Baby Love

Demographer and Institute for Family Studies research fellow Lyman Stone returns to The Remnant to ...

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Demographer and Institute for Family Studies research fellow Lyman Stone returns to The Remnant to make the case for having more babies. With America’s birth rate in decline and increasingly large numbers of people living lives devoid of real connections, Lyman believes that we urgently need more pro-family policies. But though Jonah agrees completely that babies are good, he’s less sure about Lyman’s proposal of lowering the voting age to zero. Tune in for distinctly nerdy debate, but stick around to learn about the many varieties of natalist philosophy.

Show Notes:

– Lyman’s page at AEI

– Lyman’s previous Remnant appearance

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  1. Avatar photo
    6Million$Jonah

    First 27 minutes makes me want to flee to an even smaller remnant. Also /cum’-pass/! Learn to vowel-shift, Jonah.

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    Justin Perry-Naw Dawg Doctrine

    also @Jonah, I think it's worth me mentioning that I found the first 30 minutes entirely thought-provoking. But.... that might also be explained by my predilection for Swift....

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    Justin Perry-Naw Dawg Doctrine

    Seeing as childhood seems to be a direct feeder into victimhood, I think I could be persuaded to abolish childhood. Lyman should write that piece. I would even be willing to help, I have ample evidence from mentoring/training and teaching graduate students.

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    Eric "Otter" Stratton

    Missed the opportunity for the best title “Lyman and the Family Stone”

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    Ben Connelly

    So, Lyman posits that involving children in politics will make them more mature. The law of unintended consequences suggests that there’s an equal or better chance that it will instead make politics more childish.

    (For those who think it couldn’t get any MORE childish, wait until someone campaigns for president on the child vote with a promise to abolish public and private school, liberating millions of children. He’d alienate every parent, but at 7 years old, I would have turned out in a snowstorm to vote for him.)

    Now to address Lyman’s comments at the end: what rock has he been living under? Yes, he’s right on the hypocrisy of some on the right about life. But, “we’ve just collectively shrugged at close to 900000 deaths,” are you kidding me? Give me a break. Every day in 2020 (especially March-August), we heard a steady drumbeat of cases and deaths. There was a media obsession on the death number. What do you mean our politics hasn’t been shaped by it? COVID has dominated for 2 years? It’s ridiculous to suggest we were AS A NATION too casual about the number of deaths. Cuomo said preventing even one COVID death was worth the lockdowns and many on the left are still obsessed with the goal of zero COVID. Sure, some jackwad trump supporters were saying it’s okay because “it’s just old people,” but out in “Real America” we weren’t. The entire idea of the Great Barrington Declaratiob wasn’t just “let er rip,” but rather focus ALL of our limited resources on protecting the people most likely to die from the virus. So, spare me the, “Americans don’t care about death,” stuff. I agree with your policy solutions, including the bit about lockdowns not working and public quarantine facilities being better (we could have said, “hey, you got COVID, we’ll buy up all the hotel rooms and you can stay 2 weeks for free and get room service every day on our dime if you just don’t go anywhere - and if you need medical attention, we’ll have trained professionals in the building.”). But there was much less political control that we have over the freaking virus, so MORE consternation and concern wouldn’t have solved anything.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Justin Perry-Naw Dawg Doctrine

      he could abolish public school but not private schools, and I would DEFINITELY vote for this candidate. #schoolchoicewins

      in re: Covid, I actually think he is onto something if we separate out the performative responses (overwhelming) from the useful responses (generally lacking). If this really had been SARS1-level, we'd be facing US annihilation-level deaths and I am no longer convinced we would have come together as a country to combat it. It's certainly worth a thought.

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      1. Avatar photo
        Ben Connelly

        I meant more that as a kid I didn’t like school and my inner libertarian would have rejoiced at the chance to vote for a candidate who supported “summer vacation forever.”

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        1. Avatar photo
          Justin Perry-Naw Dawg Doctrine

          I don't see the distinction........ :D

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            Ben Connelly

            The distinction between private school and summer vacation forever? I think I missed something.

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      Ben Connelly

      That said, I enjoyed the discussion. As much as I think it’s bat**** crazy, I actually sort of enjoyed that kids voting trial balloon. When I was a kid, I thought it was a civil rights issue that I couldn’t vote!

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    Peregrinus

    Intriguing point Mr Stone made about Western countries, particularly the US and UK, being more willing to sacrifice large number of deaths for freedoms (perceived or actual) than Asian countries/ governments were/ are during the pandemic. Give me “liberty” or give me death indeed…

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  7. Bob Rogers

    I would have liked it much better if you had passed the bong my way.

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  8. steve hurlburt

    The subject, Stone's voice (ad hominem -- sorry), the presentation . . . Jesus -- instead of blowing my brains out I just went to sleep.

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    The Stray Goose

    This guys seems like a really well-educated jackass. I'm at the 19-minute point and I'm bored and done. I wouldn't have this guys back again. Boring.

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    1. Avatar photo
      The Stray Goose

      After Trump and now Biden, I've had it with fools who think they're brilliant.

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    Portland Isaiah

    I have listened to 23 minutes of this podcast. I cannot take any more. This is the worst episode of the Remnant ever.

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