I am curious if the majority of leftist people don’t actually want children haha. There doesn’t seem to be any studies about it, but my convos with leftists is that most don’t seem to want to have children either for the uncertainty of the future or because they are too expensive or because it wouldn’t give them too much time to organize or whatever other reason that I forgot about.
I personally lean on not having children because I have been laid off of several jobs and having someone financially dependent to me scares the shit out of me and would put my stress levels through the roof.
I was going to write a long drawn out wall of text to explain my thoughts and reasoning, but to just summarize…
I would have liked to have had kids years ago, but I also knew that the future for any kid is going to be grim. They should not have to be forced to deal with the societal and environmental collapse that is guaranteed to happen. Especially for my country there is a zero chance that kid will have a good life. So I just won’t. Maybe I’ll adopt, since at least that’s saving a victim and not contributing to more miserable children, but I cannot conciously bring a child into this existence which I have no hope for.This is the perspective of someone who doesn’t see a future for their country. There are still places in the world that still have hope for their civilizations. I just have none for mine.
Asexual reproduction is impossible for humans so even if in some alternative timeline I wanted, I can’t. But I wouldn’t either way.
Admittedly it’s not just kids, for me there’s literally no point in marriage, having kids, any non-familiar/friendly relationship etc, and all that stuff, concept’s completely alien to me.
Besides I’m not a fan of little kids in general, past like 10-11 they’re totally alright, but younger no way.
It would be very difficult but if all the chips fall into place I do like the idea of having kids someday. ^^
I had an abusive parent so I wouldn’t know what to do with children even if I had them. I don’t even know how to interact with other people’s children, so I instinctively avoid them. Also I find a lot of people’s children to be annoying/exhausting. I think seeing parents playing with their kids is nice, but I can’t ever imagine being in such a position myself. All I have right now is myself and I don’t see that changing.
I had abusive parents, so I wouldn’t know where to begin with raising a kid. If I was even 1% as bad as they were I would consider myself a failure. Much better to just not bring someone into this world than to fuck them up as bad as I was, or fuck them up in strange new ways that I could never see coming.
Nope, because I don’t like kids. I’m not planning to maintain a poop factory and don’t think I’d be interested in giving up my hobbies to help some teenager
I don’t. Part of it is because of being trans and infertile, part of me wonders if I can handle it mentally and financially. And I missed out of my own childhood and teenagehood a little bit and I want to catch up and can’t do that if I get children.
There’s also the overpopulation concern.
Part of me would have liked to have kids but given the material conditions of my life it would have likely ended up as a miserable story.
Early in my life my parents were taught the lesson of precarity under capitalism. I picked up the lesson and I could never shake it. As I came to working age I knew that no matter how hard I worked chances were good that everything I had built up would be dashed away. I could see that there was no way I (or most most millennials without generational wealth) would ever own a home. My future was quite obviously to work hard so landlords, capitalists and petti bourgeoise could live comfortable lives. I didn’t put it in these terms at the time but wrecking my mental and physical health supporting the rich and producing one or more future laborers for capitalism to exploit seemed stupid. Instead I did personal austerity and worked as little as possible.
The only way to minimise your losses when you are forced to play a rigged game is to play as little as possible.
My lady never wanted kids for her own reasons and that’s fine with me.
I think I would’ve liked having children in the future, but it just isn’t in the cards for me. I am “selfish” in that I don’t want to go through the “normal” process of having kids, and all other methods are incredibly unethical, at least under capitalism (I don’t know if they could ever be ethical).
Partner and I recently had our first kid, and it’s the best thing we’ve ever done. Also the most stressful.
We did wait though until our mid thirties, and that seems to be more normal now. I can’t imagine having a kid when my parents did, I don’t know how people can afford that now.
I lean left like most intelligent people.
I do actually want a child, i know it’s hard. But several instances and things beyond my control and this current political climate. Absolutely not. And being almost too old, we’ll I guess it’s fast becoming not an option.
So on my soapbox for a minute.
Most liberals would actually have children, if you make the environment supportive of those who choose that option. Being in the US i can assure you, it’s exactly the opposite in this dumb country. It’s a liability, it’s cruel, its harsh. There’s barely any incentive beyond not having your bloodline die out.
I want kids but my girlfriend is unsure. I just really want to be a father and the responsibilities associated with it.
It is beautiful when your son/daughter utter the words father/mother. Mine did it yesterday
That’s perfectly valid. I was rather miserable for the large chunk of my adult life and I’m afraid I might somehow inflict that on my children too. I am not against adopting or taking care of my potential partner’s children in the future, if I sort my personal stuff. (:
My gf and I want 2, but that’s a long time from now, and I’m uncertain if we’ll be able to stay together for that long and not be pulled apart by circumstances.
I’m a partial anti-natalist (only partially) but I don’t hate children, ofc. And I do think that globally speaking, a falling birth rate is a major problem.
In regards to having children, I got a vasectomy over a year ago, and my Girl never wants to have biological children.
I almost definitely never want to have any children, period. But I wouldn’t be completely against adoption, after we move to Chengdu one day.
But that would take decades’ worth of personal growth/change from me.
I don’t mean this as an insult at all, but I thought that Marxism and anti-natalism were opposite ideologies
They are. Anti-Natalism cannot function with a material view of the world since it views the world through a lens that rejects the purely material conception. Socialism is also pro-worker so if you think humans shouldn’t exist ideologically then you also think that of workers and couldn’t be a socialist
Anti-natalism doesn’t reject material reality, and as I said, only partial anti-natalism.
You’re being dogmatic and immaterial.
I also never said that humans shouldn’t or don’t deserve to exist. That’s different than anti-natalism. Anti-natalism means that it’s inherently selfish to biologically have children. But just because something is selfish, doesn’t automatically make a bad or simple thing.
There are two different viewpoints on this. One is the one you are mentioning which holds that having children is something selfish that you do for yourself. There are a number of arguments for this view such as the personal fulfillment many people get from raising a child, having more people around you who love you and who can take care of you when you are older, and of course getting to “pass on” something of yourself. In that sense it makes sense for some people to view it as selfish.
The opposite view however would argue that it is actually selfish not to have children, since children are necessary for the perpetuation of society. This too makes sense: By having children you are doing something good for society, adding to your community another person who can help make that community better while potentially (depending on how much of a burden you view taking care of a child as) giving up some of your other goals in life as you are sacrificing your own time and resources.
Both views exist and i don’t think we should be arguing about who is right and who is wrong. Ultimately this is a personal choice and it has no relation to being or not being a good socialist. The duty of a socialist society is to help with all possible means those who do choose to have children, providing them with all that they need to raise a family, while also respecting the choice of those who don’t and making sure they too are taken care of by the larger “family” of society.
Quoted for Truth
Being against people having children and viewing it as a selfish act in of itself, devoid of any context inherently upholds the view that humans shouldn’t exist. The whole foundation of the ideology has to led to that position.
Did I say devoid of any context? And that’s a ridiculous strawman that I won’t bother giving even the tiniest bit of credence.
Yes, you literally did. You referred to the ideology which posits itself as universal in any commonly understood and used context.
Removed by mod
They aren’t. At least not in a reasonable interpretation
