Pessimism Summed Up

Antinatalism is a natural consequence of pessimism, but it is strange to see it become a form of activism. Pessimistic activism sounds like a self contradiction, but this is such a political culture that pessimism must take on activist tropes in order to make sense to modern Westerners. You would lose something vital to the philosophy if all of your focus was on being a good person (when being a person at all might as well be a sin) and fighting for a better world (which, when it is not mere talk, is a heavy and pointless sacrifice even among popular movements.)

I think a good philosophical pessimism book should first persuade the reader of the extent of our own optimism bias. The conspiracy in Ligotti's TCATHR is exactly that, that seemingly all religious and philosophical beliefs agree (conspire) on this one point: Life is worth living. Outside of pessimism, the closest you get to questioning this universal maxim are existential philosophies, which still argue that it is possible to *make* life worth living.

After being made conscious of this unspoken rule, the reader ought not to require much evidence to decide for themselves. The universe was clearly not made for us, we are mutants on a planet with more graves than homes. Our base instincts have been molded by aggressive competition and clever exploitation. The only thing that separates us from the beasts that gnaw on each other to survive is our intelligence. 10,000 years of slavery and genocide are enough to show that our motivations are no different than the wolves who separate the doe from her offspring, in order that they can devour the more vulnerable target. Anyone who thinks barbarism is a thing of the past is simply unfamiliar with neocolonialism, the state of the environment, worker exploitation, and the factory model of education. Society is merely a complex system by which the powerful nourish themselves on the suffering of the poor. Our jobs, our values, our beliefs about the world, and our identities, are all just to keep the machine cranking smoothly.

Our lives are truly nothing. Most people have less than a dozen people in their lives that genuinely care about them, how much less ought we expect anyone care about us much after we're gone? Our childhood was largely spent in school, having creativity and curiosity sucked out of us. Learning to follow orders and show up on time so that we might eventually be useful. Our adult lives, a sysiphean cycle of working and consuming. Not even the jauntiest optimist will deny the horrors of old age, followed by that final disappointment. 

Upon realizing the gravity of our situation, it shouldn't be hard to see why delusion and irrationality are actually adaptive. Terror management theory is among the most well verified theories in social psychology, and a sincere bias for optimism (in addition to strategic, social conformity) is a clinical sign of a healthy mind. 

Unless one is already acclimated to this gloomy view of reality, any abstract argument for antinatalism is bound to be unconvincing. Arguments about consent, or even the less accessible asymmetry between existence and nonexistent, merely sound like some insane technicalities to normal people, who regard suffering as the exception and, if not outright happiness, at least contentment as the rule. On the other hand, having been indoctrinated into the mysteries of pessimism, seeing the open secrets of life itself, one will naturally conclude the veracity of antinatalist; provided they have a single shred of compassion.

POST SCRIPT ON VOTING

I voted in the last 2 elections because of Bernie. If the dems hadn't bait and switched me like that, I wouldn't have bothered. 

I voted for Hilary, and despite her winning the popular vote, she lost. I don't care about the rules and technicalities. No one is arguing over the electoral college, we're arguing over whether us voting matters or not. In 2016, it indisputably did not.

Next, I voted for Biden. The biggest issues for me were the environment and ICE. Studen loans were important as well as not starting more wars. He expanded Trump era policies on the border, he signed more drilling permits than Trump, dems are pushing for war in Ukraine. And then we have Palestine, which is a very similar situation to Ukraine, except we're supporting the invaders, just in case anyone thought morality and freedom had anything to do with it. I think he did get some small victory regarding student loans, but mostly failed. 

It's not like Republicans are never going to get back into office again. Whatever slightly worse shit they plan on doing is going to happen. It's not like censoring fascists gets rid of the problem. Biden was holding hands with the fascist PM of Italy a few months ago, around the time he helped shut down the railroad workers union strike, you know, a month before the explosion in Ohio.

You hate when Trump is a fascist, but you don't care when Biden is. You hate when Trump separates children from their families but don't care we Biden does. You hate when Trump deregulated the EPA, but no one says anything about Biden going along with those same regulations. 

There's empirical evidence showing that the laws of this country have no correlation with the laws the majority of its people want, yet they correlate heavily with what the top 10% want. Nearly every election is won by the candidate who raises the most money, a fact no one denies.

Our democracy is a fucking joke and there's no way around it.