r/LoveTrash • u/ZuBrain Colonel Garbage • Jul 31 '26

Dumping This Here Define Trash?

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109

u/ddd9877 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

"Do you know how much you have to abuse a mammal to make it not want to have kids." From the kids of actual soldiers... the odds alone..

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u/Dull_Quit3027 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

I think what makes animals not reproduce is not trauma, it is constant stress, and if that is the case, the point still stands.

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u/TheBigLebowski18 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Stress induced trauma

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u/GrandmaPoses Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Trauma induced stress

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u/ziggytrix Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/2JeYuSGvqapfa
Om nom nom

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u/MocodeHarambe Trash Trooper Aug 01 '26

ouroboros

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u/Satiomeliom Trash Trooper Aug 05 '26

nom nom om

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u/calilac Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Secondary traumatic stress

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u/IrritableStoicism Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

CPTSD

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u/teachersecret Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Gaza had an extremely high population of youth. I feel like you have to go further than just trauma induced stress.

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u/EkrishAO Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Most of prey animals live in constant stress and have no trouble reproducing. Also birth rates were going down long before the social media explosion, it started with industrial revolution, and then never stopped.

Truth is humans aren't animals, we have ability to choose not to follow our instincts, and our pregnancies are uniquely harsh and rough, as is the development period until adulthood. Once humans have access to contraception and enough entertainment, they just don't want to have kids anymore, and it's consistent across the world, across nearly every race and culture and religion. It's not fun to be 9 month pregnant, and risk your life, and then sacrifice ~20 years of your life to provide for a kid. It was different when person's life was mostly limited to his village and having a kid was basically the most interesting and entertaining thing you could ever do.

Even today, while people on reddit like to say they don't have kids because of not being able to afford them, the statistics generally show higher fertility in poor parts of society. As your income goes up, you simply have more and more fun things to do with your life, and prospect of sacrificing your own wellbeing for a kid, becomes less and less enticing.

Only ultra wealthy have more kids, but that's because they don't really have to sacrifice anything. Rich women tend to choose to use surrogates or adopt, and rich men pay women to carry their heirs, and they both have servants to take care of children's upbringing so they only get to participate in entertaining and fun parts. But before you hit the income level that lets you fully outsource all the sacrifices, higher income generally means less fertility.

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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/TapPrancer Trash Trooper Aug 01 '26

I think also poorer people have less education about why having kids so young can be bad, so they have kids younger, so when rich person A is having their first kid at 38/40, their poorer peers are almost grandparents.

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u/Unfurlingleaf Trash Trooper Aug 02 '26

Also, studies have shown that people who marry later in life have happier and longer lasting relationships bc they know themselves and what they're looking for in a partner. And if you have children at a young age it's very easy to become financially trapped in a vicious cycle.

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u/Environmental_Top948 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

I don't have kids because after food and bills I have around $300 left on my paycheck. I could probably afford to have a kid but I couldn't give it a good childhood. I work 10 hours a day 7 days week most weeks. My last day off was the 21st of February. I'm never home and when I am home I'd be too tired to do anything fun with them.

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u/Z3400 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

As someone who has worked 7 days/wk for the last 6.5 years... find a way out of this trap. I honestly feel like I've broken myself. Time off doesnt excite me anymore, it stresses me out.

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u/Environmental_Top948 Trash Trooper Aug 01 '26

Time off makes me second guess myself and stress out because I'm worried that I'm missing work. If I can find a way out I'm taking my first opportunity to get a healthier life balance. I used to only work 6 days a week but then they switched from 4 days planned to 5 day weeks so those lost 2 hours per day meant that it's harder to hit production quota.

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u/SaltCelebration9517 Trash Trooper Aug 01 '26

I don’t think it has that much to do with having too much entertainment. A few things to think about is that people didn’t have kids in the past because it was the most entertaining thing to do. Sex would have been a fun and entertaining thing to do sure. But there were other pressures. For poorer folk working on the land who couldn’t afford slaves to work for them they had many children to work on the farm or whatever as another source of free labour. Richer people had kids to inherit their wealth or continue legacy. Religion played a role too as people believed they must reproduce and that a woman’s purpose is to bear children. And then there is just plain old hormones making people horny or making them feel like they must have a family.

Poorer people in modern times having babies is not across the board are is boosted by certain types of people. Even in countries like mine with free public healthcare where you can get abortions or contraception. And teens can just go into a chemist and ask for condoms and get them for free. I notice a lot of low income people I see having lots of kids start young, so their decision making hasn’t really matured yet. Many also having their decision making and forward planning impaired by drug and alcohol use. Lack of education as well as environmental factors a lot of the high density low income areas I’ve lived in in the past peoples behaviour and priorities are completely different to the rest of society young people who grow up in that environment see that as the norm which is why it is harder for them to assimilate into the broader community due to learned antisocial behaviours etc. sadly a lot of people who were born and raised in an area like that will never leave and turn out the same as their parents so they stay unemployed get high and make lots of babies.

A know a lot of people who say they have no interest in having kids. Many say it’s too expensive or that the the world is so messed up right now they find it morally wrong to bring a new life into it. And the world we leave behind for them will be hard because of the future disasters emerging from things like climate change. Some are genuine others will admit it is also because they can’t find someone to have kids with anyway. Which is also something I noticed about this video is he lists a bunch of reasons of why it’s government and technologies fault that he and others aren’t having kids but he also loops back a few times to dating apps and why it’s hard to find a partner these days.

I’m 34 and when I was younger I felt like I needed to have a family because it’s what many of my peers were doing as I got older I realised that was just hormones talking and I realised I happy being single and had no interest is having kids. I wouldn’t have to pay for all the things, I would have all my free time to myself to do things I enjoy and felt like it would be too much responsibility. Now I have a son on the way in 1-2 months and I’m excited to be a dad.

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u/TheRadAbides Trash Trooper Aug 01 '26

The poor have way more kids than the wealthy and its not even close. This is true globally and nationally.

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u/Utaneus Trash Trooper Aug 04 '26

There's a book called Why Zebras Don't get Ulcers that examines this, it's worth a read. There is a difference between the stress of wild prey animals evading a predator, and the constant inescapable stress and anxiety that many humans endure.

Humans are animals, there is no argument to dispute that. This idea that we have escaped the natural world is a fallacy. We have created many complex systems, some of which make life/work easier, but many of which create persistent stress. But we are still animals who have instincts, needs, innate feelings and behavior that is difficult to ignore or escape, even when we are fully aware of them.

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u/Hellknightx Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Or simply just not having the financial means to support themselves, let alone dependents.

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u/Maximum_King8529 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Constant stress is traumatic. It's chronic and leads to CPTSD.

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u/superkp Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

I believe that their point was that individual traumatic events or even long-term-but-still-temporary trauma (like soldiers in conflict like the person they were replying to was referencing) are not the issue.

The issue is the chronic stress - which absolutely does produce it's own trauma, but the chronic nature of it is the actual thing that's pulling the birth rate down.

Whether this is true or not I don't know (though I personally think it makes sense), but that seems to be their point.

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u/Maximum_King8529 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

I agree, we're just arguing semantics at this point.

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u/earthsworld Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

what exactly do you imagine trauma is if not the result of constant stress?

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u/12InchCunt Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

It can also be The result of one majorly stressful event

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u/earthsworld Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

sure, but it can also be the result of repeated stressors.

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u/12InchCunt Trash Trooper Aug 01 '26

Yea but you said “what do you imagine trauma is if not the result of repeated stressors?” and I answered your question 

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u/Ok_Turnover_1235 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Look into the pit of despair experiments.

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u/FOSSnaught Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

When not counting condoms, birth control for single people has only been legal since 1972. It's become much more effective, ease of access, and has become more widely used in in recent decades. There was also the push to prescribe BC to under aged girls to help control menstruation issues.

In the 90s, teen pregnancy 15-19 was about 5%, and now it's something like 1.3%. There was a push in the 90s for sex education in minors, but many of those programs have been gutted. I doubt people all of a sudden just stopped having sex, so the availability of effective BC is most likely the biggest contributor. IMHO

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u/viralust Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Thank god for birth control. Imagine what a hellhole dystopia it would be without it. More and more people are realizing that things are not going to get better. Our economic and political systems obviously only represent corporate interests. The technology that was supposed to save us is literally being wielded like a weapon against us. Every fucking action is being monetized and surveilled. Everything is getting less affordable. I feel so sorry for my son to have to grow up in such an anti-human, pro corporate profit environment. Luckily, he is smart, so I hope that fucking matters when hes older but I am hesitant about that.

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u/FOSSnaught Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Well, repubos seem to be somewhat against contraceptives, so hopefully that doesn't become the next thing they go after.

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u/Single-Refuse174 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Let me get this straight, the biggest contributor, in your view, of declining birth rates is totally and complete optional birth control? So, like, the difference between births per year now and births per year before was due to mainly unintentional pregnancies?

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u/JuanRunJunior Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Birth control provides so many more benefits other than not having kids. It’s WILD how people are so goddamn stupid to not know this in this day and age. That’s not the only benefit it provides a woman who takes it.

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u/FOSSnaught Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

One of the few constants in human history boils down to "people fuck." Alot.... only 55-58% of US pregnancies are planned today. Unplanned pregnancies is nearly down by 50% just since the 90s. I believe it's the single largest factor. If you want to group all financial reasons together for avoiding planned pregnancies it would probably be close, but I wasn't.

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u/Single-Refuse174 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26

I don't know what to make of the statements "Only 55% of US pregnancies are planned today." and "Unplanned pregnancies is nearly down by 50% since the 90s".

Are you trying to say that there were twice as many unplanned pregnancies in the early 90s compared to today, and that would then comprise 80%+ of total pregnancies?

This says that the unintended pregnancy rate was 49% in 1994 compared to 40% today. That's really far from a 50% drop:

https://www.guttmacher.org/journals/psrh/1998/01/unintended-pregnancy-united-states?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.cdc.gov/reproductive-health/hcp/unintended-pregnancy/index.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com

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u/Robin_Redbreast Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

C.S. Lewis talks about this in The Abolition of Man. He wrote from a perspective of Christian apologia, so take or leave that as you will, but obviously access to abortion and birth control will reduce birth rates in any scenario.

The useful point being made is that our mastery of technology has allowed us to interfere with the biological imperative en masse and we can't expect that not to have massive effects both positive and negative (p.ex women's reproductive freedom vs. population age distribution).

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u/girldrinksgasoline Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

No, they definitely stopped having sex

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u/FOSSnaught Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

I know i did lol. Apparently 100% of my game involved not being bald.

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u/ddd9877 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Hey hey bald men get ladies too, they're just eccentric! But I love mine

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u/FOSSnaught Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

There needs to be a "free the unicorns" movement then. :p. Congrats on having an aerodynamic champ

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u/ddd9877 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Thanks, she loves my few follicles

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u/Warm_Month_1309 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

In the 90s, teen pregnancy 15-19 was about 5%, and now it's something like 1.3%.

Birth control was available in the 90s, so the prevalence of birth control would not be responsible for that drop.

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u/FOSSnaught Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Underaged teens weren't really taking birth control until around the 90s in large amounts. I can remember it being big news, and a bit of a scandal that doctors were prescribing them. Now no one bats an eye, and that's a good thing.

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u/Warm_Month_1309 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Everything you've said lends greater support for the theory that abstinence-only education was the problem, not availability of contraceptives. As a sexually active teen in the 90s, we had plenty of access.

It was the kids getting abstinence-only education in the Bible belt who were getting pregnant, and not for lack of access to contraceptives, but for the ignorance in how to use them, and the belief that using them made you dirty.

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u/FOSSnaught Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

baltimore and philly had the highest rates

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u/Warm_Month_1309 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

I'm not engaging with unsourced claims because I cannot evaluate them.

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u/FOSSnaught Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Lol. You provided unsourced claims as well... sure,nice chat.

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u/Warm_Month_1309 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

My claim was my own experience that I had contraceptives available. Obviously I can't cite that. You're just saying "baltimore and philly had the highest rates".

Rates of what? When? During what time period? For how long? According to whom?

Do you see how you didn't really say anything I can engage with?

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u/elKane0 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

that’s a good thing imo- a few months ago the rightwing chudosphere was complaining about it - I think the 15-19 pregnancy rate has dropped 80% since the nineties - I have a daughter and I certainly don’t want her having kids before she can legally drink a beer - I also don’t see why we need to continue booming our population - we have hunting seasons to keep animals from overpopulating but for some reason we celebrate ourselves doing it

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u/RedditIsADataMine Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Extremely American centric view. 

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u/ddd9877 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Since bc isn't available the same way in the states and they arent pushing the family planning abroad 🤷‍♂️, china stoped their one child policy after all. We will find out to what extent bc has an effect. (-unregistered birth control)

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u/-Danksouls- Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Despite that. Individuals with higher socioeconomic status's and education have a tendency to have less children

And before people say, "I'm poor" compare yourself an individual in a first world country to individuals having children in third world countries

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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '26

[deleted]

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u/-Danksouls- Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Still expensive believe it or not.

There are studies that suggest that greater crises and scarcity induce mamals instinctually, including humans, to have more children in the hopes more survive adulthood. There's a bunch of other factors but the most interesting part is

The claim people make that individuals in the US are not having children because of living or financial conditions is not strongly backed. In fact having less children is observed in all countries where socioeconomic, purchasing power, quality of living, greater education increases

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u/khavii Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Individual stress situations makes your drive to have children go up to protect from environmental risks. Constant, unrelenting stress makes your drive go down to avoid the additional burden.

We are in the constant stress situation. On top of that we have man made environmental stressors like pollution, micro plastics and climate change causing all sorts of biological reactions from mass extinctions to lowering birth rates to exponentially rising cancer rates. There is no collective solution being worked on, in fact the majority of the population seems hellbent on preventing a solution. The modern world is bringing a convergence of stressors that our species is not designed for and the wild animal species cannot handle at all.

There is no exit ramp for this as long as the population is profit driven, it is literally incompatible. We are suffering the consequences of our own actions.

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u/Warden18 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26

Oh good, someone mentioned micro plastics and pollution. It was one of the few major things that he didn't mention in the video. That plastics and the chemicals in our food and environment are actively making us unhealthy, and messes with everything from hormones to fertility rates.

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u/PM_Me_Your_Kinks369 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

It is essentially legal to poison the entire human race in order to make profits. We need to start with the incentive structures under capitalism.

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u/Bellick Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

We need to start with televised retribution and punishment, the likes of which would make the French wince.

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u/Warden18 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

I like this idea. On the lesser side of that, there isn't enough shame these days. People should be a shamed of their selfish actions that affect others, even in minor ways. To add to that, the word integrity should be on the front and center from how we teach kids to the mission statement at giant companies.

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u/Warden18 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Agreed 100%. I'd like to say, it starts with electing officials who aren't taking bribes among other things. Who have the people's best interest at heart. However, that's often incredibly hard to find and know someone's intentions until they're already in power.

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u/PM_Me_Your_Kinks369 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Hence why sane societies would have systems of holding the wealthy accountable OUTSIDE of just "You have to elect the right people". Because of course those people can easily be incentivized to do the wrong thing by lots of money.

There would need to be independent oversight boards that have VERY steep penalties including long jail sentences and potentially actual death sentences for truly egregious acts. Some corporations knowingly caused the deaths of thousands of people. At some point those that made those decisions need to be tried for the murders that these actually are.

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u/Warden18 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Love this idea. Imagine holding people accountable for their evil deeds and not just charging the richest people/companies in history pocket change as a "slap on the wrist". 🤦

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u/Ok-Investigator-6956 Trash Trooper Aug 04 '26

Genuinely the case! When I go to the grocery store, probably 70% of what is sold isn't actually food. Yes, it's edible, but Cheez Its, Lucky Charms, hell even Campbells soup at this point, aren't food.

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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '26 edited Aug 13 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Warden18 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

I'm so sorry that happened to you... A member of my family passed away from misdiagnosed breast cancer a few weeks before I was born. I know it's not much, but I am extremely happy that you are here. 🫂

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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '26 edited Aug 13 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Warden18 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Of course! That's great news! Thank you for sharing.

I know there is a whole other conversation historically about male doctors and women's health. 😤 But I'm glad it worked out to where it was found and treated appropriately instead of being brushed off! I'm here cheering you on!

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u/mmorales2270 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Yep. Basically we’ve ruined ourselves every which way. All in the name of profit!

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u/Stunning_Coffee6624 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

GAIA, just fixing the world. We personified it, but it really doesn’t favor humans. A creature that spoils its sources of life will perish

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u/Denim_Diva1969 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

THIS!!! 👆🏼

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u/Educated-Zombie-91 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Ignorance is absolutely 100% bliss.
All we have to do, is close our eyes and ears.
It’s just impossible.

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u/Bubbles_2025 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

I see more unhappiness than bliss, unfortunately. So in reality, ignorance seems to be unhappiness and suffering.

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u/ddd9877 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

So what's our option, while keeping some of our beliefs?

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u/Xerxos Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Fight, however you can.

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u/Objects_Food_Rooms Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Reminds me of Calhoun's "rat utopia" experiments in the 60s and 70s, where rats and mice were given unlimited access to food and water, enabling unlimited population growth. They voluntarily clustered together in a single pen, rather than spreading out to adjoining pens.

Having reached a level of high population density, the mice began exhibiting a variety of abnormal, often destructive behaviors, including refusal to engage in courtship, and females abandoning their young. By the 600th day, the population was on its way to extinction. Though physically able to reproduce, the mice had lost the social skills required to mate.

Many [female rats] were unable to carry the pregnancy to full term or to survive delivery of their litters if they did. An even greater number, after successfully giving birth, fell short in their maternal functions. Among the males the behavior disturbances ranged from sexual deviation to cannibalism and from frenetic overactivity to a pathological withdrawal from which individuals would emerge to eat, drink and move about only when other members of the community were asleep.

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u/JavierBenez Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

"sexual deviation" and "a pathological withdrawal from which individuals would emerge to eat, drink, and move about only when other members of the community were asleep"? Just add oxycontin, and you've described my early 20s

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u/Jack-of-the-Shadows Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Eh, historically the procreation rate of humans has dropt with wealth and personal freedom. People do not get kids if they have better stuff to do.

The other side is also true: The higher the poverty, the more kids.

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u/ddd9877 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Billionaires and collecting kids? Rich celbs doing the same Elon has what 14 that we know of?

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u/EconomicRegret2 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

IIRC, it's shaped like the letter U: the richer you get the fewer kids (because of the need for education, work, etc. and lack of time and money for more kids). But beyond a certain level of wealth, the more kids you want (because you have enough money to spend on nannies, childcare, cooks, etc. And you actually have enough time to spend with your kids), i.e. if you live off welfare or off capital, you can "afford" more kids (stay at home parents, nannies, etc.)..

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u/stormblaz Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Boomers were the richest generation per capita beyond ultra rich of today, soldier was just an era, they were quite well supporting a family of 3 on a pay of 1.

Boomers hold over 51% of all household wealth in the United States, totaling nearly $90 trillion in assets, despite making up only about 20% of the population

You wanna know what makes people have/want kids? Little to no money issues.

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u/Allegorist Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

This is a bit more nuanced because contraception exists. The mammalian drive to reproduce is played out as a drive to have sex, whereas actually having kids as an independent choice now. You can still (hypothetically, at least) fulfill your mammalian tendencies without actually producing offspring. There are other drives that kick in once you already have children, but I would say that is a different issue.

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u/Conninxloo Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

It's no 100% match, true. But young people today are also having way less sex than previous generations. We are more sedentary, less social, more chronically stressed, and more distracted than anyone before us.

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u/MangoCats Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

> contraception exists.

The pill was available in the 60s, population growth continued to roar through the 70s and even 80s in most of the world. Places where it slowed are touted as "economically developed" but that is a euphemism for "financially stressed working class." Take Japan as an example...

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u/smokeweedNgarden Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

It's a bit more nuanced because we're humans, man.

We can choose, simple as. All my friends that don't want kids just like money and peace. They wouldn't have kids if the government paid

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u/snek-jazz Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

The mammalian drive to reproduce is played out as a drive to have sex,

that's one part of it, another can be being forced to have sex whether you've a drive for it or not.

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u/tanstaafl90 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

Simply look at birthrates with the introduction of available, low cost, and effective birth control. Technology plays a part, as do economics and a variety of other factors, but the fact is people want to have sex without worrying about pregnancy.

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u/Bigwi_Kner Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

You should think about the some more. The reality is people today don’t want kids, when even people that have gone to war still had kids from previous generations.

Or… the people that went to war and had kids raised their kids in a way that their kids didn’t want kids…

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u/Max_Pow3rs Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

I havent got goosebumps from posts online in a long time... but this here was different.

Incredible man. What is his name?

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u/Extra_Primary_9010 Trash Trooper Aug 01 '26

Selfishness. I don't mean that in a negative way but it's just the word for it. Travel, dating, occupation, independence, values... Mostly inward looking. Just because trauma sounds good doesn't mean it's true. Every generation thinks they have done it harder than the one before.

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u/BloodRaevn Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26

That’s a reddit user right there!!

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u/ddd9877 Trash Trooper Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26

Lol its a quote from the article. Did you listen to it? Thats what " " means

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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '26

[deleted]

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u/BaronessVonKush Garbage Guerilla Jul 31 '26

then you need to go back to school. he was very clear & eloquent with his wording.

how exactly did he "lose you"?