Summary
Following Donald Trump’s recent election victory, Google searches for “4B,” a South Korean feminist movement advocating a “no sex, no dating, no marriage, no children” stance, surged in the U.S.
The 4B movement, popular among young women on social media, promotes individual resistance against conservative politics and the erosion of reproductive rights.
The trend reflects a broader ideological divide between young men and women in the U.S., where women under 30 are significantly more liberal than men.
While parents certainly have an influence on their children’s ideologies and political leanings, it isn’t deterministic. Those children do still have agency, and external factors such as education (which yes, I know is under attack) and urbanization matter. Or even just simple youthful rebelliousness.
Regardless, I wouldn’t advocate left-leaning people to have more kids in some ill-advised attempt at a reproductive arms race. Among other issues, we are still staring in the face of environmental collapse.
I wouldn’t count on spontaneous liberal epiphanies and teenage rebellion to preserve the liberal hegemony.
I’m not necessarily advocating for anything. If you don’t want to have kids, don’t have kids. I’m certainly not going to mourn the death of liberalism, but I’m not thrilled about Conservativism taking its place as the dominant ideology.