment that was most directly related in some way to this twisted take on that philosophy.”
Citing the prevalence of domestic terrorism perpetrated by young men who are socially isolated and join fringe communities, Levin told the newspaper, “Our terrorism problem is as much of a mental health issue as it is an ideological one.”
Levin is right. It’s one thing to identify with a particular philosophy; it’s another thing to take the giant step of planning and executing violence, even risking or inviting your own death in furtherance of that philosophy. That’s why Levin’s link between the Palm Springs bombing and mental health, young men, social isolation and fringe online communities is so troubling. Levin is saying the scary part out loud. If there’s something we have no shortage of in today’s world, it’s fringe online communities, social isolation and young men searching for meaning.
Law enforcement officials, parents, teacher and counselors should take heed. There may be more Guy Bartkuses out there. We’ve got to identify those young people and get them the kind of help that shows them that, whatever their philosophies, there are better options than setting off destructive bombs.
