First, some context - I'm 30, nonbinary, Canadian, and about to graduate with a PhD in biochemistry. In terms of values, I mostly align with the left, although with lots of caveats.

I'm horrified by the constant environmental destruction caused by people, who seem to have the singular arrogance to feel that we deserve to take the world for everything it has. I'm equally horrified by the incessant hatred that people direct at each other, especially when it's born out of small-minded tribalism. I think that there's something deeply wrong with this species.

If humanity is allowed to reach it's logical conclusion, it will decimate the earth and destroy itself in the process. Yet whenever someone dares to say that infinite population growth is unsustainable, they are quickly and reflexively swatted down for expressing a forbidden opinion.

Despite all that, I don't actually hate humanity in it's totality. I think that people can form healthy communities that strike a balance with the natural world. However, this seems increasingly uncommon.

If I had my way, the human population would decline to around 1 billion. I think that at this level, we could probably find harmony with nature in a sustainable way. I also believe that individual lives would become more meaningful by becoming less oversaturated - one person in a sea of endless billions means a lot less than if they're in a lake of millions.

I don't wish humanity to go extinct, I only wish that it would decline to a sustainable level. However, I hold deep contempt for people who believe in the myth of eternal growth, as well as for people who are happy to rape and pillage the natural world from whence we came.

Based on that outlook, do my views fit within the umbrella of misanthropy?