I hate when the internet eats a classic clip. Hopefully this tangentially related episode of Next Time on Lonny helps?

Mood. There was a time I was standing in line at the post office and some haggard looking mother was doing her best to calmly reign in her child who was busy running away from her, screeching and pulling over every display he could reach, and having zero regard for anyone else in the vicinity. I could see her exhaustion and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. I usually just grit my teeth and try to ignore it until I can escape, but this time I cut off the kids path when he got close, said “Stop” in the harshest tone I could muster, and ngl was pretty pleased with myself when he went crying to his mom. I did realize in that moment, tho, that I probably shouldn’t have kids.

I didn’t interpret their use of the word individualistic as an assertion that those who choose to be child-free are selfish. Selfish has a negative connotation to it that I don’t feel they were going for. I think they were just contrasting that while being a parent requires putting yourself aside and focusing on a different human, being child-free allows a person to focus on their individual goals, whims, what have you.

I also agree with you that there is nothing wrong with a person choosing not to have kids, and there’s a lot of reasons to pick from. For me, those are:

•I have never yearned for motherhood

•I find pregnancy impressive from a biological perspective but at the same time horrific and something I never want to go through

•I am prone to depression which makes it hard for me to care for myself on a consistent basis so I am not going to bring another life into this world only to be too swamped in self-loathing to take care of them

•I detest humanity, we have spent our entire existence as a species ravaging the earth as well as each other and I see no end to it. I hate that realistically I will have to watch people be cruel to each other for the rest of my life and have decided not to create another human who has to trudge through this hellscape which undoubtedly will only be worse off in their future

Ugly Americans. Older (2010-2012) animated comedy series from Comedy Central, follows a social worker based in a futuristic NYC where lots of aliens/monsters/animatonics/etc are now a part of society, his job is to help them with integration to the city, shenanigans ensue. It only got two seasons, aired while I was in high school and has a special place in my memories. Stumbled across it on Paramount+ and promptly binged it all.

I hear you on just wanting what’s best for your community, but checking out will only harm them further. Our communities need support now more than ever. I’m not trying to harp, either, I get it. I am demoralized as fuck these days, and honestly have little to zero hope for humanity in general. But even so, I won’t be a part of letting these fucks just walk into office unopposed. Votes matter, and especially at the local level. Vote for the best candidates at all levels, every election. I am not even suggesting that means your choices must be for a democrat, vote independent if that’s who the best option is. I live in a blue state, but my county historically leans red. What’s promising is that even in this shit show of a situation, a couple postions that usually go red went to non-red people this time (yes, someone who ran without party affiliation won, AND they were running against a Republican). I hope my community can keep that trend moving. Nobody good is going to get through without support. Be there to support the people who have the guts to try to unfuck this mess.