How To Go From 7.753 Billion People To 0
Yeah, keep watching Fox & Friends, or whatever it is you people hear
What “social issue” first caught your attention?
For many early baby boomers, it was nuclear war. For later ones, it might have revolved around the advent of environmentalism and the first Earth Day in 1970.
For me, it was overpopulation.
I had purchased a poster in the early 1970s that fed into my worst nightmares. And where did I put it? Above my bed, of course! It was a psychedelic-colored “landscape” showing people next to each other for as far as you could see into the horizon. In the forefront were those being pushed out to sea. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Nowhere to poop. That poster was a real trip on LSD.
We were so close, there was no room We bled inside each other's wounds We all had caught the same disease And we all sang the songs of peace ~ “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain), words and music by Melanie Safka
Covid is not the meaning Melanie meant to ascribe to the lyrics, but how familiar they are.
By 1973 we had a cute little film about people eating people (because there was no more food on the planet) in a mix called “Soylent Green.” Then, overpopulation, pollution, and climate catastrophe came together to cause worldwide shortages of water, food, and housing. Sound familiar?
“Soylent Green is people!” (Ironically, the film takes place in 2022.)
Get this!
I don’t think we have to worry about overpopulation any time soon.
- The U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2021 Population Estimates, released on December 22, shows that the population grew by less than 0.12% of the total U.S. population.
- The U.S. population grew by less than 400,000 from 2020 to 2021, the first time since 1937 it grew by less than one million. In addition, it is the lowest numeric gain since 1900 when the Census Bureau first began annual population estimates.
My paranoia about overpopulation began to subside as I settled into college life, and by 1980, China had put the one-child policy into effect. That prevented about 400 million births, so who’s to worry? (All limits are now removed.) Overpopulation is a thing of the past. Now, about those Mormons…
(Not Much) Sex in the City
As we head into the second winter of Covid, one might not be able to help but think this is it. Humankind as we know it, stopped cold by a minuscule little germ.
Meanwhile, other dynamics are playing out, such as people are having less sex. Joel Stein’s recent article on Medium, “No one is having sex anymore,” states:
- The percentage of 18–24 year old’s who didn’t have sex in the past year increased from 18.9% in 2002 to 30.9% in 2018.
- The article quoted a statistic from JAMA that the trend towards less sexual frequency had decreased in older and married adults.
When lockdown first occurred, I figured there would be a baby boom the likes of which we’d never seen before. The reality is that births have declined and mortality has increased.
We’re having less sex, and we’re having scared sex. You see it on the hookup sites every day — “are you vaccinated?” So who’s to say I am but I’m not, I just want to have sex?
I wonder if baby-fever couples are thinking about what kind of world they‘re bringing kids into. Just being pregnant during this time must be terrifying.
Conclusion
I suppose, in this confluence of events, it’s mathematically possible for the human species to cease to exist due to disease.
The ignorant, both in this country and across the world (though more so in this country), are to blame. Can’t listen to logic, won’t follow instructions. Am I allowed to say fucktards?
I’m not just mad. I’m Jessica Wildfire mad.
I had to make two trips to the ER in the last month for what has turned out to be lymphatic cancer. Even though I was fully vaccinated, I was still wary of the look of the place (beds in every corner and hallway of the place), and of the strain on the worker’s faces. I was convinced I’d go home with Covid, as I have two other festering infections.
At one point, I was put into what appeared to be a storage room where no one knew I was there. Needing a nurse, I screamed for 20 minutes before anyone came to my aid. At least in the hallway, I could be heard.
I did my due diligence. Because they didn’t, I’m the one at risk? Shame on you, non-vaxxers. I am angry, resentful, and could give a fuck about you and your liberties. Give the rest of us a fighting chance to live.
Sources include:
- “U.S. population growth now lowest since nation’s founding,” David Murray, The Great Falls Tribune, 12/22/2021
- “The Pandemic Caused a Baby Bust, Not a Baby Boom,” Tanya Lewis, Scientific American, 8/30/2021
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