Well, it sounds like you have a lot of reasons to not have children. I think that’s maybe the great understated tragedy of the economic fuckscape we live in: that a lot of good people can’t afford to properly have a family. There’s still plenty of room for happiness though, and I wish you the best of it.

Right. There’s also a huge difference between taking measures that affect birth rates and actively rounding people up and culling them. Eugenics has got to be the most equivocated term in the English language. Except maybe god.

Generally, people that are less educated or with shitty values. It’s not about genetics; it’s about the perpetuation of bad culture. If I were to name some groups that typify this: religious fundies and under-educated rednecks.

Ya… the only problem is WHO is having all the kids.

Because life is and will continue to be pretty good for a lot of people. I definitely think it will be for my kid. Also, Idiocracy. If all the good, thoughtful people take your attitude then every human will be an idiot or asshole, which is an utterly hopeless future. I get that hopelessness. I felt more or less as you do for a while. But there a good, noble reasons to have a family. It’s not so cut and dry.

Arkham?

I think the issue here is that we’re all genetically just apes and we live in a world where we’re expected to know about geopolitics, outrageous technologies, all kinds of cultural artifacts, and a bazillion other complexities of modern life, in addition to the basics of feeding ourselves, finding a mate, and child rearing. At the same time, we have behemoth corporations in control of all media with a strong interest in keeping people dumb, angry and discontent. And education is… not what it should be.

No, humans aren’t inherently evil or stupid or whatever. We’ve just inherited a world situation that we are not adapted for, and few people are able to learn and grow sufficiently to really understand and handle it all properly.

I think it depends on context. If you’re brought up in a wholesome environment with respect and positive values, you’ll realize that living like that is better. If you’re brought up in a cesspool of fear and violence, you’ll think that’s the way the world is, and you’ll behave accordingly.

It’s not that America is inherently bad, or any particular cultural system. It’s that when a society doesn’t maintain its values and spiritual core, it will rot from the inside out.

The problem is our society has sold out so much of our community, our education, our values for convenience and corporate greed. This is like what the Right used to blather on about, but they’re to blame for most of the real depravity. In any case, we’re just seeing the fallout.