Charlie Stross

Low birthrate is UK’s top priority, Tory MP tells rightwing conference

A Conservative MP has claimed the UK’s low birthrate is the most pressing policy issue of the generation and is caused in part by “cultural Marxism”

They're getting ready to go full forced-birther white supremacist here, aren't they https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/may/15/low-birthrate-is-uk-top-priority-tory-mp-tells-rightwing-conference-miriam-cates?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Low birthrate is UK’s top priority, Tory MP tells rightwing conference

‘Cultural Marxism’ and excessive education among factors causing existential threat, says Miriam Cates

The Guardian
May 15, 2023 at 5:39pmWeb
Show threadThe Laughing Muse May 15, 2023
@cstross And just like the US, if they weren't so dead-set about Not Letting The Wrong People In, the low birth rate would be less of a problem.
Show threadFeralRobotsMay 15, 2023
@thelaughingmuse
...which does tend to spill the beans on what it's really about.
@cstross
Show threadLulu Helle May 15, 2023
@cstross the Tories need to be quiet and sit down. Marxism has nothing to do with why do many of us have chosen not have children. The world is grossly overpopulated anyway.
Show threadCharlie StrossMay 15, 2023
@LuluHelle It was like this in the 1980s under Thatcher. (Another period when per-capita income in the UK crashed during a protracted period of spiraling inflation and rent/mortgage increases.) An entire generation noped out of having kids because they were unaffordable to folks just trying to survive.
Show threadLulu Helle May 15, 2023
@cstross I have been looked at like I am a monster my entire adult life for noping out of parenthood. There are many reasons why I personally didn't. Poverty and no job sure as shit are two of them
Show threadThiago FigueiróMay 15, 2023
@LuluHelle @cstross you’re no monster for making this personal decision. But capitalism needs that growth feedback loop to survive, and the easiest way to do it is to force the proletariat to keep popping children.
Show threadLulu Helle May 15, 2023
@thiagocsf @cstross yeah make us poor sods feel that we have to prop up the economy by all "doing our duty"
Show threadHighlandLawyerMay 15, 2023
@thiagocsf @LuluHelle @cstross
Proletarius, Latin for baby-makers (proles meaning offspring or progeny) #SameAsItEverWas
Show threadLulu Helle May 15, 2023
@HighlandLawyer @thiagocsf @cstross oooft! Right in the etymology! It's always a bit gross when those things match up in such a way.
Show threadThiago FigueiróMay 15, 2023
@cstross @LuluHelle my wife only refers to her as milk snatcher. She still recounts with visible trauma the day she went to school and lunch no longer included milk.
Show threadCat 🐈‍⬛🛰️​ HAS MOVED TO A NEW SERVERMay 15, 2023
@cstross Yep.
Show threadmav May 15, 2023
@catbailey @cstross It works for religion. *shudders*
Show threadNudeln Al Dente 🐘May 15, 2023
@cstross 🤢
Show threadParade du Grotesque 💀May 15, 2023

@cstross

Oh poop. 💩

Show threadAgnieszka R. TurczyńskaMay 15, 2023

@cstross I am again and again flabbergasted about how similar, even with all the differences, Poland and UK are in scope of the politics. Regardless of the overall wealth of the country and the nation, right wing conservatives are right wing conservatives. And they use the same concepts, the same rhetoric, the same means of manipulation to convince people to follow their backward ways.

I've seen it in Poland. Before 2015 I wasn't so interested in the British internal affairs, but then I had moved to UK. And I've seen the same there. It seems like they are using the same shitty guide book for ruling.

Show threadCharlie StrossMay 15, 2023

@agturcz it's like there's a covert international network of nazis executing a global conspiracy—

Remember, with the Right, it's always projection. So when they prattle on constantly about international socialist conspiracies … it's a confession. THEY are the conspiracy. It's a conspiracy against modernity and human rights and the idea that ancestry should not dictate outcomes. And you are their target.

Show threadAgnieszka R. TurczyńskaMay 15, 2023
@cstross And some of them are in Putin's pocket. I have no idea about the UK part, but in Poland an investigative journalist, Tomasz Piątek, has found some proofs of this. The majority of materials are in Polish language, but there are some in English as well. If you have a willpower to dive into it, here is something what might be a starting point: https://www.epfweb.org/node/905
EPF presents "Tip of the Iceberg" at Polish Parliament

The Polish language version of "Tip of the Iceberg" had its launch at the Parliament in Warsaw today. The publication, which is already available in English, French and German, was launched by EPF Executive Director Neil Datta with the help of Polish MP Hon. Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus as well as sociologist Elżbieta Korolczuk, from Södertörn University, Sweden and investigative journalist Tomasz Piątek.

Show threadmmbyMay 15, 2023
@agturcz @cstross I have this hunch that virtually all of Europe's alt-right parties that have risen up in the last 15 years have been supported by Russia to some extent, just as much as by families of rich Nazi profiteurs living e.g. in Switzerland
Show threadDermot CaseyMay 15, 2023
@cstross @agturcz that projection comment is so on the money it’s a great insight into what they’re doing every time they accuse everybody else of doing something (curbing rights, stealing elections, ending democracy)
Show threadMysturjiMay 15, 2023
@cstross
Show threadChris MerleMay 15, 2023
@mysturji @cstross that’s the Republican platform.
Show threadMysturjiMay 15, 2023
@clmerle @cstross
And Tories.
Show threadJoy DenebeimMay 15, 2023
@cstross @agturcz so do they have glowing green worms behind their eyes?
Show threadCharlie StrossMay 15, 2023
@denebeim @agturcz If only they did it'd make it much easier to identify them!
Show threadJoy DenebeimMay 15, 2023
@cstross @agturcz well, if I recall they wouldn't last long. Anyway. It's been a while since I've read your books
Show threadCharlie StrossMay 15, 2023
@denebeim @agturcz For the past few years I've been finding it *really hard* to come up with a sufficiently bonkers satire on British politics, even after appointing a Lovecraftian Elder God as Prime Minister …
Show threadJoy DenebeimMay 16, 2023
@cstross @agturcz and thank you for reminding me I'm a couple of books behind on the laundry. I need to listen to them.
Show threadCharlie StrossMay 16, 2023
@denebeim @agturcz "Dead Lies Dreaming" is the first of the New Management books and works as a self-contained entrypoint … best not to start with "Quantum of Nightmares" or "Season of Skulls", there's an ongoing story line (SoS closes it out).
Show threadJoy DenebeimMay 16, 2023
@cstross @agturcz on long trips, I usually listen to either your books or Stephenson's books.
Show threadJoy DenebeimMay 16, 2023

@cstross @agturcz I'm afraid that those types are incapable of creative thought, so they steal ideas from science fiction authors they grew up reading.

Except for Trump, he was purported to have a copy of mein Kampf on his bedstand. I never thought they had a comic book version, so this is probably apocryphal.

Show threadCharlie StrossMay 16, 2023
@denebeim @agturcz I heard it was a collection of Hitler's political speeches, not Mein Kampf. (Despicable as his beliefs were, he was a very powerful orator—that's what made him so dangerous.)
Show threadJoy DenebeimMay 16, 2023
@cstross @agturcz same as the orange menace. I guess. I don't know if Hitler was as transparently evil and perpetually lying
Show threadVery Human RobotMay 15, 2023
@agturcz @cstross it's almost as of humans are the same everywhere and the same kinds of politics have the same effects because of it...
Show threadTwobiscuits🚴‍♂️ May 15, 2023
@agturcz @cstross it's almost as though there's a kind of european federation of these arseholes.
Show threadBen ToddMay 16, 2023

@agturcz

That guide book is probably Mein Kampf

@cstross

Show threadSkiriki FyxeMay 15, 2023
@cstross Just recently, Finnish rightwing dipshits went public with white replacement theory -- while in negotiations with National Coalition about ministry positions. Holy fucking shit.
Show threadex or current IDF unwelcomeMay 15, 2023
@cstross pure example of how mental health services have failed evening the Palace of Westminster
Show threadBoredomFestivalMay 15, 2023
@cstross they already were, but they're getting ready to now, too
Show threadJoy DenebeimMay 15, 2023
@cstross idiots. You want people to reproduce? Pay them a living wage
Show threadsortiusMay 15, 2023
@cstross "cultural Marxism" you say? 🚩Nazi 🚩
Show threadaristeon89May 15, 2023
@cstross keeping out immigrants while pushing people to have more babies. It doesn't sound like a fascistoid ideology at all.
Show threadNicole ParsonsMay 15, 2023

@cstross

As Ceucescu demonstrated in Romania, a forced birth program just produces children that people can't afford & they end up neglected in orphanages.

It does nothing to treat the underlying causes of why people don't have children.

Housing precarity. Employment insecurity. Inadequate social safety net. Systemic misogyny. The Pink Tax. Lack of affordable child care. Student loan debt. High mortgages.

Women already have a 30% wage discount, having children makes that worse.

1/2

Show threadNicole ParsonsMay 15, 2023

2/2
It means too many women retire impoverished.

It costs $330,000 USD to raise a child through college.

Moreover, the concern about the birth rate is really a cover for voter suppression for women.

Most conservative political strategists believe young children take women out of the electoral process for several years. Women with young children vote less

It's the familar "politics of exhaustion" used against POC working 2 jobs to pay the rent because of wage suppression tactics like racism

Show threadGATEKEEPERMay 15, 2023
@Npars01
This is obscene.. We pay a higher price to live because advertising, sports and housing are out of control.
Show threadEnkiusz🇺🇦May 16, 2023
@Npars01 is there any data on women having kids and not voting as a result? Id like to read up on that.
Show threadNicole ParsonsMay 16, 2023

@enkiusz

It was a study conducted by the Knight Foundation

https://the100million.org/

Vote by mail was a boon to mothers of young children. No wonder Republicans now hate it.

Anything that allows women to participate in public life, Republicans are opposed to it.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/women-rule/2020/02/21/the-women-who-dont-vote-488386

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/19/women-predominate-among-chronic-nonvoters-111770

The 100 Million

The Untold Story of American Non-Voters

Show threadEnkiusz🇺🇦May 17, 2023
@Npars01 thanks you will read 2mo
Show threadex or current IDF unwelcomeMay 16, 2023
@Npars01 @cstross could this be a side effect of that well known slogan "Fuck the Tories"? they want more sex
Show threadKee HinckleyMay 15, 2023

@cstross @onepict Low birth rates are a direct threat to capitalism, which cannot survive without infinite growth.

So, for that matter, are attempts to fight climate change, since they require a sustainable future, which also means no infinite growth.

Show threadskryMay 15, 2023
@cstross Fewer people is better: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/population-decline-will-change-the-world-for-the-better/
Population Decline Will Change the World for the Better

A future with fewer people offers increased opportunity and a healthier environment

Scientific American
Show threadGizmo May 15, 2023
@cstross Maybe - just maybe people will have more kids if they can afford them. Childcare costs are through the roof - for my wife to work, we would have to put the kids into some form of day care. To pay for the day care, my wife would have to work full time with all her pay (and potentially some extra) going towards the daycare.

We are lucky and can afford things on just my pay but if that were not the case, I'm not sure we would have been able to afford kids...
Show threadkatepreachMay 15, 2023

@cstross Glad I finally managed to get my hysterectomy (2.5 weeks ago after 35 years of telling doctors there was something wrong)

I'm too old for pregnancy now anyway, but it's still a surprising relief to know it's literally not possible to be used as a brood mare

Show threadQueen FaunMay 15, 2023
@cstross There's gonna be a tory 'birth ensurer' allocated to every bedroom to make sure that enough banging is happening
Show threadAviva GaryMay 15, 2023
@cstross I'd be shocked if they didn't
Show threadJ.H.NoyesMay 15, 2023

@cstross

They understand that the next few decades worth of children are going to have serious viability issues. Just because leadership plays stupid at Covid doesn't mean the people that write those plays are stupid about Covid.

@hannu_ikonen

Show threadKat KimbrielMay 16, 2023

@cstross

Yes. Yes, they are.

People, If you are done with family & haven't gotten tubes snipped/removed etc. get rolling on it. "They" will come for birth control, eventually.

Show threadInterpipes 💙May 16, 2023
@cstross “it can’t be the financial, housing, food and heat insecurity and packing the proles in smaller and smaller homes like battery hens, it’s the cultural marxists!”
Show threadAlbert CardonaMay 16, 2023

@cstross With nurseries charging £1,300/month per child, and salaries being at £20,000 to £30,000/year, and housing taking most of that income after taxes and food: maybe fix the economy first?

The issues the UK is experiencing aren't the result of moral failures of its people but of policy ones by its politicians.

#UK #CostOfLivingCrisis

Show threadthewinduppirateMay 16, 2023

@cstross

Yes, it's definitely "excessive education" and very much not a lack of housing, chronic wage stagnation or the cost of living crisis. Or the general vibe and economic situation after over a decade of Tory rule. Jeez...