Vox Day, the reactionary fantasy author and pickup guru who was recently expelled from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America , has convinced himself that education for women leads to “demographic implosion” because uppity educated women don’t have enough babies.
Indeed, Vox — real name, Theodore Beale — is convinced that education for women is such a bad thing that he actually thinks that “the Taliban may not, in fact, be the stupid ones with regards to this particular matter.”
By this he means not only that they’re right to keep girls out of schools, but that they’re also probably justified in shooting teenage girls for the terrible crime of speaking up publicly in favor of education for girls like themselves.
No, really:
[I]n light of the strong correlation between female education and demographic decline, a purely empirical perspective on Malala Yousafzai, the poster girl for global female education, may indicate that the Taliban’s attempt to silence her was perfectly rational and scientifically justifiable.
It’s quite telling that it is the “shooting-girls-in-the-head” issue that turns Beale — a right-wing evangelical Christian — into something of a fan of the Taliban.
Ugh, ugh UGH.
OT: I found a picture of David. Well, maybe David’s cousin.
I made the mistake of following the link and reading the comments. The only comfort I can give myself is knowing that those folks just don’t have any grounding in reality. The way they think, the way they see th world…it truly boggles.
It drives me crazy that the persons most vocal in denouncing all of Islam as radical are, in fact, radical Christians who reject most of their brethren in faith as not being “true” Christians.
Because shooting people in the head leads to them procreating more, obviously. /s
Would it really be so bad to have population-growth drop? *says the woman on birth-control who is quite clear she doesn’t want any children.* So maybe I would not be the one to ask about things like this.
Also, eurgh, what a vile human being Vox is.
Another case of “Fatwa Envy”
Had he not been kicked out of a SF&F writers organization already, I would think supporting efforts to eliminate half the audience base though violence probably would have done so.
So all the “moderate” winger writers will continue to pound Scalzi for being the PC police, and pointedly ignore the violent fantasizing of a man sympathizing with thugs and murderers willing to shoot a 14 year old girl for demanding something they all take for granted.
*sigh* (But thanks for the portal to http://tragedyseries.tumblr.com Howard. It’s helping.)
Especially since it has this epic brain-bleach!
http://tragedyseries.tumblr.com/image/61405978918
Citation. Fucking. Needed.
Coke! Pepsi! Coke! Pepsi!
When you think they’ve hit rock bottom… When you think this is really, REALLY the bottom… they uncover a gigantic megaton fucking drilling machine and start drilling away.
He’s really making the case for more education, starting with himself.
Is he doing this for page hits or is he really this evil?
I think reactionaries just want a higher birth rate because keeping birth rates high is the only logical reason to subordinate women from cradle to grave.
Once the “need” for population growth is obviated, none of the rest of the whole patriarchal kit’n’kaboodle makes any sense at all.
I was thinking about why all the reactionary racist and anti-feminist circles seem to overlap so much– there is no obvious reason for, say, Sunshine Mary or Roissy to link to Steve Sailer, except that his nonstop panic about white birthrates serves to bolster both their arguments about how (white) women are doing life all wrong.
Because the worst thing in the world is when women get educated, because then she might decide to *gasp!* get a job, which makes her *gasp!* independent from men with her own source of income. And it gives her the knowledge to *gasp!* reject creepy assholes like Vox because she knows better and isn’t ignorant anymore!
Of course, the “ZOMG WE IS GONNA DIE OUT CUZ LESS BABBIES!” rant is getting old.
Is Vox a racist? Really, the only reason is because the only people who seem to care all that much are white supremacists who think that because the fertility rate is less than 2.1 that the world is gonna end by 2050 or something.
Birthrates fall to sustainable levels as women’s literacy increases. This isn’t news. Wise people regard this fact as a good thing; Day considers this a bad thing, QED, Day is not a wise person.
@hellkell: I wondered that myself, and there’s probably a bit of linkbait at play here. However, the post itself is just two ideas he’s already expressed (educating women leads to “demographic collapse”/violence against women is often justified) taken to their logical extreme. There’s no reason to assume that he doesn’t believe it.
I’m surprised that I’m not more shocked, but then I decided years ago that I wasn’t going to let Beale shock me anymore. He’s just a clown – a virulently racist, abhorrently misogynistic clown.
It appears the quote you pulled from the blog has been redacted.
Why don’t these folks have the courage of their convictions and let their words stand?
Would it kill them to simply apologize if they change their minds instead of trying to make it look like they never said it in the first place?
@Alice Sanguinaria:
Yes. He’s expressed ideas about demographics that are straight out of Stormfront, and I’ve seen him say that black and Hispanics shouldn’t be allowed to vote. He’s also a bit of an anti-Semite on top of all that. Nice guy.
@Chie Satonaka: I think that’s not a really controversial assertion, that female education tends to reduce birth rates. Most people seem to think this is a good thing; educated women have fewer, healthier children as a group: http://www.unicef.org/sowc96/ngirls.htm
Racists and nationalists of all stripes tend to freak when they see “their” little segment of society waning in numbers, but surely it would be better to have half as many people well-cared for than twice that number in poverty, in the long run.
Poe’s law is in effect here. I cannot say anything more ridiculous than what this asinine hack has already shitted out with his keyboard.
Jeepers creepers.
I can only echo Dvarghundspossen (above): there seems to be no depth to which these people cannot sink.
Fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree. He is just like his dear old dad…a complete right wing nut job.
Ceebarks, that concurs with what I’ve read – and also my personal experience. In my own family, of the seven children, everyone who has attended college has not procreated, everyone who didn’t, has. In the latter group, it might have been better for all concerned if they hadn’t.
Higher education – the most effective contraception! No wonder the usual suspects are so disapproving of it.
@proudfootz:
Oh, that’s not surprising at all. A few years back, Beale (I refuse to use his stupid pen name) created a dozen or so sock puppet accounts on Wikipedia, which he used to remove criticism and cram his name into articles where it didn’t belong. You have no idea how petty and ridiculous this guy can be.
The “this will cause the human race to die out” argument always comes up when the actual argument is that the person arguing wants to get away with being an oppressive a-hole. This was often the reason women’s suffrage was a bad idea, and of course same-sex marriage is a bad idea for that reason too.
Blah.