What are the primary pretexts for such species self-loathing? A neurotic fear of suffering, misguided forms of feminism, and radical environmentalism.

Back in 2010, a mentally disturbed anti-human terrorist was shot to death by snipers after he took hostages at the Discovery Channel, demanding that the television service stop “encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants,” and instead air “programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility.”

Now, a similar disturbing scenario befell Palm Springs, Calif., where a young man named Guy Edward Bartkus killed himself, injured four people, and caused widespread property destruction when he detonated a huge car bomb in front of an in vitro fertilization clinic. The motive? According to Newsweek’s reporting, Barkus was a “‘pro-mortalist’ (believing death is preferable to living) or an ‘anti-natalist’ (believing no more human beings should be born).”

Anti-natalism is a form of anti-humanism, which isn’t just believed by mentally disturbed people capable of violence. Indeed, various forms of anti-humanism have been promoted in professional journals, the media, and popular culture, as a consequence of which, nihilism has been slowly seeping through the culture like a stain.

What are the primary pretexts for such species self-loathing? A neurotic fear of suffering, misguided forms of feminism, and radical environmentalism. Consider the following non-comprehensive examples:

I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

The growing anti-humanism infecting the culture fuels nihilism. Worse, human-phobia can be dangerous because — as we see in the two examples provided at the top of this piece — there are mentally unbalanced people who don’t see misanthropy as an intellectual mind game but are willing to act out violently in support of the anti-human cause.

Or to put it another way, how we perceive ourselves determines ultimately how we act. Anti-humanism is the disease. Human exceptionalism is the cure.