Disclaimer: I love my life. And I've had a very blessed life with very little hardships. The only true trauma I've seen has been through friends and relatives, so I'm trying to put myself in their shoes as well.
Tbh same.
I recently stumbled down the rabbit hole of antinatalism and, with all due respect, cannot understand why you guys choose this line of thinking.
I don't necessarily choose it. I don't even find it particularly palatable. I just find it very difficult to logically assail.
I don't want to make assumptions, but to me it feels like you guys/gals just haven't found what makes you happy in life yet.
I'm pretty priveledged and feel fine like 99% of the time. So fine in fact that I have time to while away in philosophical stuff like this.
A lot of people in my family were extremely depressed throughout their years but they found happiness in unique ways, not involving romance. Also note that I understand that not all of you are depressed, but after reading the main sub, a majority of you seem to be. You wish you hadn't been born because life has nothing great to offer you. That I cannot understand.
I get the impression you're conflating this with some kind of belief system. It's not. Tbf a lot of the people on here who are into the idea do the same. If you can sufficiently attack the logic behind it, I'd do a full 180. To do this you'd have to first gain a pretty full understanding of what this is, which I honestly don't recommend I don't get the impression you'd enjoy it, even intellectually. I could be wrong.
There is something for everyone and I've seen it firsthand with many relative and friends.
This is actually a pretty good argument. You could say if there is even one fleeting, even melancholy circumstance that makes it worth waking up and suffering through the world for at least one person, them AN is at least wrong some of the time.
I argue that the potential for a new life to suffer boundlessly is non-zero, whereas boundless joy doesn't specifically exist (ie. from a baseline of zero, I would never choose a decade of torture no matter the reward).
You're essentially saying that an instance of positive affect doesn't necessarily have to completely counteract the negative to be worth it, as long as that individual feels this way. I don't think that sufficiently refutes the emtire AN argument but it's a fairly strong argument.