They have a bunch of stuff about “promoting fertility”, eg
the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Israel offer lessons. These countries have managed to increase fertility rates by introducing pro-natal policies — a combination of cash incentives, subsidised childcare, and housing assistance
which all sounds lovely and idyllic, but in reality the far-right government in Hungary has been throttling access to abortion with new legislation that is
an extension of the government’s anti-abortion policies, aimed at boosting the birthrate
meaning that
legal abortions [have] become increasingly difficult as the compulsory counselling sessions were becoming more aggressive and difficult to schedule
I can’t definitely figure out the angle either. But they are a pro-fertility organisation praising a far-right regime that is implementing regressive “pro-life” policies at the expense of women’s rights, and they are very careful not to highlight the true nature of these policies on their website.
They’re also headquartered in Texas. So… draw your own conclusions.
To stop population decline you really need to go full Catholic on birth control and abortion.
And to what end?
Israel’s aim seems simple: they are fighting a demographic war with the Palestinians and the more people they have the quicker they can fill up the Occupied Territories.
Beyond that rather specific case you can only extrapolate but population decline means you need more immigrants to fill the roles young people would do and that plays into ideas of the Great Replacement.
That might be going too far and impugning their motivation but if you are praising Hungary’s reactionary policies then something is not right. Even if they are themselves doing this for the purest motives, they’ve rather quickly picked up some unsavoury fellow travellers.
the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Israel offer lessons. These countries have managed to increase fertility rates by introducing pro-natal policies — a combination of cash incentives, subsidised childcare, and housing assistance
On the other hand, they are explicity focusing on the increase in social benefits, not anything dealing with anti-choice elements, and praised American Democrats for expanding Paid Leave and Unemployment, not to mention you guys left out this quote
Next, let’s talk about British millennials. Before we assign them the blame label, it’s worth diving into some history. The birth rate in the UK has declined since 2013, and this decline isn’t floating in a vacuum. Its roots trace back to the austerity measures implemented post-2008 financial crisis. These cuts have deeply affected social care, welfare, and local government. Between 2010 and 2017, private rents soared by 24%, while social housing options dwindled. Adults, particularly young ones, found themselves either stuck with rising rents or moving back in with their parents. Combine this with the growth of precarious employment, and you get a generation deeply impacted by retreating state support and a daunting economic landscape.
If this was a right wing rag or an astroturfed group like pronatalist.org, then they would focus on culture or other nonsensical dogwhistles, but they are clearly hostile towards the right but willing to give praise to anyone who increase social spending
You can increase social spending and still have contempt for women’s right to bodily autonomy. The two don’t go automatically hand in hand. In fact if your social spending is geared towards having more babies, it most likely won’t be.
Next, let’s talk about British millennials. Before we assign them the blame label, it’s worth diving into some history. The birth rate in the UK has declined since 2013, and this decline isn’t floating in a vacuum. Its roots trace back to the austerity measures implemented post-2008 financial crisis. These cuts have deeply affected social care, welfare, and local government. Between 2010 and 2017, private rents soared by 24%, while social housing options dwindled. Adults, particularly young ones, found themselves either stuck with rising rents or moving back in with their parents. Combine this with the growth of precarious employment, and you get a generation deeply impacted by retreating state support and a daunting economic landscape.
You forget this part from the same article, which changes the context quite a bit
Not really. If your goal is to undo “retreating state support,” you can do that without praising far-right regimes aiming to restrict women’s rights to bodily autonomy.
The fact that they gloss over that little aspect is suspicious.
Their website is conspicuously opaque regarding its funding, and “stop population decline” is curiously close to (but notably more palatable than) the 14 Words, while still acting as an effective dog-whistle for people familiar with those words.
Look, organisations with unpleasant views aren’t universally stupid. Turning Point states upfront that its mission is to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote freedom”, but dig down and you find fun stuff like this: https://www.tpusa.com/live/pro-choicers-are-sick-and-twisted
I’d also like to note that praising some historically left-wing policies, and criticising some loonies, should not mean that you stop looking critically at the other things a person says.
Authoritarian policies that deny women choice aren’t limited to right-wing governments. If you support women’s rights to choice, Hungary is not a country you would praise.
‘Baby machines’: eastern Europe’s answer to depopulation
The conference in Budapest opened with a sand animation video of migrants rushing towards Europe, and was laced with references to the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which suggests that shadowy forces want to replace so-called “native” Europeans with outsiders. “There are political forces in Europe who want a replacement of population for ideological or other reasons,” Orbán told the conference.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/04/baby-bonuses-fit-the-nationalist-agenda-but-do-they-work
You are right, you do need to weigh everything they said
Besides the poor name choice and a willingness to give some praise to right wingers when they increase social benefit, the vast majority of the site content is items we all can agree on like increasing Housing supply, promoting working from home, increase benefits, etc
With that in mind, I can understand why you are cautious because the worse thing the site could be are smart and patient right wingers
And best we are dealing with progressives with an obsession over population decline because of brain worms
My money is on we are dealing with a group of people with brain worms
They have a bunch of stuff about “promoting fertility”, eg
which all sounds lovely and idyllic, but in reality the far-right government in Hungary has been throttling access to abortion with new legislation that is
meaning that
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/sep/13/hungary-tightens-abortion-access-with-listen-to-foetal-heartbeat-rule
I can’t definitely figure out the angle either. But they are a pro-fertility organisation praising a far-right regime that is implementing regressive “pro-life” policies at the expense of women’s rights, and they are very careful not to highlight the true nature of these policies on their website.
They’re also headquartered in Texas. So… draw your own conclusions.
Yeah, that was where my mind was going.
To stop population decline you really need to go full Catholic on birth control and abortion.
And to what end?
Israel’s aim seems simple: they are fighting a demographic war with the Palestinians and the more people they have the quicker they can fill up the Occupied Territories.
Beyond that rather specific case you can only extrapolate but population decline means you need more immigrants to fill the roles young people would do and that plays into ideas of the Great Replacement.
That might be going too far and impugning their motivation but if you are praising Hungary’s reactionary policies then something is not right. Even if they are themselves doing this for the purest motives, they’ve rather quickly picked up some unsavoury fellow travellers.
On the other hand, they are explicity focusing on the increase in social benefits, not anything dealing with anti-choice elements, and praised American Democrats for expanding Paid Leave and Unemployment, not to mention you guys left out this quote
If this was a right wing rag or an astroturfed group like pronatalist.org, then they would focus on culture or other nonsensical dogwhistles, but they are clearly hostile towards the right but willing to give praise to anyone who increase social spending
You can increase social spending and still have contempt for women’s right to bodily autonomy. The two don’t go automatically hand in hand. In fact if your social spending is geared towards having more babies, it most likely won’t be.
“In fact if your social spending is geared towards having more babies, it most likely won’t be.”
Except most right wing states hate any and all social spending all together, especally in the US and the UK
The right-wing government of Hungary spends around 5% of its GDP on policies to to “get Hungarian women to breed”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/04/baby-bonuses-fit-the-nationalist-agenda-but-do-they-work
Most right wing states
Hungary may be an exception to the rule, but the rule generally stands, considering the shit Sunak and Trump are up to in their respective countries
Especially in the case of the states where the GOP end the US’s expanded child benefit
You forget this part from the same article, which changes the context quite a bit
Not really. If your goal is to undo “retreating state support,” you can do that without praising far-right regimes aiming to restrict women’s rights to bodily autonomy.
The fact that they gloss over that little aspect is suspicious.
Their website is conspicuously opaque regarding its funding, and “stop population decline” is curiously close to (but notably more palatable than) the 14 Words, while still acting as an effective dog-whistle for people familiar with those words.
Might be? The site itself has attacked Elon Musk and Peter Thiel (https://www.stoppopulationdecline.org/silicon-valley-pronatalists-against-wfh/) , so it’s probably not funded by them. It also praises WFH, Paid Leave, Unions at the like, which makes it less likely its funded by the right.
Look, organisations with unpleasant views aren’t universally stupid. Turning Point states upfront that its mission is to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote freedom”, but dig down and you find fun stuff like this: https://www.tpusa.com/live/pro-choicers-are-sick-and-twisted
I’d also like to note that praising some historically left-wing policies, and criticising some loonies, should not mean that you stop looking critically at the other things a person says.
Authoritarian policies that deny women choice aren’t limited to right-wing governments. If you support women’s rights to choice, Hungary is not a country you would praise.
You are right, you do need to weigh everything they said
Besides the poor name choice and a willingness to give some praise to right wingers when they increase social benefit, the vast majority of the site content is items we all can agree on like increasing Housing supply, promoting working from home, increase benefits, etc
With that in mind, I can understand why you are cautious because the worse thing the site could be are smart and patient right wingers
And best we are dealing with progressives with an obsession over population decline because of brain worms
My money is on we are dealing with a group of people with brain worms