> a better word for the viewpoint that everyone should have kids
I have a good one: "opinion".
I have another great one for when someone won't leave you alone and insists that you hold their opinion or there's something wrong with you: "fanatic". See also: "jerk", "creep", "weirdo", "person I avoid".
I really don't get these quasi-political categorizations. If someone's being a jerk about their opinion, they're a jerk. Words like "pronatalist" just strike me as unbelievably effete. Like "pronatalists" are this powerful lobby group from whom we all need protection.
If someone won't shut up about their opinion and keep trying to push it on you, they're just a jerk, and probably kind of stupid too.
That's like saying we shouldn't call sexism sexism because its just the opinion of a few men that women are inferior and if they are being jerks about their opinion then they are just being jerks. No, having the word pronatalism calls out the fact that it is just a viewpoint. And it is one shared and promoted by many - often to the detriment of those who think otherwise. Having names for things helps in clarifying what it is we are talking about.
I guess what I really want to say is that the world is so divided and polarized, can't we just this one time drop the anti- and pro-whatever and just say that someone disagrees with us and move on?
The thing is that I think the term came into use as somewhat of a backlash by those who are tired of having to explain over and over to the vast majority of people questioning them why someone might choose not to have kids and then being dismissed as anti-kid, abnormal or worse. I think once society gets to the point where the majority of people finally get that it is just a choice, and I believe we will get there eventually, it won't be as much an issue.
I'm not complaining about namecalling, I'm complaining about quasi-political categorizations like "pronatalist" which sets up "pronatalists" in one camp and "antinatalists" in another. I object to the needless polarization.
Sometimes people are jerks, that's not polarization.
I have a good one: "opinion".
I have another great one for when someone won't leave you alone and insists that you hold their opinion or there's something wrong with you: "fanatic". See also: "jerk", "creep", "weirdo", "person I avoid".
I really don't get these quasi-political categorizations. If someone's being a jerk about their opinion, they're a jerk. Words like "pronatalist" just strike me as unbelievably effete. Like "pronatalists" are this powerful lobby group from whom we all need protection.
If someone won't shut up about their opinion and keep trying to push it on you, they're just a jerk, and probably kind of stupid too.