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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

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And all but one of male friends have paired up with women who are also not like this, even if some may be a little woke, and only one or two ever spent significant time on the apps the rest just met at work or school like the old days.

Exactly, and all my female friends and family members also all have paired up with entirely normal men (desperately holding out for Chad to finally commit never seems to have been an important part of their lives). The vast majority also still get married.

With regards to the fertility crisis, the real problem seems to be that all those "normal, old school" couples seem to consciously choose to have exactly zero or one child. Even two children is rare in my bubble, three or more totally unheard of. Which, of course, results in exactly the TFR we're seeing.

I don't really understand why. Especially the in-official one-child-policy baffles me. Maybe having one child already scratches the itch of parenthood enough? Maybe the tolerance for discomfort has gotten lower, and most young parents end up being surprised how difficult (especially without significant support from family, who universally live far away now) the first few years are - and choose never to do that again? Maybe the "universal theory of housing" is correct: most of us live in classic 3 Bedroom apartments, condos or town houses, which works out exactly to parent's bedroom + child's bedroom + study/guestroom?