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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 17, 2025

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The reality is that men are fairly expendable. Society can afford for 30% of young men to die in the trenches and recover fairly quickly; their widows receive help from the community to raise children, and later they marry older widowers. Meanwhile, if 30% of young women die, the population pyramid of the next generation will crater, and society will be burdened by orphans with lifelong mental problems due to attachment disorders, triggered by loss of mothers during infancy.

Maybe in the past that was the case. It doesn't seem to describe our current western society though. Most women aren't having children, and most soldiers don't die in a war. And either way the "community" doesn't care.

Ironically one of the subgroups which does still seem to get pregnant a lot is women in the military. So maybe putting more women in the military would actually increase our population?

and most soldiers don't die in a war.

There are no proper wars to speak atm of -it's all sedate counterinsurgencies or civil wars between people who, left to themselves would be living in mud huts and rustling cattle and struggle with zeroing rifles.

The Ukraine war is killing loads of people involved, and the casualties in a possible air/naval war with China are not worth thinking about as Chinese production of hard to intercept precision weapons is probably higher than that of all other countries combined.

Most women aren't having children

56.7% of women between the ages of 15 and 49 in the USA have had at least one child. 71.8% of women aged 30-34 have had a child, and 81.2% of woman aged 35-39 have had a child. Most women who are capable of having children (in the fertile window) are having children.

I think the point here is that most women aren't having children in present continuous, right now in a way that would stop them from doing much else.