Who’s Afraid of Falling Birth Rates?
Why conservatives are wrong to be obsessed with fertility, but liberals have reason to worry
Conservatives are very concerned about falling birth rates. On the fringe, figures like Alex Jones sow conspiracy theories about declining testosterone to sell us worthless supplements. And Tucker Carlson’s recent documentary about the crisis of masculinity goes so far as to recommend tanning our testicles to boost testosterone levels.
Opposition to abortion can also be understood in this light. Ditto the recent spate of alarmist rhetoric — from people like Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, and Elon Musk — about the alleged dangers of the birth control pill.
(I don’t want to read too much into those guys’ “concerns” about birth control, but it does occur to me that (1) all these gentlemen are known for lamenting the collapse of Western Civilization, (2) “Western” is often code for “European” or simply “white,” and (3) if you ban abortion but leave the pill alone, you’re going to end up with a lot more Black and brown babies, but not many more white ones.)
More circumspect social critics — like the New York Times’ Ross Douthat — say that the transformation of society over the last thirty years has been in the direction of cultural “stagnation, repetition…
