Does the world’s richest man really believe that the West might be saved by the same sexual practices found in a Chinese imperial court?

Elon Musk allegedly has at least 14 children with four separate women.

Musk is also allegedly building a series of properties – a baby compound some are calling it – to house his various families.

“A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilisation faces by far,” he tweeted in 2022. “There’s really no time like the present. Just have kids. You won’t be sorry. It’ll work out.”

If all these pronatalists want legions of children, perhaps it’s time they started being better fathers.

  • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    discussion about family values and having babies is split into two extreme camps – the trad-wife Right and the “abolish the family” Left

    What is this nonsense? Assuming there even is an “abolish the family” left, it is so tiny and niche that I’ve never even heard of it. Certainly nothing as vocal and prevalent as the trad-wife people. I rather suspect that this author just had to find, or maybe make up, something so they could both-sides the topic and feel superior to everyone.

    • hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
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      4 days ago

      Seems like a run of the mill liberal whose information about “the left” comes from far right talking points:

      But there is a problem with the way in which discussion about family values and having babies is split into two extreme camps – the trad-wife Right and the “abolish the family” Left. For any young couple starting out, the choices seem to be to either raise your non-binary child in defiance of the nuclear family, or to go full homestead and demand that your wife wear gingham and churn her own butter amongst a multitude of children.

      Like, what the fuck is this shit?

      The discussion about “family values” might seem like this if you only listen to what conservatives are claiming about what “the left” wants.

      • dhork@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Yes, this is a common thing Conservatives do in America. They take traits they don’t like about the opposition, make up absurd caricatures that dial up all those traits to 11, then rail at the caricature like it’s reality, pulling the rest of the country rightward with them.

        It’s how we get to immigrants in Springfield eating the dogs. It’s how we get to kids who identify as cats using litter boxes in school instead of toilets. And it’s how we get to liberals wanting to “abolish the family” simply by recognizing that gender may be a social construct and have fluidity. In the Conservative Cinematic Universe, all these things are happening, and are key plot drivers to what happens next.

      • Wilco@lemm.ee
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        4 days ago

        That was written by someone who has lost touch with reality.

        The “left” is not attacking family values … capitalism is. The minimum wage was supposed to slide up and curb poverty, but that was one of the first things to go in the late 1960s … a little bribery by corporations and they decided it did not need to automatically adjust up with inflation.

        This is what is killing family values. People can afford the “trad” family.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      For conservatives, “family” is just a dog whistle for patriarchy. In other words, they’re just butthurt about womens’ lib and male heads of households not having absolute power to abuse their wife and kids.

      • obre@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Hey that’s not fair, it’s also a dogwhistle for homophobia. They’re butthurt about gay rights too lol

    • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
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      4 days ago

      I’m not even impressed by the headline. A harem is a very specific thing. Musk does not have one. He’s just abusing* women, then bragging about it.

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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      4 days ago

      “Abolish the family” leftist here.

      This is really referring to the modern nuclear family, not the entire concept of family. It’s so strange how liberals can acknowledge It Takes a Village and then get mad when we take that to its logical conclusion i.e. extended village family and chosen family.

      • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        It takes a village means that everyone in the community should care about everyone else’s well being. It has nothing to do with nuclear of extended family. Your conclusion is not logical.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          4 days ago

          The saying is that it takes a village to raise a child. The nuclear family doesn’t work, you need so much more than a single set of parents.

          The nuclear family is a recent invention. It’s just a way to oppress women and atomize us as modern individuals.

    • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
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      The Left is typically critical of the “nuclear family” because most of us want the rest of the family back in the picture. It takes a village to raise kids and only in the last century or so has this notion of “two working parents can manage it” arisen.

      So we want to abolish the family by making our families bigger, with cousins etc playing more of a role in our lives than Western media typically portrays.

      • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Or to put a different spin on it, people on the left believe that just because someone is related by blood doesn’t actually make them your family. We believe strongly in found family - no matter what form that family comes in.

        This thought is an existential crisis for sexists, racists, and assholes of every type, because it teaches people that they are allowed to leave their abusers and find happiness outside of tradition.

      • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        No the left is not critical of the “nuclear family”. The left more more typically feels that people should mind their own business about what other people feel is a family. If you want a traditional ma, pa, and kids family, that’s great, you do that. But if I want two dads and adopted kids, I should be able to do that too.

        we want to abolish the family by making our families bigger

        Yeah, that makes no sense at all.

    • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net
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      4 days ago

      There are people on the left who critique the myth of the nuclear family that was pushed starting in the 1950’s, but that’s not what that quote is about.