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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThey say they want Americans to have more babies. What's beneath the surface?
"Humanity is dying," billionaire Elon Musk told Fox News anchor Bret Baier recently when asked what keeps him up at night. "The birth rate is very low in almost every country. And so unless that changes, civilization will disappear." Through interviews, social media posts, funding for population research and his own example as the parent of at least 14 children, Musk has become one of the most visible beacons of anxiety about falling birth rates.
While discussions about the economic challenges of falling birth rates exist across the political spectrum, the right has increasingly taken up the cause under the banner of "pronatalism" to promote higher birth rates. The Trump White House is reportedly soliciting suggestions to boost births from married couples, even as it continues drastic reductions to social services and public health funding.
In recent years, a revitalized pronatalist movement has brought together parts of the religious right, tech types and dedicated "new right" anti-feminists. These camps have some disagreements over government policy, technologies like in vitro fertilization, genetic engineering and the rehabilitation of eugenics. But most are united in the belief that modern culture has failed to adequately prioritize the value of nuclear families and making lots of babies.
Last month in Austin, Texas, many proponents of pronatalism met up at the second Natal Conference, known informally as Natal Con, where the mood was exuberant. Many there see this moment as a chance to advance their agenda through perceived allies in the Trump administration, including Musk and Vice President Vance.
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/25/nx-s1-5371718/pronatalist-birth-rate-musk-natal-conference
These people are fucking rich, sick, and backward.
Ocelot II
(130,536 posts)lindysalsagal
(22,915 posts)Pregnant. Women as 2nd class citizens. Putting down women and minorities gives the minority of xtian white men tyrannical dominance.
Hekate
(100,133 posts)The planet has 8.5 billion people and is staggering under the load.
Personally, I have no problem with anyones color or religion, but I sure have a problem with white nationalists who want white trad-wives given to them in bondage (covenant marriages) so they dont have to learn any social skills. Thats where this shit is coming from.
If Elon hadnt been born stinking rich in the first place, hed be an incel in a crummy apartment or in his mothers basement. Instead he gets to bribe women to be brood-mares for him, and even to tell them to have a C-section so his spawn wont get their heads squished in the birth canal.
SWBTATTReg
(26,257 posts)Pentecostals, 7th day Adventists and other fringe groups want such polygamy type relationships too. I grew up w/ this groups (not part of them but went to school w/ a lot of them). One reason why I'm glad I moved away. Seems like Missouri has a whole lot of fringe groups in the very rural parts of MO. I ran off some of them when they tried to preach to my dad, who was rather senile, I didn't want them stealing money from my dad (who had a bad habit of showing off his money, e.g., Dad, put your money away!). I remember him fondly.
Jilly_in_VA
(14,371 posts)are all white nationalists at heart, whether they proclaim it or nor.
MineralMan
(151,269 posts)child care funds for low income households? Now that would promote more and healthier babies in greater numbers.
If they don't support that, you might think they really just want more little white children from well-off families. That can't be true, can it?
Jilly_in_VA
(14,371 posts)This is rich white people talking.
MineralMan
(151,269 posts)They don't really want lots more brown babies. But, they can't say that.
CousinIT
(12,541 posts)Eloon is an ignorant asshole. And a creep.
EDIT: people think I'm exaggerating when I call them the American Taliban or MAGA Taliban.
BE SURE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE. It's SHOCKING.
And yes, this IS a form of Talibanism against girls and women.
Women and those who value and love them need to wake the fuck up. When they voted for SHitler, they voted for this.
Clouds Passing
(7,934 posts)travelingthrulife
(5,179 posts)8 billion people and the ability to freeze eggs will keep us going.
Evangelicals push this garbage as well. Making babies for Jesus. The rich want babies for cheap or free labor.
Iggo
(49,927 posts)Maybe even then .
Trueblue1968
(19,251 posts)The earth is O v e r. p o p u l a t e d !!!!!!
Aristus
(72,187 posts)But at its heart, its just rich assholes terrified of the prospect of a labor deficit. Overpopulation creates a labor surplus, meaning more people than jobs.
This means that rich asshole business owners can pay their workers as little as they like, give them no benefit packages, and treat them like shit. If anyone complained, they could just say there are a hundred people outside that door who want your job. Suck it up and get back to work.
With a labor deficit, such as existed after the Black Plague, the workers have the power to negotiate for higher pay, and bargain for better treatment and better working conditions.
Muskrat and his debased followers live in mortal terror of a labor deficit, and will bellow any idiocy they can think of if it will perpetuate a labor surplus.
themaguffin
(5,221 posts)more white Americans to have kids, but also they don't want to help in any way.
Ping Tung
(4,370 posts)Swede
(39,494 posts)Problem solved.