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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 27, 2023

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Even among conservatives and the religious, fertility rates have been falling for decades and are barely at replacement. Even Utah is now below replacement. Only full on parallel societies like the Amish and ultra-Orthodox Jews seem to be robustly reproducing and likely to keep it up for the foreseeable future.

Is that based on entire states like Utah, or levels of religiously / conservatism of specific groups. There's been increasing apostasy, and it's not news to me, but it only proves my point.

I didn't claim to speak in the name of all humanity.

Well, if you want us all to go extinct, if we fail to endorse your Brave New World utopia, you kinda are.

Technology serves us precisely by extending the production possibilities frontier and allowing us to get away with stuff that we couldn't in prior generations. Like hypothetically, allowing for the fertility rates of the 18th century without having to readopt any of the social mores or taboos.

My point is there is no "us" here, or if there is, it's a group vehemently opposed to my interests. In theory the Internet enables "us" to talk, organize, share, on a never before heard of scale. In practice, these conversations, organizing, and sharing is shaped by "them", while "we" are hounded on every step. At least when it comes to the Internet, it's impacts are limited to the black box in my room / pocket, with artificial wombs you are giving "them" total control over who will have how many of what kind children. From there, the assumption that humanity will even remain recognizably human for very long strikes me as extremely naive.

Is that based on entire states like Utah, or levels of religiously / conservatism of specific groups.

I'm pretty sure conservative/religious fertility is at almost exactly 2.0/replacement, while self identified liberal/secular is at 1.75 or so. Maybe it will maintain there, but considering how much higher it was a century or two ago, it strikes me as unlikely.

Well, if you want us all to go extinct, if we fail to endorse your Brave New World utopia, you kinda are.

I state my preferences. Many people, including you, disagree.

My point is there is no "us" here, or if there is

Obviously we have totally incompatible views on what human society should look like in the future.

I'm pretty sure conservative/religious fertility is at almost exactly 2.0/replacement, while self identified liberal/secular is at 1.75 or so. Maybe it will maintain there, but considering how much higher it was a century or two ago, it strikes me as unlikely.

If that’s the data I’m thinking of, it’s that normie Republican fertility was at exactly replacement- I can’t find the data right now, but every religious group except the most liberal has a fertility rate high enough to be replacement after balancing out apostasy when you limit it to church attendance(the average normie Republican is not a weekly churchgoer, but weekly churchgoers are strongly over represented among normie republicans). So it actually points to secular red tribers having like a 1.75 tfr and church attending Christians having like 2.5, with some sects being higher(mass attending Catholics have 3.1, for example).

I’m pretty sure the blue tribe tfr is a lot lower, like Spain tier.

I'm pretty sure conservative/religious fertility is at almost exactly 2.0/replacement, while self identified liberal/secular is at 1.75 or so. Maybe it will maintain there, but considering how much higher it was a century or two ago, it strikes me as unlikely.

Burned out progressives like me might be screwing up the statistics. In any case it seems like conservatism is at least a protection factor, if not a cure.

Obviously we have totally incompatible views on what human society should look like in the future.

I wasn't even referring to different visions for the future of humanity. There's the question of whether people controlling these technologies will see you as one of them, or as a tool at best, and an obstacle at worst. Personally I don't rate your chances well.