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   pwm (pwm@darkdork.dev)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 08:43:26 JST pwm
   Those who reproduce tend to reproduce young
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     roko's basilisk (vii@dsmc.space)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 08:43:25 JST roko's basilisk

     in reply to
     @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.
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     pwm (pwm@darkdork.dev)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 08:52:53 JST pwm

     in reply to

     • roko's basilisk
     @vii all of that is pretty on target but you've listed facts and no synthesis (no offense).
     
     This may sound caustic but it's a rhetorical shrug. Like it or not our duty is to remain hopeful. Ford said, "Whether you think you can or that you can't, you are usually right."
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     roko's basilisk (vii@dsmc.space)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 08:56:19 JST roko's basilisk

     in reply to
     @pwm Yeah I have no synthesis to follow up with, but I never get to talk about these subjects.
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     pwm (pwm@darkdork.dev)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 09:01:30 JST pwm

     in reply to

     • roko's basilisk
     @vii I feel that. Every now and then some poor souls uncorks the bung of a proverbial wine barrel and gets a face full of swill when I hit such a subject.
     
     I got the gift of gab, unfortunately
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     bajax (bajax@baj.ax)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 09:03:28 JST bajax

     in reply to

     • roko's basilisk
     @vii @pwm what do you think is changing in the sexual marketplace? is it better or worse?
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     bajax (bajax@baj.ax)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 09:22:54 JST bajax

     in reply to

     • roko's basilisk
     @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.
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     roko's basilisk (vii@dsmc.space)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 09:22:55 JST roko's basilisk

     in reply to

     • bajax
     @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.
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     roko's basilisk (vii@dsmc.space)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 09:23:01 JST roko's basilisk

     in reply to

     • bajax
     @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.
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     pwm (pwm@darkdork.dev)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 09:26:38 JST pwm

     in reply to

     • bajax
     • roko's basilisk
     @vii @bajax in pretty sure I have to go back to church if I don't want to die alone, yeah
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     bajax (bajax@baj.ax)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 09:47:06 JST bajax

     in reply to

     • roko's basilisk
     @pwm @vii I don't know that I could take it seriously if I went to a church. it's not that I won't believe it or I'll scoff at it, it's just like I wouldn't know how to even engage with it. I guess just do what everyone else does, idk.
     
     my family was pretty much actively atheist, taught since I was really little to go to school and get into arguments with other kids that God didn't exist rofl. I've softened on that a lot over the years, I consider myself (hate the reasons most people say this shit) *spiritual* now, but the organized institution just still seems foreign to me.
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     pwm (pwm@darkdork.dev)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 09:47:07 JST pwm

     in reply to

     • bajax
     • roko's basilisk
     @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.
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     bajax (bajax@baj.ax)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 09:47:08 JST bajax

     in reply to

     • roko's basilisk
     @pwm @vii you have a denomination picked out?
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     shortstories@merovingian.club's status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 09:47:37 JST shortstories

     in reply to

     • bajax
     • roko's basilisk

     @bajax @pwm @vii

     The mainstream clergy in Jesus day ordered the government to execute Jesus according to the story or history in the new testament whether fact or fiction

     If you want to read the Old and New Testament on your own that is ok but the more you read it the less well you will get along with mainstream clergy unless you hide your kbowledge of what you read and pretend they know better than you about it's real meaning and are not lying to you

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     Escoffier Gab refugee (escoffier@poa.st)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 10:09:09 JST Escoffier Gab refugee

     in reply to

     • shortstories
     • bajax
     • roko's basilisk
     @shortstories @bajax @pwm @vii You're not wrong
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