The Nation: So What If Europe Demographically Collapses? Stop Being Such A Nativist!

By
Omri Ceren
– April 9, 2007Posted in: Europe

There’s so much wrong with this article that it took us three readings just to figure out what was going on. As near as we can tell, there are at least three claims being made by Katha Pollitt:

(1) Global population collapse is good
(2) European population collapse is good
(3) Conservatives who want to stop population collapse by rolling back liberal policies are stupid because liberal policies encourage population growth (or at least, she’s saying something like this).

We weren’t even going to blog the article – a left-wing cheer for European collapse is eye-rollingly common these days – until we got to that third, strikingly dishonest, part:

As Lerner notes, the countries with the most rigidly patriarchal families and the most sexist workplaces are the ones with the lowest birthrates. (That’s something for the World Congress of Families to consider when it meets in May in Warsaw. Founded by right-wing “family values” ideologue Allan Carlson, the WCF inveighs against abortion, same-sex marriage and secularism and promotes large “natural families” and “religious orthodoxy.” I don’t get the feeling working moms are on the agenda.)

Obviously, that statement can’t be true. At least it can’t be true if you include countries where women can’t go to work – Muslim countries with skyrocketing birthrates in Africa and Asia – as countries that have “sexist workplaces”. And of course, a quick check of the original article shows that the statement is only meant to apply to Europe. So why is Pollitt dishonestly extrapolating her party line feminist conclusion to the World Congress of Families? Probably an innocent misreading of the original article resulting from spectacular ideological myopia. No really – anyone who notices how absurd it is to suggest that liberal policies result in larger families knows that everyone else will also notice that it’s absurd. Ergo, no one who’s not already ideologically predisposed to believe such tripe would put it in a published article.

Anyway, here’s your red meat:

Just below the polite official discussion, there’s a disturbing undercurrent of nativism and racism that in some places is merging with the family-values religious right. “Europe is almost lost; to a demographic winter and to the secularists,” claims the WCF. “If Europe goes much of the world will go with it.” Fortunately, one country is a beacon of hope: “Poland has saved Europe before. It is likely she will save Europe again.” When was it exactly that Poland saved Europe, you ask? That would be 1683, when the Polish army of King John Sobieski led the defeat of the Turks in the siege of Vienna, thus halting Muslim expansion in Europe. Will Polish women bear kids for Christ?

Mocking one of the watershed moments of European Christendom while chastising people concerned about a contemporary collapse. Charming. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

[Cross-posted to The Astute Bloggers]

References:
* It’s Time to Fight Population Growth, Which Exacerbates Global Warming and Sprawl [Alternet]
* The Motherhood Experiment [NYT]
* OneJerusalem.org Conference Call: Mark Steyn [MR]

Previously:
* Steyn Rolls Up Newspaper, Hits Europe on Nose, Says "No"
* I Heart Mark Steyn
* Mark Steyn Is Funny

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