A thin article that throws a lot of stuff against the wall hoping that something will stick with people who are already against expanding human presence into space.

The meandering argument, as far as I can tell, boils down to: it's going to be cramped and dangerous, and if you're looking for a way to escape Earth, you're not going to find a more comfortable existence out there. These are all obvious, by the way, and should be understood by anyone who is willing to risk their lives for a shot of establishing a permanent human outpost on another planet.

I would choose to be a colonist in a heartbeat, if the opportunity ever arises. I know full well I'll probably die there or even on the way. Life there is going to be hard work, and the environment will frankly never be as pretty as Earth. I would go fully knowing that I can deal with both isolation and cooperation in groups. That I can deal with sparse resources and the need to improvise daily.

> "This is the paradox of spacefaring: It’s a lose-lose proposition."

The assumption behind this article is that people considering doing this don't know any better, that they are somehow deluded about how arduous and bleak it will be. The conclusion that space colonization would be a lose-lose proposition is especially infuriating. For the same reason that humans live in more than one city here on Earth, we should go out there. Not to escape Earth, but to develop further.