All living beings have moral worth and deserve to have their bodily autonomy respected.
Stop Having Kids Is Ecofascist Refuted
Eco-fascism as “a totalitarian government or political entities enforcing restrictions of individual citizens’ fundamental rights, when exercising those rights causes harm to the environment and the non-humans within it.”
SHK has never advocated for fascist policies in response to environmental issues. We do not support any type of totalitarian government taking away individual rights to bodily autonomy, basic freedoms, and liberty. Eco-fascism has been linked to Nazism and various authoritarian movements- ideologies that we do not associate with and condemn as threats to personal liberties. We do not place blame or encourage hate towards any group of people for the ongoing destruction of our ecosystem and biodiversity. While many of us can make individual changes to reduce the severity of our impact on the environment, we recognize that environmental protection is a group effort that will require more than individual action.
One of the individual choices that SHK promotes is prioritizing already existing life rather than procreating. We feel that this choice, rooted in love and harm reduction, can make a great difference in the lives of currently existing people and can help foster more compassion for future generations. This is one action among many, but we feel this is the one with the greatest impact. Our message is rooted in kindness and peace, not hate or violence. We want equity and personal empowerment for all.
Eco-fascism as “a white supremacist ideology in which white people are superior, should dominate over others and live in their own communities”
SHK does not believe in, endorse, or promote any white supremacist ideology, full stop. One common reason that we have heard as to why people have kids is to pass on their genes, or continue their bloodline, family name, and legacy. This does not imply white supremacy or that it will lead to ethnic cleansing; it is merely a common reason that humans of all races choose to procreate- and a very selfish reason at that.
Antinatalism assigns a negative value to birth, and views procreation as unethical and immoral for a variety of reasons (check out the Why’s of Antinatalism); race, ethnicity, culture or immigration status are not any of those reasons. It is not unethical to be of any race, it is not unethical to be of any culture, and it certainly is not unethical to be an immigrant. Nothing about our message (prioritizing already existing life instead of procreating, encouraging critical thinking about procreation, normalizing childfreedom and antinatalism) implies white supremacy OR human supremacy of any kind. Furthermore, when someone accuses SHK of being an eco-fascist, racist, white supremacist organization, they are erasing our non-white volunteers and supporters, as well as non-white antinatalists.
Eco-fascism as “an ideology which blames the destruction of the environment on overpopulation, immigration, & over-industrialization.”
This definition, coined by Vice and pushed by author and environmentalist Naomi Klein, references eco-fascist proposals to solving environmental issues. The solutions that eco-fascists pose are genocidal in nature, and often include the mass murder of immigrants in Western countries, closing borders to immigrants, or promoting a mass genocide of specific groups.
SHK opposes any so-called “solution” to environmental issues which results in the mass destruction of life. Quite the opposite- SHK encourages people to consensually boycott procreation and instead to prioritize already existing life if they are compelled to parent or care for others. There is no shortage of humans and other animals in need of a major quality of life improvement, and by adopting, fostering, or being a resource in their local community, individuals can help improve the lives around them and contribute to positive change in our world.
Maintaining the environment of our planet is something every person should care about, but the changes we need cannot come at the expense of the lives of marginalized people. We have never put blame on any specific groups of people, such as immigrants, nor would we ever blame them or any other group of marginalized people for the degradation of the environment. It’s willful ignorance to look at our website, our social media pages, our YouTube videos or our public engagement and accuse us of promoting ecofascist solutions to environmental issues.
Overpopulation is not the central focus of our outreach nor at the core of antinatalism. Antinatalism assigns a negative value to birth and holds that creating sentient life is immoral, since life contains suffering and injustice. It is a philosophical position that suggests prioritizing the improvement of currently existing life over bringing new life into the world, where it has no guarantee of a net positive existence.
There has never been any incitement of violence, hate, or discrimination towards any group of people by SHK or any of its members. Like we have said, the entire human species is accountable for the current state of our planet. To be clear, not every human holds the same amount of responsibility; countries in the global North certainly contribute to environmental issues more than the global South.
Therefore, responsibility is on a spectrum. It’s evident that we as a species are unable- or perhaps more aptly, we are unwilling- to provide every citizen of Earth with a dignified quality of life. So, instead of exacerbating an already dire environmental situation by procreating, why not help those who are in need of help now? In an effort to further our goals of improving human quality of life, SHK holds that access to sex education, contraception, sterilization, and abortion are human rights, and access to these should be free or affordable to all.
Industrialization, modern agricultural practices, and the rapidly increased consumption of the global North as a result of increased convenience is negatively impacting our climate and those who live in the global South. A lot of resource exploitation occurs in the global South. For example, 82% of the world’s starving children live in countries where grains are fed to fatten animals who are then eaten by people who may accuse SHK of ecofascism. Food systems in the global North rely on immigrant labor and slavery. Many countries, including Canada, provide subsidies to industry giants like Cargill, who abuse their foreign workers by denying them safe work conditions and fair pay. In the US, undocumented immigrants are exploited for their labor on produce farms, animals “farms”, and slaughterhouses, doing jobs that most Americans would never want to do. The exploitation of immigrants in the global North is real and rampant, and it’s absurd to blame environmental destruction on the people who are being exploited the most and consuming the least.
Acknowledging the effects of human consumption and industrialization on our planet does not make SHK or our message eco-fascist. Nor does acknowledging that by voluntarily boycotting procreation, we can address the root cause of all our problems, the human species. We at SHK understand that we will never stop every human from procreating- that is not our mission. We aim to inform people of alternatives to procreation, to provide education, and to promote discussion of procreation as an option and not a requirement to an individual’s life.
Conclusion
Many governments, politicians and corporations have likened environmental and animal rights groups to eco-fascists and domestic terrorists as a way to discredit the very real message that our earth and all of its inhabitants are suffering at the hands of our collective consumption. Clearly, this can be rebuked as a strawman argument used to discredit environmental and animal rights groups in public perception due to the profit motive involved in continuing the status quo usage of environmental resources.
Those who profit off the depletion of our finite resources, the destruction of ecosystems both on land and in the ocean, as well as the oppression of human and non-human animals are truly eco-fascists. Governments across the world could be considered eco-fascist, since they prioritize corporate and personal interests over the well-being of our environment, which in turn adversely impacts and displaces humans and other animals. Corporations and the people who make them up play a big part in the destruction of our planet. They rely on consumers and labor, so every new person brought into existence has no choice but to join the system that cares about nothing more than profit, control, and shareholder interest.
Unfortunately, eco-fascism is a term often used to malign environmental rights organizations which are acting in good faith. Not only is this rhetoric often incorrect, as we have shown above, but crucially ignores the movements who do fit the above definitions of eco-fascism, such as many far-right groups and governments who blame environmental issues on immigrants and minorities. Groups such as these cause vastly more real-world harm than any antinatalist organization ever could.
There are eco-fascists out there, but we are not them.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecofascism
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-orten-ecofascism-what-is-it
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/naomi-klein-climate-green-new-deal_n_5e0f66e4e4b0b2520d20b7a5
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/9/17/naomi_klein_eco_fascism
https://vegansustainability.com/worker-exploitation-in-agriculture-the-cost-of-cheap-food/
https://www.cargill.com/story/worlds-united-workers-strengthen-business-while-finding-a-home