Summary
The Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued a memo prioritizing federal funding for communities with marriage and birth rates above the national average.
The directive, which applies to grants, loans, and contracts, also prioritizes projects benefiting families with young children.
A congressional aide criticized the policy, saying, “Considering fertility rates when prioritizing federal grants? We obviously have no idea what the full impact of that will be… It’s absolutely creepy. It’s a little ‘Chinese government.’”
The memo also blocks mask mandates and requires compliance with immigration enforcement.
I think it is because for many, these tactics seem very thinly veiled and obvious, and so when someone says something like, “actually, I don’t see why eugenics is bad” the community, who knows history and to whom the answer seems obvious, can often assume that the person asking the question is disingenuous. We have all been on the internet long enough to have seen trolls and Nazi apologists pretend to be clueless to try to waste everyone’s time only to eventually just admit they hate everyone that isn’t an able bodied straight white man so the community just want to stop it in its tracks rather than engage cuz it just isn’t worth it.
First of all - thank you for taking the time!
I totally understand, we’re all on the edge right now, my antennas are also sensitive to that kind of “just asking questions” disingenuous bullshit. But this didn’t feel like it to me, it felt like a genuine question, because I had the same thoughts before someone explained it.
I am from Europe, I suppose OP is also from a non-US country and at least to me it wasn’t quite clear that the group with highest birthrates are white evangelical Christians for example, like now I know and it makes sense, but without that context it’s hard to understand.
For example here in Germany, if I would read about our DOT making the same policy, I would think (without looking too much into actual data) - yeah okay, highest birthrates here are usually low income, low education, often immigrant families who are very reliant on public transportation to manage their day-to-day life - totally makes sense to support those areas with a higher budget.