- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
- usa@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
- usa@lemmy.ml
Lots more good stuff with citations in the article, but this bit really ties it all together:
The right-wing obsession over racial demographics becomes obvious in the “pro-natalism” movement, which advocates for conservatives to have more children to take control of society. The mission of the movement is “to build an army of like-minded people, starting with their own children, who will reject a whole host of changes wrought by liberal democracy,” according to a fascinating recent story in Politico.
For the right wing, pro-natalism means looking for every possible means to increase the white percentage of the nation’s population. Through this lens, it’s not hard to see why Republicans remain virulently anti-immigration and strictly opposed to abortion.
Those two issues may appear unrelated, but in fact Republican positions on both stem at least in part from white demographic fears. Republicans want to halt the rise in the nonwhite population by curbing immigration. At the same time, they hope their abortion bans will boost domestic birth rates — staving off white demographic decline. They also want to ban contraceptives and no-fault divorce, forcing women to stay in marriages and have more children.
The Republican Party’s white nationalism is often justified in religious terms, since much of this agenda designed to enhance white power stems from the party’s Christian fundamentalist base. Along with Protestant evangelicals, the Republican religious base now includes fundamentalist Catholics, who stridently oppose abortion.
I think the left and the right could benefit from a little heart-to-heart chat. Each side seems to have built up a mental caricature of the other.
Ok.
The Right: We want women to lose their physical rights, to have immigrants all removed from the country, to ban all porn, change all non-partisan roles into Right-wing party ones, to massacre education funding, reduce climate change mitigation efforts to zero then double down on more polluting, and in general create a real-world Gilead. Also cops should be able to kill anyone they want.
The Left: We want to protect those people, and not unfund those things, a-
The Right: See, you won’t work together to help us create a white nationalist state! You’re not arguing in good faith!
The Left: Sigh Ok then, we wa-
The Right: They’re so nasty, aren’t they, the Left? So nasty! When we have their people attacked, they fight back! So violent and nasty!
The Left: We t-
The Right: Yes, focus the cameras on me, not my opponent, especially not when they’re speaking! I will create a perfect utopia of perfection like none other!
The Left: W-
The Right: And we’ll stop the illegal immoral war on Oil and Gas, while we abandon Ukraine to Russia and Palestine to Israel!
The Left: Frowning, leave to prepare the guillotines
While entertaining, the hypothetical conversation appears to put words in the mouths of the other side.
When I sail my ship into conservative waters, those are not the arguments that I see being made.