Human Extinction: Hot Again The New York Times sees some upside and Xi Jinping lauds Mao. By James Freeman

Posted By on December 18th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/human-extinction-hot-again-11545177213

Before condemning any more Donald Trump tweets, take a look at what his critics in Beijing and Manhattan are publishing. The message from both locales is highly disturbing. Still, there’s reason to hope the President can successfully negotiate with China’s communist dictatorship, even if he’ll never win over the editors of the New York Times.

This week the Times runs an op-ed with the headline: “Would Human Extinction Be a Tragedy?” Strolling along the frontiers of radical environmentalism, author Todd May ponders whether we should all kill ourselves but appears to prefer extinction by attrition:

One might ask here whether… it would… be a good thing for those of us who are currently here to end our lives in order to prevent further animal suffering. Although I do not have a final answer to this question, we should recognize that the case of future humans is very different from the case of currently existing humans. To demand of currently existing humans that they should end their lives would introduce significant suffering among those who have much to lose by dying. In contrast, preventing future humans from existing does not introduce such suffering, since those human beings will not exist and therefore not have lives to sacrifice. The two situations, then, are not analogous.

Kudos to Mr. May for discovering that the death of 7.7 billion people might involve some measure of suffering. Such keen insights may ultimately leave readers more amused than shocked, especially when they get to the bottom of the story and learn that he is no less than a “philosophical adviser” to a television program starring Ted Danson. It remains unclear from the Times op-ed whether the author is in charge of all philosophical advice for the NBC comedy “The Good Place” or merely one of a number of people ready to offer such assistance on set. CONTINUE AT SITE

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