The “overpopulation is an ecofascist myth” rhetoric only began to make sense to me when I became aware of what the content of that supposed myth actually was.

I only started to comprehend it when I learned that there are actually people whose worldview is so twisted that their analysis of population goes something like:

—-

Why are there so many people?

“Because poor nonwhite people, who I’m bigoted against, just breed too much.”

Are there enough resources for all the people?

“No, and this is because the people I consider inferior are hogging them, when they should go to people like me.”

Who is being a fascist?

“Me, and I don’t care.”

What is the solution?

“Let everyone who isn’t rich and white starve.”

—-

This is obviously a fucked-up evil viewpoint. But until a decade or so ago, I had not realized that viewpoint was anywhere near widespread.

I had been under the impression that the usual view on overpopulation went more like:

—-

Why are there so many people?

“Partly because certain rich white supremacist assholes think their duty in the world is to spread their supposedly superior genes as much as possible. But mostly because these same racist assholes withhold basic needs like birth control from people in poverty all over the world.”

Are there enough resources for all the people?

“In theory, there could be. But this would require the people in power to find a way of distributing resources that is fair, well-organized, serves all who need it, and does not cause irreparable harm to people or ecosystems in the process. …And, since those who have enough power to do this are showing absolutely no sign of wanting to, the only option that’s even slightly in our own control is to reproduce less. (This is becoming extra necessary, because that aforementioned lack of fair resource distribution is leaving many of us unable to afford raising kids anyway.)”

Who is being a fascist?

“The people who deny us access to birth control, withhold resources that theoretically could sustain a larger population, and yet insist that we need to keep increasing the population to feed The Economy.”

What is the solution?

“Fight for our right to choose not to have more children than we want or can support. Do everything we possibly can to help make that right available to as many other people as possible. When people get to choose how many kids to have, population usually stabilizes at a sustainable level. And stabilizing the population may even be our only hope of forcing a change in the wholly unsustainable, unlimited-growth sort of way the economy is currently run.”

—-

So, a decade or so ago, I had been under the impression that fighting against overpopulation was inherently anti-fascist.

Which I think it actually can be, if it’s done in the way I had assumed was normal.

But as it stands now, mentioning anything related to population numbers in this conversation is dangerous, because it’ll trigger the assumption that you are a fascist who just wants the poor and non-white to die.

As it stands now, expressing any of this in a progressive way requires framing it as wholly individualistic, focused on individual people’s right to use birth control, with absolutely no mention of what effect this has on population as a whole.

And… for now, honestly, that does seem like a reasonable way to have the conversation.

But I’m very apprehensive about what it will mean in the long term.

Because I do not trust many people in this conversation to grasp a complex idea like “the world could be fine with the current number of humans if resources were managed better, but the world could also be fine with a lot fewer humans, too, which may happen if there is wide enough access to reproductive rights.”

I’ve seen the way people on here co-opt progressive language for oppressive ideals.

And I can all-too-easily picture the jump from “population reduction is fascism!” to “reproductive rights are fascism, because they lead to population reduction!”

(Hell, I’ve already seen that as a talking point among the anti-abortion crowd– the whole “abortion is genocide because it disproportionately lowers the population of people of color” thing.)

(We’re fucked, aren’t we.)