Guy Edward Bartkus Palm Springs bombing suspect and self identified pro-mortalist curried nihilistic pursuits and is thought to be alienated lone actor radicalized on obscure internet sites and misinformation.
Guy Edward Bartkus, the Twentynine Palms, California man identified as the suspect who bombed Palm Springs fertility clinic, American Reproductive Centers that led to himself being killed and four others injured believed in a fringe philosophy that ultimately veered towards self nihilism, investigators have inferred.
Bartkus was killed in the Saturday morning explosion at American Reproductive Centers, according to FBI officials who are investigating the incident as an ‘act of intentional terrorism.’
‘We believe he was the subject found by the vehicle,’ said Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, referencing a 2010 silver Ford Fusion sedan near the explosion site during a Sunday morning press conference.
Palm Springs fertility clinic bomber didn’t want to live anymore
Palm Springs bombing suspect online manifesto
The suspect ‘had nihilistic ideations’ and was attempting to livestream the attack, Davis said, noting that the incident was ‘the largest bombing ever investigated in Southern California.’
Law enforcement sources told the LA Times they believed the suspect was ‘anti-life’ and reacting to the recent death of a friend. Investigators, they said, were looking into a manifesto posted online, social media and a YouTube account mentioning explosives — the latter of which they were still verifying.
An online website that contained no name, but appeared connected to the bombing, laid out the case for ‘a war against pro-lifers’ and said a fertilization clinic would be targeted.
‘Here you can download the recorded stream of my suicide & bombing of an IVF clinic,’ the site began, but no such file existed. It extolled a mix of philosophies, from ‘abolitionist veganism,’ the opposition to all animal use by humans, and ‘negative utilitarianism,’ the idea that we should act to minimize suffering rather than maximize pleasure in the world.
‘Basically, I’m a pro-mortalist,’ the author wrote, referring to a fringe philosophical position that it is best for sentient beings to die as soon as possible to prevent future suffering.
The alleged Palm Springs bomber in his own words speaks about why he did this. I found this on his man*fest* website and put the images together of the aftermath. You are welcome to post on other platf*rms. pic.twitter.com/AFnHPPkaxB
— MichaelDouglasCarlin (@MichaelDCarlin) May 18, 2025
Guy Edward Bartkus specifically targeted fertility clinic
Domain data show the site was created in February.
The FBI declined to verify whether the manifesto was written by the suspect and continuing its investigations.
In the manifesto, the author denounced those who bring human life into the world and declared an end goal of ‘sterilizing this planet of the disease of life.’
‘Life can only continue as long as people hold the delusional belief that it is not a zero sum game causing senseless torture, and messes it can never, or only partially, clean up,‘ the site stated. ‘I think we need a war against pro-lifers. It is clear at this point that these people aren’t only stupid, they simply do not care about the harm they are perpetuating by being willing agents for a DNA molecule.’
Accompanying the website was a 30-minute audio file, labeled ‘pre,’ that began with the speaker saying he would explain ‘why I’ve decided to bomb an IVF building or clinic.’
‘Basically, it just comes down to I’m angry that I exist and that, you know, nobody got my consent to bring me here,’ the speaker said.
Lone radicalized actor
The fertility clinic, surrounded by other medical buildings, was closed at the time of the bombing. Although the bomb ripped the building in half, the clinic’s director said no embryos were harmed.
Brian Levin, the founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism and professor emeritus at Cal State San Bernardino, said, after looking through the manifesto that has been linked to the suspect, that he appeared to be part of a growing movement of alienated lone actors radicalized on obscure internet sites and misinformation.
‘The antinatalism movement he links to specifically condemns violence,’ Levin said. ‘Still, his purported rambling, idiosyncratic ‘political’ statements paint a far different picture — that of a hopeless unstable young man whose suicidal despair stirs him into a self-consuming brutal death justified by a personally distorted embrace of an obscure anti-life ideology.’
Over the last two decades, Levin said, a string of young male loners, barely into adulthood, have erupted in extreme violence as a result of a mix of social estrangement, unrestrained online radicalization and aggression, as well as unaddressed psychological distress.
“We’re seeing the violent extremism landscape be seriously influenced by lone actors, a freewheeling and broad social media, and an idiosyncratic wave, from these loners who are able to either glom onto segments of existing broad movements, or find a niche in a particularly obscure one.”
Adding, ‘There’s a whole cauldron that involves radicalization, misinformation, legitimization of violence as a method within this grievance set and that’s what you have.’
