Sunday, September 8, 2013

To clear some things up

          mis·an·thro·py  (ms-nthr-p, mz-)
          n.
Hatred or mistrust of humankind.

phi·lan·thro·py  (f-lnthr-p)
n. pl. phi·lan·thro·pies
1. The effort or inclination to increase the well-being of humankind, as by charitable aid or donations.
2. Love of humankind in general.



As you can see, these two words are antonyms  which means that they mean, and are commonly used to express, opposite ideas.

So to clear things up, a coherent philanthropic antinatalist would be someone who liked humanity, or at least wanted to help humanity, and thinks the best way to do so is eliminating them through refusal of childbirth.

A misanthropic antinatalist would, assuming they understand their own philosophy, either be someone who prefers not to be born, but likes to see other people be born because of how much they hate people, OR someone who thinks people deserve to be worse off not existing, or are bad for the planet, and should be done away with via refusal of childbirth.

As you can see, it is impossible to be both, and one rules out the other. A philanthropic antinatalist might, however believe a misanthropic antinatalist is wrong, but not try to convince them otherwise because they are happy they are not having children. This also works in the opposite direction. If so, one or both sides are cynically using what they see as the other's gullibility.

Now that this is all cleared up, I hope you will all be a little more honest about things.

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