Those who reproduce tend to reproduce young

@pwm This is a remarkably complex subject. So first I'll say, "across all of history and all groups of peoples, yes, you are correct." And now I'm going to go into a fucking spiel about how birth control, ignoring the differences in reproductive cycles between ethnic groups, and the particulars of reproductive adaptation, we might not actually be in a situation that is near the mean of historical reproductive patterns. We're seeing a lot more 40 year old first-time mothers in the statistics, and the vast majority of them are of White European descent right now. We're also probably in the worst possible time to be commenting on demography as so many things are in active flux -- it may not seem like it now but the same factors that have led to a 20% reduction in violent and property crimes across the country are also contributing to a transforming sexual marketplace. So like.

Don't give up hope yet.

@vii @pwm what do you think is changing in the sexual marketplace? is it better or worse?

@bajax @pwm Fewer people overall; only 0.2% fewer overall so far but that's only direct deportations by ICE; there has been a lot of other reasons people are leaving dating pools. Reduced competition with slightly different ethnic distributions, plus an older overall average parenting age for Millenials, plus the fact that white women can have kids later with less reproductive exercise, means we're likely to have a baby boom that's only really held back by how insane half the country is.

@vii @pwm you mean white (or at least non-slop) babies, right? well it would be really nice, but I don't really see it happening except among fringe groups... i.e. mormons, mennonites etc.

we're in a really unnatural environment. all humans kinda keep a status counter in their head, that tells them how they're doing and how other people are likely to treat them and value their contributions, and helps them calibrate the risks of any action they might take. it's wired into the serotonin system (this is what antidepressants work on).

I think we're just so isolated from each other, from that kind of social feedback that keeps us sane, that makes us feel safe in society, that we perceive the world as far more unsafe than it is, and that makes it really hard to justify to yourself the risk of having a kid.

@bajax @pwm I think the quiet religious revival plays an important role here too, though. Everyone agrees with the isolation problem, and many are just turning to church if not quite to God yet.

@vii @bajax in pretty sure I have to go back to church if I don't want to die alone, yeah

@pwm @vii you have a denomination picked out?

@bajax @vii I'm of two minds.
Rapaciously, I can return to the hollowed out corpse of the one I grew up in
Or
I can be a little less disingenuous and go to a mainstay and take it seriously.
I'm not sure really how invested I want to become, though I know better than to half ass it if I'm going to bother at all, so I lean to the latter.