Back when the pandemic started, there were those who thought that it would lead to a new baby boom as the tedium of lockdowns would send couples to the bedroom to do one of the few remaining entertaining things you can do without a mask on.
Well, they were completely wrong. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control reveals that the birthrate in the United States plunged by 4 percent to the lowest its’ been in roughly 50 years; the decline was a full ten percent if you only include the babies conceived after the start of the lockdowns. Now the rate in the US is only 1.6 children per couple, lower than the replacement rate of 2.1.
While the news was generally reported as a bit of a bummer, conservative commenters were especially rattled. They’ve been worrying about the “birth dearth” of (white) babies for decades now and don’t want the country to admit the (usually darker hued) immigrants who could keep the country going.
According to right-wing commentator Bethany Mandel, writing in the Deseret News, this is “the worst fertility news we’ve ever seen in this country” and a threat to civilization itself.
“We are not a civilization confident in its own continuity,” Mandel wrote.
which is why more and more Americans are choosing not to bring more children into it. This slow dying can be attributed to countless signs of ill health, our faltering faith and our increasingly atomized families and communities, the latter only made worse by a pandemic that forced us all online and away from each other in person.
Nonetheless, noting that some people plan to make up for lost time (in bed) once the pandemic eases, Mandel is worried that any rebound in the birth rate will somehow also be a bad thing because people having sex for sex’s sake aren’t
ready to implement meaningful life changes based on deep reflection about the meaning of life [or] ready to take on the responsibility and meaning that childbearing brings. …
Other commentators on the right offered similarly bleak assessments, with the Daily Wire describing the baby bust as “alarming” and conservative columnist Josh Hammer lamenting our “bleak demographic reality” in Newsweek.
But not everyone is booing the bust. In Reddit’s ChildFree and antinatalist subreddits, the regulars are cheering the plunge in birth rates.
In r/childfree someone called lockworkEyelash writes,
Personally I love and care about children so much that I’m devastated for every single one born into this burning world with no future ahead, and like another commenter responded, it’s great seeing people embrace choices in life and deciding what’s best for themselves, so that’s why I find lower birth rates exciting.
Revolutionary-Swim28 is not quite as positive about children:
I’m glad. In a world that is slowly progressing but somehow getting worse, there is no sense birthing little demons who will sometimes grow up to be serial killers or criminals. Plus everything is so expensive so why the Hell would you think to do that?
Gaiamanuscript seconded that emotion:
Well I think women don’t want to ruin their bodies for a disgraceful person. Only a few children are blissful to have through every stage of their lives. And women do most of the child rearing but also get the blame when the children are unruly. Second, Most children put strains on marriage, friendships, careers ect if you want to be a good mother. Raising children costs the government nothing but you as a mother will cost you everything you hold dear.
Other commenters, like Zomg_A_Chicken, would prefer a less crowded world — or at least a less chaotic shopping experience.
This means shorter lines at Costco
Kairain, meanwhile, has some complaints about Walmart, or at least their customers.
The only thought that could occur to me while I was at Walmart was that I almost said to someone you and your child are the greatest form of birth control that ever need be presented. But I didn’t because I felt that was unnecessarily antagonistic and was not a good representation of the child-free community.
But by golly she was completely ignoring her daughter screaming so loud you could hear her throughout the entire store while she continued looking at whatever she was looking to purchase and did nothing to stop the assault on everyone’s ears…
Others focused on the effect on nature and managed to sound a good deal less like a mad eugenicist. As GorpQuest put it
I hate the concern that there won’t be enough babies to replace the current generations. How the fuck is this bad news? This is excellent! The world is already severely overpopulated and drained of its natural resources. A decline will be a quality over quantity in terms of living conditions, and the earth might finally get a chance to heal.
Others gave their interpretation of the baby bust a feminist twist. As yourbitchofanexwife wrote,
The women choosing not to have children have more options than ever before. We have careers, our own homes, credit, we travel, we enjoy our lives, we live independent of the demand to be housewives and mothers.
It’s fucking amazing.
Over in the nearby antinatalism subreddit, the regulars were if anything a bit blunter about their opinions and happier about the news. (These comments are from a thread about the birth dearth from about a week ago.)
Wrote Altiscissor408:
Come on guys we can make it, let’s extinguish human kind
Millennium-popsicle had a similar thought:
Finally some good news! A small step towards extinction. Very dapper if I say so myself!
HotPhilly was feeling pretty chipper:
This is so good to see. And i have hope that younger generations having access to information like never before, this trend will continue.
It will boil down to only breeders breeding, but they will inherit the stupid, dead world they deserve.
Claire_lovely offered two cheers to the pandemic itself:
I’ve been wanting the pandemic to end but I realized that the longer it goes on the lower the birthrates will be. So while I’d like there to be a day where I don’t need to wear a mask outside or be under so many restrictions, I’m not as worried about it lasting longer anymore.
Really. Really?
Seriously, if your politics lead you to cheer on a deadly pandemic as it sweeps through the human population killing millions, maybe you should take a step back and reflect a little on your life and your choices.
I mean, I’m technically “child free” and quite devoted to never having children of my own. And I think the sinking birth rate to be, basically, a good thing. But I would never call myself “childfree” or “antinatal” because I don’t want to have any connection whatsoever with all this — from the nastiness towards literal babies to the eugenics-lite of cheering on a disease.
While it incorporates some tropes from actually liberating politics like feminism, the childfree movement isn’t a progressive movement; rather, it echoes some of the worst characteristics of the most reactionary politics of the last century. The politics of cultural despair, to borrow a phrase from historian Fritz Stern, can get pretty dark pretty fast.
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If they’re so enthusiastic about the idea of human extinction, why don’t they follow that ideology to its natural conclusion and commit suicide themselves? After all, they’re one of those humans that they claim to be doing nothing but consuming the planet’s natural resources. It would be hypocritical of them to do otherwise.
Forgot to add this: the childfree movement can’t even be called that. It’s a bunch of people scrabbling for any shield they can find to hush up their own doubts regarding their life decisions, because God help them if a personal lifestyle choice isn’t validated by throngs of like-minded fools who themselves need to be part of an inane club to not be plagued by constant doubt (assuming it’s not just sour grapes, of course).
I don’t have kids and don’t plan to have any, but I think it’s ridiculous to act as if I should act as if this personal choice is some kind of proof of being superior to people who do wish to have children.
Gee, who’d have thought that in uncertain times for the economy and the world in general that people of any color might wanna wait a little bit longer to have kids? It’s almost like they’re being thoughtful!
I got a haircut today, and there was a guy there who was all excited that his partner is 9 weeks pregnant. So charming and adorable. Not sure what race he was, but he did vow that if they had a gender reveal party, there would be NO forest fires started. He ended up deciding on throwing a dart at a water balloon, and then cake.
So many right-wingers around the globe worried about women* having less children, so few of them advocating for more parental leave, subsidised healthcare or economic security.
I think, given easy and free contraception and other life opportunities, most people would choose not to have children until their late 20s at least, and probably only a few children then. A better life wouldn’t cause a complete baby boom. But there are definitely people who would like to be parents delaying or forgoing children because they don’t want them to grow up in poverty.
*The way right-wingers discuss this, the choice is entirely up to the women and any infertility issues are due to women waiting until they are too old.
Agreed, this is why us child free people often get harshly judged as selfish, or uncaring, etc because of what is presented by some of these posters. But that being said, while you are child free since you are male I doubt you’ve experienced the same level of dismissal of your basic humanity you often get if you’re a woman who chooses NOT to have children. So while. I don’t agree with what they’re saying, I understand where this hate and rage may come from. To some people an unused womb pretty much makes you completely worthless as a person, and that kind of treatment can leave many women feeling extremely bitter and resentful.
@Cait
And yet what’s the logic behind fighting those views by becoming exactly what others claim you to be (not you specifically, “you” as in the more strident childfree types)? All that does is give the people who demonize childfree people as a whole even more ammo. I’m not saying that it’s not justifiable to feel bitter or anything, but I can’t imagine any situation where it would be remotely helpful to let it fester into outright hatred of all humanity. If someone hates their own species that badly, they should just remove themselves from it and be done with the matter instead of trying to push their unhinged ideology on others.
And honestly, things like bitching about Costco lines just make the whole movement sound like it’s just done out of personal convenience and not for reasons that might actually make sense (e.g. in my case I have serious doubts as to my ability to actually function as a parent and would rather not have any theoretical child suffer as a result of my incompetence). I sometimes wonder if the whole issue is like that of the stereotypical vegan: it only upsets people because they’re vocal about it and come off as self-righteous when they do so. Maybe that just says more about me and my own stance about generally keeping my mouth shut on those matters unless specifically asked about them, though- in the real world or in places where my identity is more easily traceable, anyway. Fortunately I have a knack for remaining beneath notice, so odds are I’m not even worth dismissing.
Number of kids in all but one family has been small for the last few generations. Grandma being said to have died from too many pregnancies and miscarriages may have something to do with it.
Neither my sister or I have kids, but I think that’s more by accident than anything. Or not finding compatible partners.
So, reading all the reactions Mr. Futrelle recounted to us, I can only say that ever one of them is somewhere on a scale of Sad to appalling, with one exception…
…I’m sold. Everyone stop fucking now.
While I don’t agree with any child-hating comments, I think people (men) underestimate the amount of pressure on women to be maternal, adore and have children. I welcome the fact that there is now more freedom (in certain countries anyhow) for women to forgo having children, and I don’t blame the feelings of relief of some of the comments about this. Women still bear the brunt of pregnancy and childcare. I don’t blame anyone for feeling resentful about being expected to do all these things.
Could that have anything at all to do with climate change, which has been forced upon the entire world by the rampant, out-of-control greed that is also known as capitalism?
@Anonymous:
Poorly phrased. Now someone is going to take that suggestion literally, zap themselves with something, and become a supervillain. Then, before you know it: “There is no Victor. There is only Doom!”
@Cait – I’m a woman who didn’t have a child until her 40’s, and until very late didn’t plan on having a child, so I was technically child free, but a lot of the online childfree rhetoric seemed very misogynistic to me, even when it came from women. Endless discussion about how <insert various disgusting wordplay to describe having children here> ruins a woman’s body for instance. Well, my body definitely looks different than it did before having kids, but so what, it’s not a sex toy for incels. Also, a lot of terms childfree people use for children use women’s body parts as an insult – crotchgoblins, wombdroppings etc. It’s gross.
And then the endless complaints about parental leave. Even when I never planned on being able to use it is seems obvious to me that maternity leave is a requirement for a more equal society and therefore a benefit for all women. But people in the childfree subs just get jealous and pissy like some people are getting an extra holiday. They really came across as the kind of people that get jealous of disabled people having special accommodations, because they only see what they’re not getting and ignore the reasons its needed.
When you are choosing the less usual life path, I think there is a lot to be said for groups that support people in finding fulfilment in their choice – it’s why I was curious about those groups in the first place, but most of it was like MGTOWs getting together and whining endlessly about women. When I didn’t want children, I didn’t want to spend all my time whining about them and their mothers.
As more or less expected, the disease cannot make a dent in human number, but the economical consequences can.
Also, I am alway astonished by how bad theses pseudo-eugenicists are at science. If there’s less new babies, there’s less mutations, and less chance for improvement. It’s the kind of detail that truly reveal their view to be a justification of what they want to do ; if they were serious about eugenicism, they would realize the giant holes in the plan.
(not that *any* eugenicist on human ever was serious about improving anything, of course)
I don’t have kids (but hopefully will at some point) but I hate it when people assume its a parents job the manage their child in extremely unrealistic ways for the convenience of those who will only have encountered screaming for 0.5% of their day, not nearly all of it.
What do you want her to do? Gag the kid? Hit them? It’s different if a child is doing something actually naughty and unacceptable (like throwing stuff at a stranger, or something) but this attitude is so in line with “women should stay indoors with their children and never go out”. Because it’s ALWAYS women who get ticked off for this.
Also, ignoring tantrums is accepted behavioural advice. Attachment/gentle parenting proponents don’t like it but it’s still something parents do and can be effective in the long term.
@Surplus to Requirements
I wanted to mix my phrasing up a little bit. I’m not exactly fond of encouraging suicide, even if it’s directed towards people who act as if they want to die.
LollyPop, I’m glad you said that. The smugness of lot of their comments really bugged me, too. I’m so tired of people who have no experience of a particular reality (whether that’s parenting or anything else) not just assuming that they know best about how to do it properly, but also loudly announcing that they know best how to do it properly.
Before I had my kids, I would
probablycertainly have been rolling my eyes at a screaming kid and a mom who seemed to be ignoring the situation. However, 1) I was a teenager, with all the smugness that implies; 2) I never said it out loud; and 3) I learned what a jerk I’d been.My mom had four kids. “Ignoring” a screaming toddler was something she did on a semi-regular basis. I put “ignoring” in quotes because she was actually aware of whichever one of us was screaming. She just saved her efforts for those times when the screaming was for something other than being a cranky toddler.
@Mog
I 100% hear you on the way folks describe kids. It also makes me a bit uncomfortable as well.
I (childless, single, ace) do often refer to friends offspring as spawn, tiny parasites, leeetle monsters, or similar.
…but only if the friend has referred to their own progeny that way, and only with affection. And, when the kids are old enough to verbalize their own opinions over the way I refer to them, I try to respect that.
No matter what I think of their parents, kids are still tiny people and deserve to be treated with respect for their personhood.
Still, goofy nicknames and descriptions are a valid family/friend bonding tradition.
I am 100% my father’s cockroach and my mother’s weevil.
Anonymous said
Me too.
Most of my friends are childless, too, and guess what? We never have conversations about how great we are for not having kids or even discuss how super duper great it is not to have any. It’s almost as if we found each other by complete happenstance and are just living our lives they way we want to!
None of us have ever belonged to any sort of group devoted to being child free, either because they’re creepy. (Yes, we did have THAT conversation, which came out of being exasperated by folks who disapprove of childless by choice people.)
This just makes me think this guy has never spent a moment of his life thinking about contraception… I mean sure, yes, more sex means more babies. That’s simple causation. But all those people that are postponing to have babies atm do so for valid reasons. Why do conservatives make this into some big thing? What does that even have to do with conservatism unless you understand conservatism as figuratively sticking your nose into women’s crotches?
That being said. This whole childfree/ anti-natalism thing is completely new to me. Which is surprising cause I live in Germany and have always felt like this is not a very child-friendly country… I’m only familiar with the new birthstrike movement where women choose to not have children for enviromental reasons. A while ago a teacher went public about that and good lord… the outcry! People called her a child hater and I felt there was a lot of quoting her out of context. Her reasoning played pretty much no role at all. And I gotta say the vitriol against this birthstrike idea ironically had the same taste of arrogant self-importance as the comments of these “childfree” people.
Overpopulation discourses usually target the global south which is colonialist and racist. Basically, its the same old line of they need to be controlled, but we need to be saved. There is something to the “its too expensive to raise a family” angle in the US and other global north states, but the right wing has no solutions for this beyond bellowing about vague nothings like “tradition”, “faith” or “globalism”. And when solutions are on the table, they shut it down because “freedom” and “communism”. For all their bluster about eugenics, it never occurs to them that they might be the problem.
“Back when the pandemic started, there were those who thought that it would lead to a new baby boom as the tedium of lockdowns would send couples to the bedroom to do one of the few remaining entertaining things you can do without a mask on.”
Enh…let’s just say that the mask is optional.
Declining birthrates are usually caused by education and bodily autonomy for people with uteruses and a generally decent standard of living. As such, it’s usually a positive indicator. The issue of aging populations is separate, but not at this time urgent, there being a global sufficiency of able-bodied younger folks at the moment. All it takes is not being horrible bastards, really. Shame the US is so bad at that.
@GSS ex-noob –
Yeah, I was thinking along related lines. Many people give birth in hospitals. And then there are ultrasounds and any routine check-ups or pregnancy complications that need to be dealt with. So it makes sense that some people might be waiting until there’s less of a danger of catching this virus or of tying up medical resources that could be used elsewhere.