But can pro-natalist ideas ever win in purely horizontal information environments in the time range of years, not decades? Another important concept for determining the memetic effectiveness of ideas is what I would call “Terminally online advantage”:
Memes which cause people who share them to spend more time online will win against memes which encourage people to step outside
The direct consequence of this principle is that on the internet marketplace of idea nihilistic, depressive and anti-social idea will win out and turn the society into terminally online basement dwellers. Well, we’re not here yet exactly, but I can’t say we’re not heading into this direction.
The problem is, raising children takes a lot of time which cannot be spent arguing for natalism online, meaning that any working pro-natal idea will be self-selected out of the online discourse.
In my article I explore how pro-natalist meme of trad relationships could compete in such environment.
unicornbomb on
>Young men who hold traditional family beliefs (one should get married and have children) now are less attractive to young women than their progressive peers and thus more likely be single.
lol, talk about a gross oversimplification and whitewashing of what those ‘traditional family beliefs’ tend to entail and why exactly they are so off putting to so many young women.
affnn on
The “you should only have one or two kids, MAYBE three but definitely not more” meme seems to have been way more successful and is probably a bigger but less-online contributor to the declining birth rates than the “have zero kids and stay inside all the time” one.
Related, the “your employees should be available to work all the time and shouldn’t want to do things like leave early to pick up their kids” meme is an important component.
No1_Dukakis_Fan on
Neoliberals never beating the allegations.
dweeb93 on
If there were as many cute baby videos as there are cute dog and cat videos, I genuinely think the birthrate will go up.
AccountForTIFF on
I don’t agree with natalist shit so not commenting on that, but on the “how do we stop people being terminally online basement dweller nihilist” thing, I saw a graph on Facebook today showing how the amount of time people spend alone at home has increased dramatically since Covid and never gone back to normal, and all the comments were like “GOOD I’M AN INTROVERT ALL I NEED IS WIFI AND DOORDASH FUCK PEOPLE FUCK GOING OUTSIDE” and I felt so depressed. I AM a lifelong introvert and the isolation of current year and the fact that nobody around me wants to do anything anymore has sent my mental health off a cliff, it’s not good for anyone and of course that leads to people not making friends > getting in relationships > having kids. I expect that on Reddit but Facebook now too?
SenranHaruka on
Natalism is itself an antinatal meme. Pronatal memes cannot remove the stain of being velvet gloves on an effort to conscript women the same way enlistment incentives are seen as a velvet glove on conscription, and few even really try to. The only morally acceptable solution is the Taoist solution: if the global population is to shrink, then the tao has made that so.
GogurtFiend on
If someone is stupid enough that a meme is a significant part of why they had a child, they probably make a bad parent.
8 Comments
But can pro-natalist ideas ever win in purely horizontal information environments in the time range of years, not decades? Another important concept for determining the memetic effectiveness of ideas is what I would call “Terminally online advantage”:
Memes which cause people who share them to spend more time online will win against memes which encourage people to step outside
The direct consequence of this principle is that on the internet marketplace of idea nihilistic, depressive and anti-social idea will win out and turn the society into terminally online basement dwellers. Well, we’re not here yet exactly, but I can’t say we’re not heading into this direction.
The problem is, raising children takes a lot of time which cannot be spent arguing for natalism online, meaning that any working pro-natal idea will be self-selected out of the online discourse.
In my article I explore how pro-natalist meme of trad relationships could compete in such environment.
>Young men who hold traditional family beliefs (one should get married and have children) now are less attractive to young women than their progressive peers and thus more likely be single.
lol, talk about a gross oversimplification and whitewashing of what those ‘traditional family beliefs’ tend to entail and why exactly they are so off putting to so many young women.
The “you should only have one or two kids, MAYBE three but definitely not more” meme seems to have been way more successful and is probably a bigger but less-online contributor to the declining birth rates than the “have zero kids and stay inside all the time” one.
Related, the “your employees should be available to work all the time and shouldn’t want to do things like leave early to pick up their kids” meme is an important component.
Neoliberals never beating the allegations.
If there were as many cute baby videos as there are cute dog and cat videos, I genuinely think the birthrate will go up.
I don’t agree with natalist shit so not commenting on that, but on the “how do we stop people being terminally online basement dweller nihilist” thing, I saw a graph on Facebook today showing how the amount of time people spend alone at home has increased dramatically since Covid and never gone back to normal, and all the comments were like “GOOD I’M AN INTROVERT ALL I NEED IS WIFI AND DOORDASH FUCK PEOPLE FUCK GOING OUTSIDE” and I felt so depressed. I AM a lifelong introvert and the isolation of current year and the fact that nobody around me wants to do anything anymore has sent my mental health off a cliff, it’s not good for anyone and of course that leads to people not making friends > getting in relationships > having kids. I expect that on Reddit but Facebook now too?
Natalism is itself an antinatal meme. Pronatal memes cannot remove the stain of being velvet gloves on an effort to conscript women the same way enlistment incentives are seen as a velvet glove on conscription, and few even really try to. The only morally acceptable solution is the Taoist solution: if the global population is to shrink, then the tao has made that so.
If someone is stupid enough that a meme is a significant part of why they had a child, they probably make a bad parent.