I'm at a loss for words with this

  • iByteABit [comrade/them]
    ·
    7 months ago

    How have I never heard that Elon has 11 fucking kids? Every bourgeois "hero" pushing this movement deserves wall-flipped .

    If decreasing birth rates are scaring you so much for the future of humanity, as if you ever really gave a shit about it, then stop enslaving the working class to the point that they have no time or money for kids.

    • iridaniotter [she/her, she/her]
      ·
      7 months ago

      Capitalists heighten contradictions. They don't solve them. Proletarianization destroys the productive basis for the nuclear family while the capitalist state upholds it as an institution. Only the socialist state can resolve this contradiction with socialized childcare & childrearing, children's autonomy, abolition of marriage, etc. (sorry USSR you didn't go far enough). The capitalist solution is reaction, a return to 19th century working conditions, family relations, and religiosity that saw high birth rates. Unfortunately that all existed within the context of things, so it's probably impossible to recreate at large scale.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      7 months ago

      It's the definition of a non-problem. Oh no, there won't be enough children to care for you in your old age? So? Suffer and die like literally every other human ever. Manufacturing new people to drive you to dialysis is fucking weird. Just... acept your mortality with at least an iota of dignity.

      • Yllych [any]
        ·
        7 months ago

        Actually if we rearranged our productive modes we could absolutely care for the elderly instead of abandoning people to die a la social murder

          • Yllych [any]
            ·
            7 months ago

            Right, I just think it's worth emphasising this point as the communist response to capital just letting humans die without dignity in order to save a buck.

            Saying only that people should just accept their horrible approaching deaths as inevitable is defeatist and myopic.

            • Frank [he/him, he/him]
              ·
              edit-2
              7 months ago

              I should clarify. There are two separate issues here; Providing the necessary resources and support for people to have a dignified, comfortable old age is good and important. We absolutely should do that and it is an important priority.

              Separate from that is the idea that we should create more people to care for existing people. This is generally phrased as though existing people are owed the labor of people yet unborn, and that creating more people specifically to benefit from their labor is morally neutral or good.

              A dwindling population will create hardships for people currently living, but I do not think that justifies or necessitates creating more people specifically to maintain the status quo. Having kids for the joy of having children in the world is good, but there's something very perverse about John Capitalist telling you to have kids specifically so that John can benefit from their labor right up until he dies and doesn't care about any of it anymore. There's an unspoken "I got mine fuck you" where John Capitalist is only worried about lower populations in so far as it will effect him and the systems he thinks are important.

  • DragonBallZinn [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    Save the world from what? Climate change? Even ol' Elon has jumped in on the climate change denial trend.

    And why do I think every single one of them wants to sterilize anyone who isn't 100% white?

      • SwitchyWitchyandBitchy [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        Eugenics has always been about genocide against the other. I honestly think if birth control was only available for colored people then conservatives wouldn't have a problem with it. Abortion too. Liberals and even well meaning progressives will sometimes fall into the trap of pitching abortion and birth control as a part of the solution to poverty. Not realizing that they're actually saying the poors aren't allowed to have family.

        Edit: I don't like how I worded this but I'm also finding it hard to express what I've observed and the problems I've noticed with it. I'm very much for access to birth control and abortion for everyone. The issue I have is when people want to discourage people from having kids if they're not wealthy as a part of solving poverty. And somehow I get the feeling that the bar is often high for low income black and brown people. Like the aspiration towards progressivism is there but there's still some unchecked racism and classism leading towards support if eugenics. Not to mention I see a lot of support for out and proud eugenics against disabled people and neurodivergent people.

        • Dirt_Possum [any, undecided]
          ·
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          Liberals and even well meaning progressives will sometimes fall into the trap of pitching abortion and birth control as a part of the solution to poverty.

          But access to abortion and BC does help alleviate poverty. When women are unable to choose to not have unwanted pregnancies and children, it does create a serious strain on them and their community, exacerbating poverty and everything associated with it. That isn't some idealist liberal delusion, it's very well documented reality.

          Edit, adding:

          I honestly think if birth control was only available for colored people then conservatives wouldn't have a problem with it. Abortion too

          It's just the opposite. One of the main reasons reactionaries tend to be so anti-abortion is because forcing women to have unwanted children helps to perpetuate poverty, locking communities into a cycle of impoverishment they can't escape. Meanwhile, those who are rich and white have access to abortions whether they're illegal or not, which is by design. If a rich old gammon-chud's daughter gets pregnant and she doesn't want to keep it, he's likely to help her quietly get an abortion even as he ensures people of color never have that kind of opportunity. Wealthy white people want (and generally have) the freedom to do whatever they want while they simultaneously limiting the freedoms of poor BIPOC people, all to maintain or strengthen the white supremacist system.

          • HexBroke
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            edit-2
            6 months ago

            deleted by creator

            • Dirt_Possum [any, undecided]
              ·
              7 months ago

              To imply that abortion is the cure for poverty or that not having access to it is the cause is indeed false and a typical liberal refusal to look at the broader systems. But to deny how much unwanted pregnancy, along with the health risks and increased mortality rate that come with it, the burden on poor communities to provide adequate care for children when they are already overworked, etc, all contribute to and worsen poverty is absurd, and just as much a failure to recognize material reality.

              • SwitchyWitchyandBitchy [she/her]
                ·
                7 months ago

                I think I chose the wrong wording in my original post, I'll update for clarity but I just wanted to say I agree. I'm by no means against universal access to abortion and birth control. I just see it being talked about in a way that isn't priotizing the well-being and actual desires of minorities and low income households. And sometimes in the name of outright unashamed eugenics by advocating for abortion if the child would end up being neurodivergent or physically disabled.

        • Pandantic [they/them]@midwest.social
          ·
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          I honestly think if birth control was only available for colored people then conservatives wouldn't have a problem with it. Abortion too.

          No, if the poor POC population dries up, so does their cheap labor. But they just want more bourgeois to keep the poors from out-populating them in revolutionary numbers.

          • SwitchyWitchyandBitchy [she/her]
            ·
            7 months ago

            But they just want more bourgeois to keep the poors from out-populating them in revolutionary numbers.

            I think there are a lot of conservatives that are more scared of being outnumbered than they are scared of missing their labor pool. Especially amongst working class conservatives that see immigrants as competition in the job market.

            Of course you're right, their way of life is sustained in large part by the very people they want to get rid of, which is a huge contradiction.

        • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          It’s because the child is viewed as a luxury and an “unnecessary” expense. That’s the message my Texas sex ed module in health class sent. Abstain (rather than cover all forms of birth control) because you’d otherwise have a baby and pay $700 in rent while at minimum wage.

          I’ve had this convo with my wife. Birth control is the only solution they are pitching. When we could be looking at affordable housing, affordable childcare, healthcare, funding schools, cheaper college and vocational programs. Then kids wouldn’t feel like a burden.

  • Llituro [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    7 months ago

    This is not Quiverfull, the fundamentalist Christian belief that large families are a blessing from God. The Collinses are atheists; they believe in science and data, studies and research. Their pronatalism is born from the hyper-rational effective altruism movement...

    yeah ok there it is. technofascists, like the real ones.

  • micnd90 [he/him,any]
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    edit-2
    7 months ago

    As of 2024, they have four children. They are, by order of birth: Octavian (son), Torsten (son), Titan Invictus (daughter), and Industry Americus (daughter).

    The state of these poor kids, especially the state of the last two names

      • Evilsandwichman [none/use name]
        ·
        7 months ago

        I'm imagining right now a very young kid with the voice of a full grown space marine yelling "FOR THE DADA!"

        • TheWurstman
          ·
          edit-2
          4 months ago

          deleted by creator

    • exocortex@discuss.tchncs.de
      ·
      7 months ago

      they're objectifying their own children by seeing them as the means to fulfill some weird ideological goal. Reading their kids names definitely adds proof to that. Who names their child "Industry Americus"??? WTF? They sound like product releases from some weird Silicon Valley company.

    • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml
      ·
      7 months ago

      There was a set of kids in my school named Nation, Justice, and Allegiance. Thankfully 2 of them became lefties lmao.

  • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    I had thought the main thing that made it hard was that it’s now so incredibly expensive to raise children.

    “No,” Malcolm says. “Not at all.”

    barbara-pit

    Also, wasn't corporate-art into this shit, too?

  • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    7 months ago

    CEOs and non-profit entrepreneur

    so, they run a vulture capital enterprise that has a tax evasion subsidiary.

    if they don't end up in prison for fraud, one of their kids is gonna shoot them with one of their mounted guns after seeing a sibling getting smacked one too many times.

    • emizeko [they/them]
      ·
      7 months ago

      I thought you were just making a tangential Menendez brothers reference, but no they hit their kid in the face in the article

  • fox [comrade/them]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Malcolm and Simone Collins are some of the most moronic people alive. They're both failson inheritors of their parents' wealth and have "jobs" operating their own foundations or some shit. They are actual firm believers in Effective Altruism and nominative determinism, which is why all their kids have fucking stupid names. They're both actual redditors with full bazinga brain.

    They genuinely believe their genetics are imperative to pass down because the ability to accumulate wealth is, as far as they're aware, genetic. Their genetics also gave both of them the smoothest brains ever recorded, I'm talking SI standard for frictionless surface.

    The one benefit to their harebrained scheme to populate the world with billionaires is that all of their children will be failures from the get-go, having been raised by secular Calvinists, and with so many children their wealth will wither and vanish in a series of unsuccessful artists, honorary MBA entrepreneurships, and the hordes of by-the-hour lawyers each child will hire to wrest pennies from each other's inheritance.

      • ericatty@lemmy.ml
        ·
        7 months ago

        True, and having large amounts of heirs with no skills or education needs a term like "inheritance imbreeding" since they will end up diluting the wealth-gene pool until they are left with nothing and hopefully go extinct after all the wealth has been absorbed into the general population. Or more likely, absorbed by a grifter.

      • fox [comrade/them]
        ·
        7 months ago

        These people think wealth is generic, which is why it's imperative to have as many kids as possible so they too can collect all the money and do a better effective Altruism at some point in the future. They're devour followers of that Big Yud school of thought

      • ericatty@lemmy.ml
        ·
        7 months ago

        True, and having large amounts of heirs with no skills or education needs a term like "inheritance imbreeding" since they will end up diluting the wealth-gene pool until they are left with nothing and hopefully go extinct after all the wealth has been absorbed into the general population. Or more likely, absorbed by a grifter.

  • emizeko [they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    wasn't an article on these people written in american media like nine months ago

    EDIT: yeah it was a Chapo reading series in episode 682 Longpsermism from November 2022, so I was off by like a year

      • fox [comrade/them]
        ·
        7 months ago

        They're some of the most emblematic, embarrassing examples of how with a certain amount of wealth you can't fail no matter how smooth brained you are

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      7 months ago

      The Yuddites/Effective Altruists/Quakers before the Basilisk/Friends of the Status Quo/Singularity Seekers are a popular topic of scorn here.one of many incredily weird terminally online subcultures we have extremely legitimate beef with.

  • StalinStan [none/use name]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Whoever convinced the idle rich to do the opposite of a single child policy to split their family fortune up is a pretty funny bit. A few generations and the rich will breed themselves down to middle class.

    • Evilsandwichman [none/use name]
      ·
      7 months ago

      You remind me of an interesting cultural habit in ancient Ireland, where they would shave off branching families, cutting them from the family name and inheritance to maintain large holdings within the main families.

    • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]
      ·
      7 months ago

      she observed when she saw tigers in the wild: they react to bad behaviour from their cubs with a paw, a quick negative response in the moment, which they find very effective with their own kids. “I was just giving you the context so you don’t think I’m abusive or something,” he says.

      Oh so they beat their kids too and lie about?

      • emizeko [they/them]
        ·
        7 months ago

        TIGERS CANNOT TALK AND HUMANS HAVE LANGUAGE, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE

        • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
          ·
          7 months ago

          I hate the "I saw wild animals doing it" argument. Not only is it constantly used to justify fascistic beliefs and actions it's also so fucking dumb. What's next? Giving a TED talk about how anthropology isn't needed anymore because I stared at a tank full of fucking sea monkeys?

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      7 months ago

      Their pronatalism is born from the hyper-rational effective altruism movemen

      Wait wat the actual fuck? I thought this was quiverfull freaks. Now the Basilisk humpers are doing it?

    • Dr_Gabriel_Aby [none/use name]
      ·
      7 months ago

      Listen this isn’t being a doomer, this is just reality. America will lead an eco fascist alliance of western nations against allowing refugees in their nations. America will likely have a full scale war with at least half of Asian before 2050. America will prevent the world from making global solutions towards climate change. We need to understand as the left that all these things will happen BEFORE the left even rises from its death in 1991.

  • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]
    ·
    7 months ago

    The imminent arrival of their fourth child, a girl they plan to name Industry Americus Collins, turns out to be only the first in a string of surprises – and one really shocking thing – that I will encounter during my day with the pronatalists

    I can’t read this. You can’t make me

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      7 months ago

      It's okay. You don't have to. There's no pssible advantage that could come from learning about new ways that Yuddites are being weird technofreaks.

  • Black_Mald_Futures [any]
    ·
    7 months ago

    birth rate is such a bad modifer though it's better late game to move on to women's suffrage laws for that +%workforce bonus while focusing on immigration to boost your population

  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    The people that believe they have the greatest genetics in the world to carry the future human race have terrible eyesight and need glasses apparently.

    Not that I'm against glasses or anything but you know it's clown shit when people that are naturally blind claim to have the best genetics.