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Not the sane ones. My wife and I are conservative. My neighbor and his wife literally worked in the Obama White House. I have a Trump-era kid and 2 Biden-era k

Not the sane ones. My wife and I are conservative. My neighbor and his wife literally worked in the Obama White House. I have a Trump-era kid and 2 Biden-era kids, as does he. Both our wives care about election outcomes and yet neither would look at 2016 or 2020 or 2024 and decide "never mind" on their life-long commitment to family. And neither would anyone else. Nobody was trending in the good direction and then was derailed by an election.

kashunstva 1y ago
> neither would look at 2016 or 2020 or 2024 and decide "never mind" on their life-long commitment to family. And neither would anyone else. My wife and I are not conservative; but I would agree that no one is tracking the election results as a go/no-go indicator for child-rearing. My wife and I have 3 children, two of whom are adults so our decisions were made in a different era. Instead of bipolar political outcomes, I think many are affected by a sense of unchanging disinterest in the wellbeing of the great mass of people that populate the country. As long as the GDP rises, it’s good times, right? Few on either side of the political divide want to talk about the distribution of U.S. national income. Want more kids? Make life less difficult for families. Both major parties have completely failed to do this.
- whatajoke69420 1y ago
  > Few on either side of the political divide want to talk about the distribution of U.S. national income. Want more kids? nice lil both-sides-ism fantasy escape - now back in reality, do tell which party specifically platforms AGAINST distribution of concentrated wealth ? and which one is FOR it? Hm?
  - xyzelement 1y ago
    LOL - the members of "that party" are dragging down the average birthrate to just about 0.
whatajoke69420 1y ago
> Both our wives care about election outcomes and yet neither would look at 2016 or 2020 or 2024 and decide "never mind" > on their life-long commitment to family. You can hear how disconnected your lived experiences are from the topic at hand here, right?
- xyzelement 1y ago
  We're talking "root cause" not whether my experience matches the stats here.
UncleMeat 1y ago
Trump winning in 2024 alongside ascendant fascism and antifeminism weighed extremely heavily on me and my wife's decision to have kids or not. You do you.
- xyzelement 1y ago
  I am doing me, and you do you - although I have to say given your posting history, you're an intelligent, principled, and thought out person and there's a part of me that's sad to know you're not "casting" that into the next generation. And I say that even though our politics are opposite. One huge benefit of religion is a timeless/eternal orientation in thinking. Like, if someone takes concepts like "spending eternity in heaven or hell" - they are indeed thinking about eternity, a topic that an atheist never has to be concerned with. And I say this as someone whose religion does not orient around a traditionally understood heaven and hell. The reason I mention that is because it's obvious that in the grand scheme of things whatever you're worried about today won't matter. Whatever evils you see in the 2024 election (I don't but that's the political difference) pale in comparison to what someone could discern at different points in time. And yet - I am very glad my great-grandparents decided to have my grandmother despite the turmoil around the Soviet revolution. I am glad my grandparents decided to have my parents despite their horrific experience in WW2. Both of my wife's grandparents literally went through concentration camps as eastern European Jews, and still went on to have families. I have cousins born soon after 9/11, etc. The point is - looking back on it, as real as those events were, it would be exponentially more horrible if they "won" not by how horrible they were, but by making good people give up on the whole game. If I dare go on a limb - I'll suggest an alternate perspective. Whatever forces caused you to see "fascism and antifeminism" so strongly today that you're not having kids, have done you more permanent harm than anyone else.
  - UncleMeat 1y ago
    I'm a Christian. I think it is strange to make this about some missing timeless/eternal thinking in my life. Frankly, this is the most presumptuous comment I think I have ever received.

kashunstva 1y ago

> neither would look at 2016 or 2020 or 2024 and decide "never mind" on their life-long commitment to family. And neither would anyone else. My wife and I are not conservative; but I would agree that no one is tracking the election results as a go/no-go indicator for child-rearing. My wife and I have 3 children, two of whom are adults so our decisions were made in a different era. Instead of bipolar political outcomes, I think many are affected by a sense of unchanging disinterest in the wellbeing of the great mass of people that populate the country. As long as the GDP rises, it’s good times, right? Few on either side of the political divide want to talk about the distribution of U.S. national income. Want more kids? Make life less difficult for families. Both major parties have completely failed to do this.

whatajoke69420 1y ago
> Few on either side of the political divide want to talk about the distribution of U.S. national income. Want more kids? nice lil both-sides-ism fantasy escape - now back in reality, do tell which party specifically platforms AGAINST distribution of concentrated wealth ? and which one is FOR it? Hm?
- xyzelement 1y ago
  LOL - the members of "that party" are dragging down the average birthrate to just about 0.

whatajoke69420 1y ago

> Both our wives care about election outcomes and yet neither would look at 2016 or 2020 or 2024 and decide "never mind" > on their life-long commitment to family. You can hear how disconnected your lived experiences are from the topic at hand here, right?

xyzelement 1y ago
We're talking "root cause" not whether my experience matches the stats here.

UncleMeat 1y ago

Trump winning in 2024 alongside ascendant fascism and antifeminism weighed extremely heavily on me and my wife's decision to have kids or not. You do you.

xyzelement 1y ago
I am doing me, and you do you - although I have to say given your posting history, you're an intelligent, principled, and thought out person and there's a part of me that's sad to know you're not "casting" that into the next generation. And I say that even though our politics are opposite. One huge benefit of religion is a timeless/eternal orientation in thinking. Like, if someone takes concepts like "spending eternity in heaven or hell" - they are indeed thinking about eternity, a topic that an atheist never has to be concerned with. And I say this as someone whose religion does not orient around a traditionally understood heaven and hell. The reason I mention that is because it's obvious that in the grand scheme of things whatever you're worried about today won't matter. Whatever evils you see in the 2024 election (I don't but that's the political difference) pale in comparison to what someone could discern at different points in time. And yet - I am very glad my great-grandparents decided to have my grandmother despite the turmoil around the Soviet revolution. I am glad my grandparents decided to have my parents despite their horrific experience in WW2. Both of my wife's grandparents literally went through concentration camps as eastern European Jews, and still went on to have families. I have cousins born soon after 9/11, etc. The point is - looking back on it, as real as those events were, it would be exponentially more horrible if they "won" not by how horrible they were, but by making good people give up on the whole game. If I dare go on a limb - I'll suggest an alternate perspective. Whatever forces caused you to see "fascism and antifeminism" so strongly today that you're not having kids, have done you more permanent harm than anyone else.
- UncleMeat 1y ago
  I'm a Christian. I think it is strange to make this about some missing timeless/eternal thinking in my life. Frankly, this is the most presumptuous comment I think I have ever received.