Mastodawn

Machine Lord Zero

It's weird seeing news reports like "The population growth rate is slowing. What could be the cause?"
LONG WORK HOURS FOR FUCK ALL PAY. GOVERNMENTS AROUND THE WORLD TERRORISING PEOPLE. FUCKING ABYSMAL CONDITIONS FOR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL WELLBEING.
THEY HEAP SALT UPON THE LAND AND QUESTION THE LACK OF NEW GROWTH.

Adam Jacobs 🇺🇦6h ago

@MachineLordZero And don't tell me: are those articles written by the same people who are fond of telling us that we must not allow any immigration because the country is full?

Token Sane Person 6h ago

@MachineLordZero True, but on the flip side it's also because women have access to birth control, education and jobs, which means that their lives are no longer entirely dominated by some man.

@tokensane @MachineLordZero I waas going to post a rant about toxic masculinity and risk from pregnancy/childbirth in response/support to your comment, but on reflection I think you've got it in a nutjob!

Infoseepage 6h ago

@MachineLordZero Covid is associated with significantly increased risks of erectile dysfunction. So, there's that. But yeah, poor economic prospects and WW III sure puts a damped on things.

@MachineLordZero The frustrating thing is the UK has been a case study of an "ageing population" in schools for well over 20 years (maybe over 30?). It's not a new problem*, and the solution has of course been immigration.

Which isn't to say that the solution shouldn't also be better labour laws/healthcare/standard of living/UBI and lower cost of living, but for some mysterious** reason, the people against immigration are also against those other things. Funny that.

(* Specifically the problem of having enough people working and paying taxes so retired folks can get their state pension/etc, because taxing the rich is too hard or something.)

(** I hope my sarcasm is showing.)

@MachineLordZero Also the decades of the media going "sperm counts are going down and nobody knows why!" but the moment a study links it to microplastic? Crickets.

It's not something they can blame on "individual responsibility" (fast food, lack of exercise, whatever is considered "unhealthy"), and will instead require governments to force industry change, so suddenly it's no longer important to address. Somehow.

Gabriele Svelto 6h ago

@MachineLordZero isn't it funny how the one-child policy only partially curbed the birthrate in China, but it took neoliberal turbocapitalsim to really tank it

The Turtle 6h ago

@MachineLordZero

Well that, and human babies suck shit. Nobody have any for maybe 25 years.

dark_stang 6h ago

@MachineLordZero also like there are 8 billion of us. Easing off the pedal for a few generations is probably fine?

greenpepper22 6h ago

@MachineLordZero I also remember seeing a study that teenage pregnancy is at an all time low and that contributes to it as well

Wanna also be clear, major reductions in teen pregnancy is a good thing and not something to panic about or blame anyone about

Nicole Parsons 5h ago

@greenpepper22 @MachineLordZero

The leading predictor for poverty as a senior citizen is pregnancy as a teenager.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/03/bad-news-about-declining-teen-pregnancy-rates/584500/

Anything that interrupts a child's education is a predictor.

https://www.wired.com/story/argentina-algorithms-pregnancy-prediction/

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/three-simple-rules-poor-teens-should-follow-to-join-the-middle-class/

https://ufhealth.org/stories/2017/teen-birth-hot-spots-identified-despite-overall-decline-in-u-s-teen-pregnancy

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/05/harvard-study-shows-exactly-how-poverty-impacts-childrens-success/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1521693410000313

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4653097/

The Bad News About Declining Teen-Pregnancy Rates

Declining rates of adolescent pregnancy come with a catch.

The Atlantic

derptron 5h ago

@MachineLordZero People need to be happy to really get down. Sad lays are just sad lays. Sometimes you don't even bother getting to the end.

And what, have kids just to watch them suffer and die at the hands of the same predators that will eat us in the end?

Is that just to have company or what?

"I had you so that when it comes time to be pinch shredded by Cthulhu I'll have someone to share my pain with."

"But you said I need to plan for my future..."

"Yeah, sorry. That was shit of me."

disorderlyf 5h ago

@MachineLordZero Anyone I see decrying the population grown slowing who doesn't include rates of immigration in their population growth figures is someone who is safer for me to assume is a eugenicist. We have a solution already that doesn't even require the major reforms to make Zoomers actually want to have children and that we'll likely have to do to not die as a species anyway.

Doug Webb 5h ago

@MachineLordZero but... electrolytes are what people crave?

Jordi (Tubal Hippy)4h ago

@MachineLordZero

I would never dream of inflicting my offspring upon this world; likewise, I would never dream of inflicting this world upon my offspring.

@MachineLordZero Turns out productive libido is very sensible to economics 😂

@MachineLordZero not so much. There is a whole damn political and social mechanism pushed against us all, based upon an agenda of a few people who come to realize that they "don't need" so many people to stay at the top of power anymore.

MrGrumpyMonkey 51m ago

@MachineLordZero The first time I read this, I that it stated "pollution" and not population. I guess both could work in this scenario.