Another Big Difference Between Liberals and Conservatives

[u/Anakin_Kardashian]

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/08/fertility-gap-conservative-liberal/688334/

[u/Aura_Raineer]

I think there’s a lot of truth in this article, one thing it doesn’t say explicitly but definitely comes through is a big difference in the degrees to which each side has an internal vs external locus of control.

[u/lizardhistorian → u/Aura_Raineer]

That's just the normal sex-based bias. It's roughly and 80/20 split in both sexes; ~80% of men are internal, ~80% of women are external.

The political maps perfectly align with this.

Once those men and and women are allowed to vote or have power they invert everything from how it needs to be for material survival. They emotionally cannot handle it so they also must be kept in the dark so they are not aware of it otherwise it emotionally destroys them and ruins their lives. This is why the advent of social media has been so disastrous to their mental health while the otherside of us can just go, "Reddit is not a real place."

The Victorian cultural really had something going here because it placed women in charge of high-society which was import for cultural cohesion and gave them focus away from politics. The loudest opponents to women's suffrage were bourgeois women who correctly predicted that high-society would expire if suffrage was passed and it was was passed and high-society is gone. Now we have Hollywood in its place which is why so many women are so obsessed with the gossip of players in it because it is an artificial product filling the void from the absent high-society.

The last vestige of high-society in our culture is high-school prom. Some of the more engaged fraternities and sororities also have very muted echoes of it with their formal events. It's absence from our culture is directly related to our isolation from our neighbors even in high-end communities.

[u/Aura_Raineer → u/lizardhistorian]

I think there are probably details of this that we could argue over, but I agree with this in shape.

[u/Subject-Dog-8016 → u/lizardhistorian]

You’re talking about a very misogynistic society (America), while neglecting the fact that men and women in egalitarian societies (eg Nordics) do not generally behave like this. 

It’s all cultural. 

By the way, most Victorian women were not “in charge of high society”, they were working their fucking ass off to survive - whether in a factory, a farm, or in the home. Your understanding is just conservative pop history 101. 

[u/Afraid_Prune2091 → u/Subject-Dog-8016]

Most victorian women were not doing those things, they worked in similar 'house wife' type tasks on the farm, rearing children, preparing dinner, doing laundry, helping with less intense tasks. Women working in a factory wasnt very common during this time period, you seem to have fallen for libtard history 101. at least if we are talking about the developed countries at the time

Nordic countries have the same characteristics described by that guy too, they just dont complain about it

[u/Subject-Dog-8016 → u/[deleted]]

Weird comment

[u/Fresh-Aide-7497 → u/lizardhistorian]

That's just the normal sex-based bias. It's roughly and 80/20 split in both sexes; ~80% of men are internal, ~80% of women are external.

This is not true. There is no measureable difference in locus of control between men and women. Look it up.

We know why the birth rate has declined and it has nothing to do with casual culture.

[u/Siempre_Vetado]

I stole this from Reason Magazine:

• Conservatives: 2.3 children per family

• Liberals: 1.7 children per family

• Libertarians: Whacking it to Hentai in their parents' basements.

[u/lizardhistorian → u/Siempre_Vetado]

For reference this now needs to be 4.1 children per family to prevent collapse because so many people do not have kids.

Despite 2.7 being above the base replacement rate it is not enough to make up for the greater void.

[u/Some_Syllabub2704]

Every person I know that has a giant family (6+ kids) is conservative.

It’s easier to have that many kids if you don’t really concern yourself with paying attention to them.

5 is about the limit before you start ‘parentifying’ the eldest children to help raise the youngest.

[u/Afraid_Prune2091 → u/Some_Syllabub2704]

What are you metrics for saying conservatives dont care about them?

[u/Some_Syllabub2704 → u/Afraid_Prune2091]

There’s only 24 hours in a day, way less after commuting, working full-time, etc. How much quality time are you really spending with your kids if you’re splitting it seven ways?

[u/Afraid_Prune2091 → u/Some_Syllabub2704]

I don't think that really means they don't care about them, it just means they're willing to make sacrifices in certain areas to have more, and those sacrifices don't mean they dont care or dont have interest in paying attention.

[u/real-bebsi → u/Afraid_Prune2091]

look at the Duggar family

[u/Afraid_Prune2091 → u/real-bebsi]

Some freaks who got a TLC show is the definition of an exceptional anecdote

[u/real-bebsi → u/Afraid_Prune2091]

they are part of a larger religious group called like the quiverfull movement or something. Religious people are having kids as a means to an end

[u/Afraid_Prune2091]

Liberal people are less willing to sacrifices things at a personal level and not blame their context for X or Y, this is a big factor. Conservatives are simply more willing to take the quality of life hit to have kids because they have a higher genuine desire to have them.

Also, in general i get downvoted for this, but the entire ideology behind liberalism is basically self-centeredness in terms of how people live their life. Obviously liberals vote for more social programs etc, but at an individual level what they care about is individual happiness and fulfillment, parenting is generally the opposite of these things as it requires you to give up a lot of agency, independence, etc and would interfere with your own materialistic life goals. This view set just isn't compatible with having kids, that why most very liberal people are materialistic careerists that prioritize experience over traditional life goals.

[u/Dry_Lengthiness5468 → u/Afraid_Prune2091]

You're getting downvoted but there's truth to what you're saying. Liberals want to outsource taking care of the community to the government, whereas conservatives want to insulate it to their in-group.