I originally hoped that I wouldn’t have to post critical thinking fail articles frequently but, in all honesty, I find that I have to use restraint lest I pester you even more than normal. But, I couldn’t stop myself when I read about VHEM. Never heard of it? Neither had I.

The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. Yep. You heard right.

The basic concept is that in order to prevent human suffering we need to stop giving birth so the human race goes extinct.

Hmmm, let me try to come up with the flaw in that attempt at critical thinking.

Yes, true, there will be no human suffering if there are no humans. Can’t really argue that one. You’ve got me there.

Um, well, if we wanted to eliminate the suffering of say the Southern Long-nosed Armadillo then the solution would be to …? I suppose the ultimate would be to destroy everything so that nothing suffered? The point isn’t to alleviate suffering by destroying everything. The point is to alleviate suffering by achieving great things! Lions alleviate the suffering of hunger by killing wildebeest, wildebeest alleviate the suffering of being eaten by avoiding lions. Let’s kill them all and avoid any suffering? Madness.

Even if you’re of the opinion, I’m talking to you Jim, that humans are a net negative on the world you still can’t give up hope and quit. So, VHEM, you win today’s Critical Thinking fail award.

Oh heck, just for the fun of it, fill out the poll.

[polldaddy poll=6073539]

Tom Liberman
Sword and Sorcery fantasy with a Libertarian Twist