Opinion

Liberals Can’t Keep Their Stance Straight On Birth Rates

(WALTRAUD GRUBITZSCH/AFP/Getty Images)

Scott Greer Contributor
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French president Emmanuel Macron deeply upset his liberal fan base this week when he decided to address the problems of Africa.

“The challenge of Africa is completely different, it is much deeper. It is civilizational today. Failing states, complex democratic transitions, the demographic transition,” Macron stated at the G20 summit on Monday. He then said “one of the essential challenges of Africa” is that in many of its countries “seven or eight children [are] born to each woman.”

He concluded, “You can choose to spend thousands of euros but you will stabilize nothing.”

The comments on African women having too many children drew international outrage for apparently sounding like racism. The Twitter user who made Macron’s speech go viral in America declared it “repugnant.” Quartz concluded the statement “racist” and “problematic.” The Independent said that Macron’s opinion on Africa showed that “he isn’t that liberal after all.” The Guardian argued Macron’s “slur against Africa” revealed he was still steeped in the colonialist mindset.

All of this was because the French president indicated that Africa’s rate of population growth may be unstable. But there was a whole lot of hypocrisy in the furious reaction to Macron, as proven by another trend piece from later in the week.

Two days after the left-wing Guardian condemned Macron for saying Africans were possibly having too many children, the outlet urged people to start having fewer kids. The reason for reducing the amount of offspring was to fight climate change, since overpopulation means more carbon emissions, according to the study cited by the left-wing publication.

The study was championed by a few liberals on Twitter, including prominent feminist Jill Filopovic, whose new book argues that women should probably forego kids to focus on their own personal happiness.

Filipovic tweeted in support of the study, “Having children is one of the worst things you can do for the planet. Have one less and conserve resources.”

But since it is racist to say this to Africa and other parts of the developing world, who is supposed to have fewer kids? The answer to these progressives appears to be westerners, which the Guardian article itself implies by showing white babies as its featured image.

Another prominent feminist, Amanda Marcotte, gave away that motivation in tweets mocking Filipovic detractors. When one Twitter user tweeted a picture of his happy, 11-kid family, she proceeded to mock him for having “too many fucking” children. One wonders if Marcotte would say the same thing if presented with a picture of an African family with 11 children…

It’s an odd proposition to tell white folks to have fewer kids since birth rates in Western Europe and America are in decline, especially among millennials — you know, the people who are supposed to be procreating the next generation soon. The birth rate in America for 2016 was one of the lowest on record, and Europe’s fertility rate has been dramatically low for several years.

This development should be seen as a positive to liberals who worry about climate change, but rarely has it been covered as such. Instead, the West’s fertility woes are primarily exploited as an argument for welcoming millions of migrants — many of whom are those seven or eight African kids Macron was referring to.

Shockingly, The Guardian provides us with fine representations of that argument. In one 2015 article, the publication warned that Europe was heading towards a demographic crisis, and the only real solution to the problem was increasing immigration. In a 2016 piece, The Guardian cheered on how Germany was able to halt its population decline by welcoming in a million migrants. However, the article stressed that only maintaining high immigration levels could solve the crisis long-term.

But wouldn’t those increasing levels of immigration to Europe make make climate change worse?

Not surprisingly, that point is left out of the arguments for accepting more migrants.

It might be a bit of stretch to say, but it appears the Left only has a problem with a lot of kids when its whites who are having a lot of kids. Maybe the climate change argument for having fewer kids isn’t actually made in good faith, but is only asserted to shame child-having westerners and give comfort to aspiring spinsters.

It’s certainly not a message that is politically correct to deliver to Africa, as shown by the backlash against Macron. But, politically incorrect or not, Africa’s issues with population growth are one of the major driving factors for the migrant crisis at the moment.

Millions of people are trying to flee their unstable nations to the prosperity of Europe. Illegal migrants from Africa risk death at sea in order to come by boat to the promised continent, pushed on by the instability and violent conflicts over resources and spaces caused in part by overpopulation.

Their appearance in Europe, contrary to the hopes of the Guardian and other liberals, is causing major problems for the continent. Few of these recent arrivals are finding work and depending primarily on government assistance to survive. The welfare state model common to most of Western Europe was already beleaguered before the migrant wave of 2015, and it’s getting further taxed by the new influx.

The migrant camps that house the boat arrivals from Africa are notorious for crime and violence. More troubling is the very real concern that they are operating as recruiting grounds for Islamic terrorists.

European leaders have no real solution to this migrant crisis as most of the new arrivals appear to have no interest in assimilating to their new land and are providing fuel for the rhetoric of nationalist parties that want them all gone.

Macron’s statements seem less like that of a cruel colonialist and more like that of a statesmen interested in promoting stability in both France and Africa. If his comments came with coercive proposals and restrictions to stifle Africa’s growth, that would be one thing. But all he said was that there’s an issue there and the world must come up with a solution.

Education and aid could go a long way to helping Africa becoming more stable and reduce the severity of the migrant crisis.

Liberals need to get serious when they approaching controversies like that of Macron’s statements. Shrieking racism over reproductive levels while demanding Europeans both have few kids and unlimited immigration is hypocrisy of the highest order. All of this comes off as pampered westerners wallowing in white guilt and refusing to address a major issue of our time.

At least one liberal has come to grips with this reality and offered some sound advice. Microsoft founder Bill Gates recently warned that Africa’s rapid population growth will submerge Europe. The billionaire’s solution to the crisis: close Europe’s borders and give more in foreign aid to Africa to help stabilize the continent.

That sounds much more constructive than pretending the real issue with Africa is European leaders pointing out its high fertility rate.

Follow Scott on Twitter and purchase his new book, “No Campus for White Men.”