I cannot understand this kind of anti-natalist perspective. My life isn’t perfect, and I’ve definitely had my share of struggle and suffering, but I’m elated at the experience overall. There’s absolutely a lot of cruelty and ugliness in the world, but there’s also profound beauty. Not even physical beauty like landscapes and sunsets and stuff, but moving, personal beauty: selfless generosity and compassion, performing artists in flow state, unity and cooperation, real love.
There wasn’t a me to consent to sentience before I had the sentience to consent with, so by your ruling no one could ever be born. Now that I have sentience, I’m glad of it and give my enthusiastic retroactive consent.
Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Well yeah, sure you are happy to be alive. You have luxuries like a communication medium and some electronics that you use to your liking.
You are literate and an least not heavily disabled, or at least not disabled enough that discussion and socialization are locked away from you.
How many people are born that do not meet that minimum baseline, or are on a clock until they don’t?
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
As do you, as does everyone else on the digital platforms on which the anti-natalist sentiment primarily resides.
And you can always revoke consent.
I want to be clear that I don’t recommend it. I think in the vast majority of cases, it is a permanent solution to temporary problems. I think the vast majority of people who consider it can live to change their minds.
I do think there are those who are so irreversibly disabled that their lives really are mostly suffering, and I support the right of those people to revoke their consent to life. But I think those cases are very rare.
Assuming the environment is reasonably stable, and there’s no serious history of irreversibly disabling conditions, I don’t think there’s a moral compunction to anti-natalism.
Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Buddy
My point is the anti natalists have the perspective that the risk of suffering is not worth imposing on a new human.
You saying that assessment is overblown does not change their perspective. It’s simple enough that with a bit of thought you can understand it, if you end up agreeing or not.
If you are using the phrase “I don’t understand” an a synonym of “I don’t agree with that stance” then I’m wasting my time.
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
The real part I didn’t understand is the “prior consent” part. Like I said, before you have the child, there’s nothing to ask for consent. It doesn’t make any sense.
But as to the rest, I’m saying that the assessment is so overblown that it ceases to be rational. A fraction of a fraction of a percent of people will never get fulfillment from life, so no one should ever have children?
There’s always some risk associated with everything. To never do anything because there’s a minuscule chance it could be disastrous is ridiculous.