Progressive or Parody? ‘Stop Having Kids’ Movement Raises Eyebrows, Epitomizes Leftist Self-Loathing
“What’s more anti-human than bringing someone into an existence where suffering and death are guaranteed?”
It’s been fashionable in far-left circles for some time now to brag about how you’ve decided not to have kids in the name of the environment and climate change.
As The Guardian reported in their “climate crisis” section in late 2023, “New research has found many people are now basing their decisions not to have children on their fears of climate breakdown”:
The study, by a team of academics at University College London, is believed to be the first systematic review to explore how and why climate-related concerns may be affecting reproductive decision-making.
Their analysis found that, in 12 of 13 studies, stronger concerns about climate breakdown were associated with a desire for fewer children, or none at all.
[…]
Uncertainty about the future and concerns about the ecological impact of the growing human population were key factors also identified by research, according to Hope Dillarstone, lead author on the study published in the journal PLOS Climate. Dillarstone and her colleagues found that concerns such as those outlined by [antinatalist Emma] Smart were by no means unusual.
As crazy as so-called “climate anxiety” sounds, it gets crazier. There’s another movement out there that goes way beyond “let’s hold off on/don’t have kids for the sake of the environment.” For the folks at “Stop Having Kids,” people shouldn’t have children because, well, everything is awful:
Before entering this insanely cruel, unjust, and bizarre world none of us had an interest, desire, or any form of consent to come into it. Forcing someone into the world isn’t caring, selfless, kind, and it certainly isn’t a personal choice or doing someone a favor. pic.twitter.com/pbnT8Lbf4s
— Stop Having Kids (@SHK_Movement) April 5, 2024
What’s more anti-human than bringing someone into an existence where suffering and death are guaranteed?
— Stop Having Kids (@SHK_Movement) February 16, 2024
I have to admit, I thought at first that this movement had to be a parody. I mean, if you look at their website, most if not all images they have appear to be AI-generated, and some of the “information” they’ve posted there reads just like a parody.
For instance, they describe themselves as “antinatalists“:
Antinatalism is a stance that it is wrong for humans as a whole to procreate. For SHK antinatalism is a philosophical and ethical stance against human reproduction, rooted in harm reduction and rational consideration for future life. Antinatalism regards the implications that procreation has, both for humans, other animals, and the natural world. Many antinatalists consider intentional human reproduction (besides exceptions related to force) an irreversible, unnecessary, indefensible, and enduring form of harm, regardless of circumstances, situations, or consciousness in living.
The spread of intentionally abstaining from procreation can radically reduce suffering, exploitation, and environmental destruction in the world. Refraining from creating new life is the most efficient and effective means of minimizing suffering and injustice for all current and future sentient beings.
But as it turns out, it is a real movement, as noted by the Portland, Oregon-based Willamette Week in 2022:
The boards, at Northeast Killingsworth Street and Interstate 205 and Southeast Division and 106th Avenue, went up Jan. 3 and 12, respectively. Both blare the same terse message: “Stop Having Kids,” in white text on a black background.
The billboards say they are paid for by a little-known organization called Stop Having Kids. That same advocacy group, which got its start in Portland, according to a spokeswoman, put up a third billboard along Interstate 5 near Salem: “A Lot of Humans Wish They Had Never Been Born.”
[…]
Stop Having Kids spokeswoman Ashley Riddle says the group started informally in Portland a few months before March 2021 and identifies itself as a “collective liberation movement.” Its website makes the group’s platform clear: The organization is “antinatalist,” meaning it’s against all human reproduction.
[…]
State records show, however, that Stop Having Kids was incorporated in January 2021 by Eric Goldberg, a Portland photographer whose middle name is Dietz.
Dietz, who is also an animal rights activist, was profiled by Harper’s Magazine in March:
In the summertime, Alex and Dietz decided to take a road trip. The two had met years earlier on Instagram, as fellow animal-rights activists, and had discovered that they agreed on much more than veganism. Actually they agreed on basically everything, including that new human life is not a gift but a needless perpetuation of suffering. Babies grow up to be adults, and adulthood contains loneliness, rejection, drudgery, hopelessness, regret, grief, and terror. Even grade school contains that much. Why put someone through that, Alex and Dietz agreed, when a child could just as well never have known existence at all? The unborn do not appear to be moaning at us from the void, petitioning to be let into life. This idea—that having children is unethical—has come to be known as antinatalism, and in 2021 Dietz set up an Instagram account for a new organization he called Stop Having Kids.
The Twitter/X bio for the “Stop Having Kids” advocates at the Bengali Antinatalists account reads as follows:
“We dedicate our work of love to tiny palms and innocent eyes, the ones who couldn’t protest when they where being bring kidnapped from their eternal sleep.”
On #WorldWildlifeDay , @SHK_Movement (🇮🇳 Chapter) made and distributed seed balls to advocate for caring for existing lives over creating new ones.
Let's raise awareness about wild animal suffering and prioritize environmental stewardship.https://t.co/33JymK0azK pic.twitter.com/0DciQRas0s
— Bengali Antinatalists (@jonmodanberodhi) March 3, 2024
As one might imagine, more than a few eyebrows have been raised about this movement, a movement which in my view epitomizes leftist self-loathing:
The juxtaposition between the description of an “insanely cruel, unjust, and bizarre world” and the photo of a woman exercising her free speech rights near some palm trees, a beach, and a restaurant is truly terrific. https://t.co/FNFou80EsF
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) April 6, 2024
I hope that in the name of philosophical consistency, these folks have also committed not to free ride on other people’s children by retiring, or asking younger people to perform services or care for them when they can no longer do those things for themselves. https://t.co/fEnc7Yp2qN
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) April 6, 2024
1. Because kids are wonderful and make the world better.
2. Because this is the best time in human history to be born — with less poverty, more opportunity, more cures for diseases, and less inequality than at any time since agricultural civilization began 30,000 years ago. https://t.co/DPlE1cJWvS
— Marc Thiessen 🇺🇸❤️🇺🇦🇹🇼🇮🇱 (@marcthiessen) April 6, 2024
Lmao. Having, raising and loving kids is one of the most selfless, purpose-giving acts possible. Only dorks would think otherwise. https://t.co/LTKu4k4o3A
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) April 6, 2024
I am fully on board with the Stop Having Kids Movement not having kids. https://t.co/S08zw6IEoT
— Joe Cunningham (@JoePCunningham) April 6, 2024
Having kids isn’t selfish. While it’s one of the greatest loves you will feel it is also one of the greatest tests you’ll face. It’s very selfless. Your life becomes about your child. In what way is that selfish?
— Benjamin (@benjamminvr) April 6, 2024
What he said.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
Over 30 years ago in Oxford, England,, I happily announced that my (ex) and I were expecting.
An acquaintance sniffed, “Aren’t you concerned about bringing another life into this world with all its problems?”
I looked her in the eye and said, “No; my child will help solve those problems.”
Hmmm, as long as the leftists all join in I could support this. Autoeugenics. Kind of has a ring to it.
which is why they’re all-in on importing numerous third-worlders here to continue voting for the progs.
Fewer baizuo in the future is a net positive.
I learned a new word today, thanks!
Yeah… abortion should be working out the same way, but it hasn’t.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, when are all these true believers going to off themselves?
Leftists encouraging americans to abort their own flesh and blood, and replace them by opening the border for millions illegal aliens?
What could go wrong there?
Abortion is child sacrifice.
Darwin awards, lol.
If people with dumb ideas remove themselves from the gene pool… we should encourage it.
Winning the game of evolution is hard, but its much harder when your stupid.
The sad thing is, I could write an intense thriller about a secret society that commits mass murder to reduce humanities ecological footprint, but by the time its in print it wouldnt be fiction. Also, a lot of people would mistake it for a playbook rather than satire or fiction.
According to a report via Scott Adams, a majority of leftists believe that blacks have a higher IQ than whites. Maybe it’s a eugenics thing, leaving Africa to raise us all.
There’s irony in that report. By believing such an absurdity on its face, these people beg for the absurdity to come true.
If they don’t want children, that’s their business. Pushing that crap on me is harassment and I’ll respond accordingly.
Why should leftists have kids when they can just steal yours?
Anybody who didn’t see this coming 60 years ago, when they were teaching Existentialism and Absurdity and Catcher in The Rye in high school, wasn’t paying attention.
The leftists don’t have to steal conservative parents’ kids – those parents continue to donate their children to the leftists’ schools.
We’re talking about the same thing, just using different words.
Seems like a problem that solves itself?
I’m curious how many POCs claim membership in the organization.
This is all ridiculous and fun until these crazy cultists start killing pregnant women, preferably Jewish but also any and all whites. This is the natural progression of nutso lefties, and we have no protection at all unless we live in red states.
The FBI is busy tracking down great grandmas who might once have needlepointed a pillow that reads, “Don;t Tread On Me.” They don’t care about actual crazies chanting “Death to America” or “Having Children Makes You an Inhuman Monster.” The FBI is a disgrace. An absolute disgrace.
The death-to-America chanters just might riot, loot, burn, rape, kill, etc, and the poor poor Fibbies don’t want to risk getting hurt. Grandma will not do so, so makes an easy target.
They just haven’t met the right grandma.
I don’t think people should have kids
they should have children …
let goats continue to have kids.
/s
its early and this is attempted humor
Another example of Darwin at work! Let them go with choice. It will make the world a better place!
This is woke narcissim in full display.
There is nothing more satisfying in life than raising children, walking them down the aisle when they get married and spending time with grandchildren
That’s some 5D chess going on.
My first reaction was in line with all of the above, but then I went all Hitler and thought- wow! What if we could convince all the leftists to become infertile? Victory for the species in 50 years—- How can I donate to this cause????? …only then did I realize the true brilliance of their plan.
Like climate change they would promise to make themselves infertile, but secretly blow the money for themselves to have fertility treatments at age 48 when they are far from having the bodies to stare at themselves in the mirror naked.
South Korea has a total fertility rate of 0.7. The average SK woman has 0.7 children in her lifetime.
At that rate 50 men, 50 women have:
–35 children
–10 grandchildren
–4 great grandchildren.
—
(Numbers in my head, early in morning)
What is the fertility rate in mainland China?
I’m not sure that you can make love, strictly speaking, without making babies.
Nothing really new here, just another iteration on the general theme of Paul Ehrlich’s 1970 best-seller “The Population Bomb”, though not phrased in terms of Malthusian world starvation this time. This new movement offers some underlying eugenics attributes. Do these no-babies advocates plan to have kids themselves while telling others not to? This implies that they have illusions of grandeur for themselves, typical of elite mentality.
I read a story somewhere where aliens took over Earth, and then decided their empire was overextended, so they decreed no more children. Everyone was sterilized, and the human race was dead in 80 years.