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What does "childfree" mean to you? (piefed.social)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/childfree@lemmy.world
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Came across this community in my feed, and after browsing a bit I'm intrigued.

As an "outsider", I would have assumed this place would be about enjoying a childfree lifestyle, but it seems to be more than that.

For example, I see lots of posts and comments that seem to allude to extinctionism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voluntary_Human_Extinction_Movement

That caught me off guard since I figured this place would be more like "look at all this free time and money and freedom I have to enjoy my life to the fullest in any way I want". Now I'm curious.

It seems like there's a whole spectrum of ideas that are getting lumped into the same bucket. What's your take? What brought you here?

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[–] 1 point 2 months ago* (10 children)

My question is there a philosiphy around this concept of : "Life is objectively bad for many people. And because I dont want more people to suffer I wont have kids. BUT if life becomes permanently better for all humans who are suffering then Ill probably adopt some kids. (But seeing as how humanity has had a consistent track record of making things worse for each other?....Uhhh we will have to see about how that turns out. I aint hopeful though , let it be known)"

Is there a philosophy for this or is it just nihilist?

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago* (5 children)

    That's not nihilism, nihilism is a specific philosophy that is often misunderstood. Here's the three main branches, you could say, of nihilist philosophy:

    Nihilism: Life has no meaning, so you must find your own.

    Existentialism: Life has no meaning, only your actions/choices do.

    Absurdism: Life has no meaning, let's have some fun while we're here.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    I guess absurdism is the only thing thatt matters for most humans nowadays, in my opinion that is. Humans are not massive so we cant make massive changes to the Earth individually. All of us are tiny beings in comparisom to this planet and most of us live in deeply individualistic societies so ccollectivism and collective action are disappointingly rare nowadays. I dont see that changing any time soon sadly.

    SO you might as well have as much peaceful dfun as you can with other people while the world burns is how I see it 🤷🏿‍♂️

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    I think your previous post kinda hints at antinatalism: suffering is inherent to life, and so to limit suffering one must not seek to reproduce

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I actually feel that humanity has had the potential to make a world or will one day actually realize a world where the innate experience of practically all humans is to have ignorable amounts of suffering. Like so little suffering that the word 'suffer' would become foreign to most humans' vocabularies.

    And I feel that in a world like that? It would be perfectly OK for each person to have as many children as they see fit. I doubt that this opinion makes me antinatalist. Does it?

    Sadly, Humanity isnt even anywhere close to that and we havent gotten close to that ever. Which is why I would strongly recommend against anyone ever producing a child seeing as how the innate experience for most is to suffer a sad , individualistic life plagued with dystopian monotony and unequal exchange.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I don't see this as nihilism. Additionally, I don't see why adoption needs to be contingent on life becoming permanently better for all humans. If you want kids, and are able to provide an adopted child with a better life, I see that as a win-win. Under antinatalism, if you do not have any children already, the choice of adoption just reduces to the childfree case (e.g. do you find them annoying?). Therefore, your thought seems pretty much to line up with antinatalism.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    Well I myself am sufferring and Ive comme to the realization. that most of my suffering is due to capitalism .

    So until I see a permanent destruction of capitaliism and a permanent transition of humanity towards societies that are humanistic or/and collectivistic? I wont be caring for any kids throigh adoption because I currently dont have the time or money (or honestly even the sanity,) to be anywheree near a kid.

    I already have a permanent vasectommy that my doctor has informed me probably wonnt be reversible so I cant produce children anymore through normal means.

    But most importantly even if I could have children , I would opt for me and my future partner (if I ever meet them) for us to adopt rather than to try IVF or to try a vasectomy reversal. if we want kids cause why in the fuck are we STILL allowing so so many minors , who are deserving of a parennts love, to just wallow and freeze to death in the streets? Why should I make my own kid when 'my own kid' is most likely out there in the streets somewhere?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Correction: humanity doesn’t have consistent track record of making things worse for each other, it’s all on civilaztions that have ever adopted farming. There are still some fragments of communities living as hunter gatherers that base their life together on cooperation and caring.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    There are still some fragments of communities living as hunter gatherers that base their life together on cooperation and caring.

    i think my problem is based on what Ive seen I think that most modern societies are NOT based on cooperation and caring. I will commend peoples those who still live in hunter gatherer societies that are based on cooperation , care and community

    ....But most imperialistic and even imperialized nations I have read about seem to not see and treat these three things with as much inportance in all their planning as they oughta.

    Basically fuck capitalism and those who uphold and defend its cold, individualistic , and genocidal principles.

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