Global effort to shut down eugenic baby mills

Published on July 17, 2026July 17, 2026 by EF TeamLeave a comment

Governments from multiple countries recently signed a political declaration calling for an international moratorium on surrogacy and advocating a complete worldwide ban.

by Diana L. Banister at C-Fam

The declaration warns that women and girls in surrogacy arrangements “face medical risks, coercion, exploitation and loss of agency that fall disproportionally on vulnerable populations with limited access to legal remedies.” It also points to psychological, emotional, and identity-related impacts on children born through surrogacy, along with risks of abandonment and human trafficking.

“Surrogacy is no longer a matter confined to domestic legislation or individual choices,’ said Eugenia Roccella, the Italian Minister for Family, Natality and Equal Opportunities. “ It has become a global phenomenon increasingly shaped by international markets, cross-border arrangements, and profound inequalities within and between societies.”

A $600,000 lawsuit recently filed in Canada against a surrogate mother reveals the legal and moral complications of the practice. Two years after giving birth, the mother was sued by the same-sex couple who hired her because she refused to abort the child after it was diagnosed with a cleft lip and a possible heart defect at 22 weeks of pregnancy.

The child, conceived through in vitro fertilization using a donor egg and sperm from each of the men, has had one reported medical incident, but is otherwise healthy. The lawsuit alleges the mother failed to “follow the direction regarding decisions affecting the fetus’s medical care.”

Research indicates that 33% to 40% of those commissioning surrogates are same-sex couples. Homosexual male couples represent a substantial majority of this group, while heterosexual couples make up about 66% of surrogacy arrangements overall. The “Gayby Boom,” as it is called, represents the largest demographic in gestational surrogacy, which requires an egg donor, an IVF procedure, and a surrogate.

Celebrities who have engaged surrogates, such as Kim Kardashian, Nicole Kidman, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Neil Patrick Harris, have also boosted the popularity of the practice.

According to a UN study on surrogacy published late last year by the UN special rapporteur on violence against women, Reem Alsalem, surrogacy is now worth nearly $14.95 billion a year and is expected to grow to $99.75 billion by 2033.

Alsalem gave a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council during the recent session and again stressed her concern for the women who are most vulnerable to violence because of the surrogacy practice.

“The states that are joining the declaration today recognize that surrogacy raises fundamental concerns relating to human dignity [and] the commodification of women and children,” said Alsalem. “They recognize that these concerns are not only limited to commercial arrangements, but that fragmented national approaches will facilitate the growth of a global cross-border market that transfers harm onto women and children in more vulnerable jurisdictions…This declaration shows that policy action is possible.”

The declaration was released in June, during the 62^nd session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, by the Holy See along with Italy, Chile, and Cameroon. It was announced as the first step toward abolishing the practice they believe involves the “commodification of human life and women’s reproductive abilities.”

More than 220 organisations from 40 countries have been working together on a coordinated international strategy to end surrogacy.

by Diana L. Banister at C-Fam. The Centre for Family & Human Rights was founded in the summer of 1997 in order to monitor and affect the social policy debate at the United Nations and other international institutions. C-Fam is a non-partisan, non-profit research institute dedicated to reestablishing a proper understanding of international law, protecting national sovereignty and the dignity of the human person.

Rising costs aren’t stopping young couples from having children

Published on May 22, 2026May 23, 2026 by EF TeamLeave a comment

Despite our assumption, it is not financial concerns that are stopping young couples from having children; rather, it is a lifestyle choice.

By Sarah Wilder at Intellectual Takeout

It’s no secret that rising costs are devastating Americans right now, and that young people are feeling the brunt of it. For the generation currently starting families, these costs are particularly stressful. Undoubtedly, the prospect of pinching pennies to pay for astronomical labor and delivery bills, car seats, formula, and strollers on top of life’s basic necessities is too significant to bear, causing some to forego having children in the first place.

“It’s just crazy right now,” one would-be mother said in a recent New York Times interview. “I have always told my husband, like, if we were rich, I would definitely have kids.”

Why aren’t young couples actually having children?

But do such financial hardships truly account for our plummeting birth rates?

Former Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse went viral this week, bemoaning the fact that Americans are foregoing children because they’ve “decided that being distracted by a dopamine hit around Candy Crush might be a good way to spend your time.” Folks were quite angry by this comment. Rising petrol costs, lack of paid parental leave, and expensive childcare are the real reasons adults aren’t having children, they argued.

Yet that’s not what statistics say.

In 2024, Pew Research surveyed childless adults. Infertility, wanting to focus on “other things,” or lack of the right partner were among the reasons for not having children. The cost of children was on the list, but hardly on the top.

Almost 40% of childless adults age 50 or older said the top reason they didn’t have kids was because “it just never happened.” Childless adults under 50 listed their top reason for not planning to have kids as “they just don’t want to.” Indeed, for adults over 50, that reason accounted for 31% of those surveyed, compared to 57% of respondents under 50.

Economic concerns admittedly ranked higher for those under 50 than those over, but didn’t even make it into the top three reasons. Only 12% of adults over 50 chose “couldn’t afford to raise a child” as their reason, and still only 36% of those under 50 chose that reason.

It seems that young people mostly don’t want kids because they don’t see why they should want them. In other words, young people believe the proponents of kids bear the burden of proof, while those over 50 found some tangible reason (however faulty) for their childlessness.

Alleviating the economic hardships of young Americans to encourage childbearing and to ease the burden of those with children is surely a worthwhile cause. But it won’t fix our birth rate.

It’s time to encourage young families

In order to encourage young people to have kids, we must address the real reason they aren’t having them. They’re simply not sure if they’re valuable – economically, socially, or relationally.

Regarding the economic front, young people should realize that more kids were born in worse conditions throughout history. That’s not to dismiss the economic woes of this generation, but they simply aren’t at the level yet that should keep anyone from having children.

Socially speaking, it is true that communities don’t welcome children and the chaos and joy they bring like they once did. Public spaces often shun children and their parents. Child-free spaces are considered the right of every childless adult. But the way to fix that isn’t to reinforce our willfully-barren society in their efforts to avoid having children. Instead, the more children there are in a community, the more that community will have to adapt to their presence.

On the relational aspect, consider that children will love you, and you will love them, in the most selfless and pure way one can be loved by another human. They will show you how fulfilling a life lived for others can be. With each child, your capacity for love will simply expand. In your old age, they will be the living legacy that carries you in your twilight years.

Yes, children are worth every cent.

By Sarah Wilder. The above article first appeared in Intellectual Takeout (Bloomington, Minnesota), and is reproduced by permission.

In memoriam: Jim Hughes, Canadian pro-life leader

Published on May 22, 2026May 23, 2026 by EF TeamLeave a comment

Jim Hughes (1943–2026) was a Canadian and international pro-life leader. Below are excerpts from five of the many tributes published in honour of his tireless work on behalf of the unborn.

LifeSiteNews co-founder Steve Jalsevac praises Hughes’ remarkable leadership skills. LifeSiteNews columnist Jonathon Van Maren chronicles the pro-life movement’s titanic battle against the Pierre Trudeau government’s Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which lacked explicit protections for the unborn. Its enactment in the early 1980s “would utterly transform and define Canada for the rest of her history”.

Images courtesy Campaign Life Coalition

Jim Hughes (1943–2026)

Campaign Life Coalition (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada), May 19, 2026.

Excerpt

It is with deep sorrow that we share the passing of Jim Hughes, president emeritus of Canada’s Campaign Life Coalition, who passed away yesterday surrounded by his family.

At home, Jim was a devoted husband, father and grandfather. In the office, he was a mentor and a fatherly presence to so many. Wherever he went, he brought a down-to-earth spirit and a sense of humour that could brighten any room.

Jim’s leadership in the Canadian pro-life movement spanned nearly five decades. His tireless work helped shape, strengthen and mobilize the movement across the country, saving countless lives and inspiring generations of pro-life Canadians. Yet Jim’s impact extended far beyond public leadership. If someone needed help, he would help, often quietly, without recognition, and without ever seeking praise.

Jim Hughes: indefatigable champion

by Quinton Admundson, associate editor
The Catholic Register (Archdiocese of Toronto, Canada), May 20, 2026.

Excerpt

Do not tell Jim Hughes he must be a compromiser who tempers his pro-life beliefs. The national president of Campaign Life Coalition, the political arm of the Canadian pro-life movement, from 1984 to 2018, does not answer to you, lobbyists, corporations or any government. The octogenarian Catholic abides by the law of God, who unambiguously told Moses on Mount Sinai, “Thou shalt not kill.”

“He didn’t say after 14 weeks or talk about any strategy,” said Hughes. “He said ‘do not kill an innocent life.’ ”

Jim Hughes saw Canada’s abortion future in the fight over the Charter

by Jonathon Van Maren
LifeSiteNews (Canada/USA), May 20, 2026.

Excerpt

From a historical perspective, the most consequential fight Hughes was involved in was his very first.
Campaign Life was founded in May 1978; the following month, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau introduced the Constitutional Amendment Bill, which included a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Key pro-life leaders — including Jim Hughes — recognised that a charter which did not include explicit protections for the unborn would inevitably be used to justify a regime of abortion on demand.

We will never know if the efforts of Campaign Life and the pro-life movement to defeat the charter would have succeeded; history tells us that when Cardinal Emmett Carter, with explicit assurances from Justice Minister Jean Chrétien [later to be prime minister of Canada, from 1993 to 2003], published a statement of neutrality on the issue in the Catholic Register, Liberal MPs rejoiced that they could now vote for it in good conscience.

Years later, Jim Hughes said, Carter would tell him that he’d been lied to. That day, a sad scene unfolded at the Campaign Life offices. Pro-life leaders felt that they were close to beating the charter. The effort, right across Canada, had been herculean, but there was a sense that victory was possible. When they heard the news, darkness seemed to descend. “I saw pro-life leaders, many of them, extremely shocked, devastated, grown men and women in tears, crying,” Steve Jalsevac recalled. “That’s what I saw. It’s like someone put a knife in their back. It was that close.”

Although few Canadians understood it at the time, the battle over the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was the most consequential political fight of the 20th century. It would utterly transform and define Canada for the rest of her history. The story of the pro-life movement’s resistance to the charter has been largely ignored by historians, even though the warnings of prominent pro-life groups were prophetic.

The Jim Hughes I remember

by John-Henry Westen, co-founder and CEO of LifeSiteNews.com
LifeSiteNews (Canada/USA), May 19, 2026.

Excerpt

For more than four decades, Jim Hughes stood as the unwavering heart of Canada’s pro-life movement until his death on Monday. I was privileged to have known and worked with him for three of those decades.

From his first involvement with Campaign Life Coalition in October 1978 until long after he stepped down as national president in September 2018, Jim gave his life so that others might live. A successful Toronto businessman at 35, he saw the gruesome reality of abortion at a right-to-life presentation at the Canadian National Exhibition in 1978. That moment changed him forever. He accepted his wife Ginny’s challenge to give “just two years” to the cause. He left his lucrative career and worked full time without a salary in the beginning while the couple lived on Ginny’s income as a registered nurse.

In 1984, he became national president of Campaign Life Coalition, a position he held for 34 years. Under his leadership, CLC became the powerhouse of Canadian pro-life activism. He founded The Interim newspaper in 1983. He served on the founding board of LifeSiteNews when it launched in 1997. He built the annual National March for Life in Ottawa into a major national event and helped bring the Life Chain and 40 Days for Life to Canada.

He played key roles in establishing or advancing Aid to Women, REAL [Realistic, Equal, Active, for Life] Women of Canada, Catholic Insight magazine, the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus, Show the Truth campaigns, and the early Family Coalition Party. He also worked closely with Priests for Life Canada, Silent No More Canada [founded by Endeavour Forum’s Canadian associate, Denise Mountenay], and the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition [founded by Alex Schadenberg].

As everyone in the movement knows, Jim often joked that you only retire from this calling being carried out “feet first”. And that’s exactly how he lived — never truly retiring, always in the fight until the Lord called him home.

——————————

‘Well done, good and faithful servant’

Steve Jalsevac on Jim Hughes, Canada’s pro-life patriarch
by Steve Jalsevac, co-founder of LifeSiteNews.com
LifeSiteNews (Canada/USA), May 20, 2026.

Excerpt

Jim Hughes was a truly humble, surprisingly shy, and very caring man. Few people knew that he was uncomfortable being in the limelight and tended to give all the glory for whatever Campaign Life Coalition managed to accomplish to others, above all to God.

Jim was a leader unlike many others I have met over the past 46 years. He had an incredible memory, was a gifted organiser and strategist and a commanding speaker. He managed to build strong, long-term loyalty among CLC volunteers and staff who valued his consensus-based leadership style and personal concern for them and their needs. CLC was never a top-down type of organisation.

Jim was a delegator who much preferred to pass on important and high-visibility tasks to others and help them to grow into a larger pool of competent pro-life leaders.

We were a close-knit team of “ordinary people doing great things for God”, as Mother Teresa of Calcutta told Jim when she was with him in our humble Ottawa lobby office. She also told him that we were “doing the most important work in the world”.

Under Jim, CLC was a precious second family for everyone in CLC. I spent 46 years working closely with this man. He dramatically changed my life when he brought me into the pro-life movement and patiently guided me and many others to be more understanding and patient with those considered our enemies. In many cases, they were instead sinners whom no one took the time to talk to, find out why they did what they did, or reach out with a prayerful, helping hand. I am forever grateful for that guidance.

AI robots do not a good education make

Published on May 15, 2026May 15, 2026 by EF TeamLeave a comment

The suggestion that AI robots should be used to educate children is an opportunity for a renewed focus on the real nature of education.

by Sarah Reardon at Intellectual Takeout

Several weeks ago, Melania Trump garnered attention for proposing an innovative educational methodology: robot education. At the “Fostering the Future Together Global Coalition Summit,” she was escorted by a humanoid, “American-made” robot as she presented the potential lustre of AI’s future: humanoid robots could provide a “personalised” education, reminiscent of the tutoring models of centuries gone by.

Melania asked her audience to envision a robot called Plato through whom “access to the classical studies is now instantaneous.” She continued: “Humanity’s entire corpus of information is available in the comfort of your home. Plato will provide a personalised experience, adaptive to the needs of each student. Plato is always patient, and always available.”

Forget about the fact that an “always available” robot sounds somewhat ominous. Instead, Melania appealed to the virtues lauded by the corporate world, “analytic skills and problem solving,” as well as “deep critical thinking and independent reasoning abilities.” Children who learn from such robots, she maintained, could have a “more well-rounded lifestyle,” including more time for play and extracurriculars.

Can robots really teach?

Melania’s proposition sounds similar to programs already in operation, such as homeschooling platforms that utilize AI or the in-person Alpha Schools, where students, under the direction of human guides, spend about two hours daily on schoolwork, thanks to personalised AI tutors. Where her proposition differs is in the use of a three-dimensional humanoid robot, not merely a web-based persona, as tutor. Regardless, Melania’s “Plato” and existing AI education models both spring from a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature and education.

Any education model that tasks AI with teaching or training human beings undermines the fundamentally relational nature of humans. This is merely one aspect of its danger, but a significant one. Human beings require physical interaction and relationship with other humans in order to flourish, whether in spiritual, emotional, or intellectual areas of life.

Without a certain amount of relational input, whether from classmates in a traditional classroom, a homeschooling mother, or a private (human!) tutor, learning becomes an isolating and Sisyphean endeavor. This is one reason why programs of individual “self-education” in the style of “Good Will Hunting” require a rare and precocious personality to be effective.

Nowhere is the need for relational input in education more evident than in research about COVID. When lockdowns and mandates pushed institutions toward online and asynchronous classes, student outcomes suffered. Students simply did not learn as much when their education was mediated by screens, video calls, and online discussion boards as when education was mediated by physical interaction. While students have returned to physical classroom since COVID, student outcomes continue to suffer as “heightened absenteeism” and “educational technology” gain steam. While computer-based learning and educational technology can be utilised for good in some circumstances, as in specialized degree programs, they are not wise pedagogical models when applied broadly.

Education should be communal

Our need for human interaction is not a “bug” that can be fixed by increased exposure to or refinement of computer-based learning or humanoid systems. It is part of our nature: from the Garden of Eden onward, it is clear that “it is not good for man to be alone” – that we are designed for fellowship with each other and God.

We are, after all, not computers ourselves, however much our minds and bodies follow discernible patterns. We are living, breathing, earthly, fleshy creatures. “It is easy for me to imagine,” Wendell Berry famously wrote, “that the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and people who wish to live as machines.”

AI education requires a mechanistic view of man. It outsources human tasks of teaching, guiding, conversing, and correcting to a non-human entity, thus treating the student as a machine for knowledge accumulation rather than a creature needing formation and direction.

In this way, the faulty pedagogical theory behind AI education is also evident. AI education assumes that the end of education is the mere acquisition of knowledge, which, in this framework is “an inert substance that can be delivered by robots,” as Mary Harrington recently wrote. If the primary aim of education is for students to learn facts, then robots could be useful. They could even, in some cases, make for good teachers, better at least than the forgetful grandfather who worked as a professor for 40 years or the eager but unpracticed recent graduate new to the elementary school.

But knowledge is not an inert substance composed of discrete facts, and education aims at more even than knowledge.

Robots can’t develop the whole person

If the aim of education is wisdom and the shaping of a person, then people will be needed, body and soul. If the aim of education is to, as John Milton wrote, “repair the ruins of our first parents,” or to, as Hugh of St. Victor wrote, “restore within us the divine likeness,” then students will not only need people, but those whose souls seek the true, good, and beautiful and their source in God alone.

“Plato,” however patient he may be, will be no match for a flesh-and-blood human teacher, with all his faults, who loves his students and directs them toward divine wisdom.

by Sarah Reardon. The above article first appeared in Intellectual Takeout (Bloomington, Minnesota), and is reproduced by permission.

Cancelled child psychiatrist takes gender fight to court

Published on May 14, 2026May 14, 2026 by EF TeamLeave a comment

Child psychiatrist Dr Jillian Spencer faces a November court showdown with Queensland Health after being fired for questioning gender-affirming care protocols for children.

by Rod Lampard for The Daily Declaration

The second showdown between Dr Jillian Spencer and Queensland Health is set for November.

Human Rights Law Alliance (HRLA) announced the date in a recent statement published online.

This will be decisive, they said.

“The Court has allocated a two-week hearing window in the first two weeks of November.”

HRLA then added that the window will mark “a major step in what has become a closely watched case.”

Of special interest is Spencer’s professional protest against “no questions allowed” ideologically based “gender-affirming care.”

Her case, HRLA determined, is “at the intersection of proper care for vulnerable children, professional integrity, and the rapidly evolving debate around gender ideology.”

“Key deadlines have been met, including filing further evidence in February.”

“These court dates allow some certainty going forward,” HRLA explained.

Fired for asking questions

While the November date is welcome, Spencer’s case, they said, is another example of “the process is the punishment.”

A child psychiatrist with over 16 years of experience, and a mother of three, Jillian Spencer has had to endure “four years of legal proceedings.”

Recalling reasons for the legal challenge, HRLA said,

“This all happened because she, as a professional psychiatrist at Queensland Children’s Hospital (QCH), questioned the automatic ‘affirmation’ model of treating gender-confused children.

“Dr Spencer was concerned about untested and unproven treatments, including the use of puberty blockers, and the long-term effects they would have on young patients.”

The QCH suspended, then fired her.

In effect, Spencer wasn’t fired because she spoke disparagingly about those who identify as LGBTQ+. Spencer was fired because she dared to exercise her right to question the legitimacy of the ideology propping them up.

Spencer’s dismissal, HRLA argued, “reveals a failure in protecting fundamental freedoms in this country.”

HRLA’s case directs attention to discrimination against Spencer for freely sharing her views.

Filed by HRLA as a political discrimination case, this is the second of two lawsuits.

Spencer’s first case challenging her unfair dismissal from the Queensland Children’s Hospital went before the Qld Supreme Court in April.

This was a judicial review, Spencer said on X, “of the Termination Letter sent to me by the Queensland Children’s Hospital for speaking up about the harm to children from gender interventions.”

Questions asked, she added, were:

“Did the hospital adequately consider my implied right to freedom of political expression under the Constitution?
Did the hospital adequately consider my right to freedom of expression under the Human Rights Act?”

A judgment is yet to be handed down.

Forcibly removed from psychiatry conference

Spencer is in the free speech fight for the long haul.

She was allegedly assaulted by a security guard at this week’s Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) conference in Melbourne.

The guard appears to have forcibly removed her from the conference on Monday for silently protesting the college for cancelling Queensland Doctor Andrew Amos’ membership.

Her protest was a sign that simply read: “RANZCP kicked out Dr Amos. Why?”

This morning, I silently held up a sign at the @RANZCP Congress during the keynote speech. Security pushed me over, dragged me out, and cancelled my conference registration. @RANZCP CEO, Damian Ferrie, told me my sign counted as ‘advertising’ so wasn’t allowed. The College is so… pic.twitter.com/f1whVxZGp6
— Jillian Spencer (@Jilliantweeting) May 4, 2026

As an AusDoc report recalled, AHPRA banned Amos from clinical practice after he questioned “gender medicine on social media.”

RANZCP booted Amos soon after, which, AusDoc said, is an automatic response whenever a doctor is suspended.

Frustrated about how she was treated, Spencer took to X to further protest RANZCP.

The X post also called out “gender-activist psychiatrist colleagues [for] lying in chat groups, saying: ‘She lay on the floor herself’.”

Responding to claims she was hyping up the incident, Spencer added two screenshots of a statement given to Queensland police about the incident.

In the statement, she testifies to walking up an aisle holding the sign above her head.

This was held for about eight minutes, as she moved to a sitting area.

Spencer said security approached her, declared that the sign was prohibited and told her to leave.

Just over a minute later, the security officer allegedly pulled her to the ground, then apparently dragged her down the stairs.

Spencer said, “he continued dragging me to a flat area near the main stage.”

RANZCP’s CEO, Damian Ferrie, turned up and told Spencer the sign was advertising. He accused her of “disrupting the presentation and ruining it for 2,000 people.”

Rather than offer comfort or understanding, Spencer said Ferrie tried to take the sign from her. This was despite her obvious state of shock and tears.

“I just sat on the ground for the next 5 to 10 minutes crying,” Spencer testified.

Another security guard turned up, who helped Ferrie escort her out the door.

While Spencer was being removed from yet another medical forum, for simply asking questions, RANZCP was patting itself on the back for being “allies” of those who identify as LGBTQ+.

“It was a fantastic turnout this morning at the LGBTIQA+ people and allies morning tea at the RANZCP conference,” they wrote.

“Thanks to everyone who came along to connect and share their support for our LGBTIQA+ community.”

Spencer responded, “They’re smiling, and I’m bruised.”

The pictures, which show Queer flags plastered all over the room like it’s 1930s Nuremberg, only serve to validate Spencer’s protest.

PRIDE activism is harming professionals, the vulnerable and weakening Australia’s healthcare system.

They are not just demanding absolute, unquestioning allegiance in every aspect of life; they are cancelling evidence-based dissenters.

With the help of HRLA, Dr Jillian Spencer is holding the line.

Please consider actively praying for Dr Spencer and her family.

Also consider supporting the Human Rights Alliance’s important work here.

You can read The Daily Declaration’s ongoing and extensive coverage of Spencer’s fight for free speech here.

By Rod Lampard. Republished with permission from The Daily Declaration. The Daily Declaration is Australia’s largest Christian news site. It is dedicated to providing a voice for Christian values in the public square. Its vision is to see the revitalisation of our Christian values for the common good.

Younger generation lacks its mothers’ enthusiasm for gender equality

Published on March 20, 2026March 20, 2026 by EF TeamLeave a comment

This report is based on a side-event at the UN’s 70th Commission on the Status of Women, held in
New York during March 9–19, 2026. The topic of the event was “Gender equality makes families
thrive” and was presented by a panel of Nordic ministers for gender equality. The video of this talk
can be accessed here at UN web TV. For more about Endeavour Forum’s work at the UN, please click here.

by Kathy Clubb

In their presentation, a panel of ministers for gender equality from several Nordic nations, including
Iceland, Denmark and Norway, examined how their policies have contributed to the well-being of
families in their respective countries. Specifically, the benefits of parental leave for both mothers
and fathers were explained. Additionally, the ministers expressed their surprise at the younger
generations’ failure to support their policies regarding gender equality, despite their claims that
their policies have been successful.

According to the ministers, gender equality is a form of justice for women, in keeping with the
theme of this year’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) held at the United Nations
headquarters in New York. The attendees were polled by a show of hands which revealed that
most women in the room believe there is only a moderate access to justice currently available for
women around the world. Thus the context for the discussion was the so-called oppression of
women and “barriers” to justice.

Nordic prosperity due to gender equality?

The ministers claim that the prosperity enjoyed by their countries is due to their governments’
policies which promote equality between men and women. They especially gave credit to the
women who entered the workforce during the 1950s to 1970s for setting up their nations for
economic success.

During the Second World War, women by necessity had to take over many men’s roles, and in the
Nordic countries, as in other parts of Europe, women were loath to give up their incomes and
independence once the men returned from war to the civilian workforce. The ministers claim that
the post-war women workers benefitted the workforce by giving employers more choice in an
expanded worker pool. Along with advantages for employers, so the argument goes, the
independent income to which women now had access gave them the ability to divorce their
husbands when desired.

These government ministers — all career women — sought to debunk claims by conservatives
that gender equality policies undermine the family, claiming instead that such policies actually
strengthen families by providing economic resilience and safety for children. This is a claim that
was to be repeated over the course of the CSW events by many of the speakers in various
contexts.

Central to the Nordic family policies is affordable childcare as well as leave for both parents after
the birth of a baby. In Norway, for example, the government’s policy is one-year paid parental
leave for both mother and father. These policies enable mothers to re-enter the workforce, allowing
couples to maintain their income levels.

Proponents claim that this policy gives women an advantage when applying for jobs as they will no
longer be discriminated against for their potential need for maternity leave. Since men have
parental leave, employers are forced to treat men and women the same when screening them for a
position.

The ministers claim that their policies are based on practical needs and are not driven by ideology,
however, any policies applied to traditional families are also applied to what has become known as
“diverse” families — that is, those parents who identify as members of the LGBTQ community. Yet
we are expected to believe that there is no ideology driving the policy decisions?

The high cost of gender equality

Each of the ministers acknowledged that the younger generation appears not to appreciate their
sacrifice as working mothers. Indeed, the ministers lamented the fact that there is a need for
ongoing campaigning around gender equality to educate youth about its apparent benefits. In their
experience, the younger generations do not consider gender equality as important, with many
saying it has “gone too far”. Young people don’t want the government to interfere in families — a
mindset that was perceived as a threat by the feminist ministers.

The personal anecdote of one speaker might shed some light on the younger generations’ lack of
interest in their mothers’ pet project. While building her career in politics, this minister from Norway chose to leave her daughter with her father in another city, five days a week for four years. She told her daughter this sacrifice was necessary because it would secure the opportunity for her daughter to do the same thing to her own child!

It is small wonder that the children do not appreciate their mothers’ choice to prioritise careers over
family life. Indeed, the narrative seems to be that only when motherhood is combined with a paid
career can a mother “reach her full potential”. According to this narrative, that “full potential” is
measured only in dollars — an utterly utilitarian argument which their children have apparently
rejected.

The ‘anti-rights movement’ and the war on men

According to the ministers, another perceived obstacle to gender equality is what they call the
“anti-rights movement” whose claims need to be debunked. The chosen method for this
“debunking” doesn’t involve engaging with the opposition, but instead censoring it, particularly on
the internet.

Singled out specifically was the “tradwife” movement — a subset of conservative Christians who
value traditional family life, particularly traditional gender roles. The “tradwife” is a stay-at-home
mother and homemaker who gladly allows her husband to be the breadwinner. These traditional
gender roles apparently pose such a threat to militant feminists that they are labelled as
“misogynistic” and are seen as part of a wider “anti-rights” movement.

The ministers are determined that the digital space needs to be regulated to censor this “anti-
rights” movement. One specific tool they mentioned was setting age-limits on social media — a
policy which was recently adopted here in Australia. While promising to reduce harmful content for
children under 16, the ban effectively sets the stage for a digital ID system, while still allowing
children to access harmful content such as pornography.

Sweden’s minister for gender equality blamed algorithms for promoting “tradwife” propaganda to
men and boys, citing traditional gender roles as this as “harmful norms and disinformation”.
She declared: “We must regulate the digital world with age limits and similar measures, and we
need to be aware of all the forces trying to reshape the narrative on gender equality and push it in
the wrong direction.”

One “helpful” observation made by a minister was that “men may perceive that women’s success
comes at the cost of men”. She has set herself quite a challenge if she wants to convince men that
the opposite is true!

Traditional gender roles were decried as threats to the modern status quo, necessitating ongoing
resistance to backsliding. This movement toward traditional roles was identified as being universal
and not limited to the Nordic nations, although it was acknowledged that the “toxic masculinity”
movement has been somewhat defused by the introduction of parental leave for fathers.

Population decline

Algorithms were also blamed for the declining population. Apparently young men and women are
victims of algorithms which make them “unable to think alike” when it comes to family size.
In the Nordic countries, the average birth rate is less than one child per woman — far below the
2.1 births per women needed for a population to replace itself — and even that low figure is heavily
reliant on migrants who tend to have larger families.

Serbia was mentioned as an example of a country actively promoting pro-natalist policies. A
current campaign there is encouraging women to have “one more baby”.

The ministers admitted that they find themselves in a difficult position: while they acknowledge the
danger inherent in population decline, as feminists who emphasise bodily autonomy, they know
they can’t force women to have more children. Their solution is to try to encourage, but not push,
women to have more babies.

Where is the data?

The panel of high-level politicians put forward their argument without any recourse whatsoever to
statistics and data. Instead, the only “evidence” presented was anecdotal — their feelings and
personal experience. Statements such as “AI can be used as a tool to oppress women” were given
without any concrete examples being provided.

In fact, the only serious research mentioned was a future white paper on boys and gender equality
which one of the ministers was herself preparing: she said that since gender-based violence exists,
boys need to be educated in order to reduce its incidence. One reason identified as a cause of
“gender-based violence” was a dearth of good male role models.

In the feminist world, that means more men who think the same as the feminist career-women are
needed. Yet perhaps their question should be: why are they so hard to come by? Like the young
people who are rejecting the feminists’ working-mother model, are men finally becoming tired of
being labelled “toxic”?

The Trojan Horse strategy

Although much of the talk focussed broadly on the desires of most modern women, one speaker
revealed the more nefarious agenda at the heart of feminism: access to abortion and the upending
of the natural order. She noted the importance of gender equality campaigns in the global south for
“transforming gender norms” and for “advancing reproductive rights”.

The speaker then went on to explicitly state that under the guise of advancing gender equality is a
push for:

the removal of discrimination (gender quotas);
comprehensive sexual education (perversion and promiscuity);
mandating such sex-ed at schools (giving parental rights with one hand and taking them with
the other); and
nurturing intergenerational conversations which promote the right to abortion (specifically in
Latin America).

An objection to abortion was booed

The previous comments by the pro-abortion speaker were met with an intervention from a delegate
in the audience. She made an objection to abortion rights on the basis of international human
rights law, asking how bodily autonomy can include the killing of children.

This prompted the moderator to respond aggressively, effectively shutting down the pro-life
intervention and revealing the overwhelming support for abortion found in the room. Applause and
cheering in favour of abortion rights revealed the true spirit driving this and many of the UN’s
“humanitarian” efforts.

Elephant in the room: life’s realities

A second questioner asked how it is possible to balance a career with children. She suggested that
with two competing priorities, women are in an impossible situation. The ministers’ responses were
predictable: the core principle is that women can do what they want and that they need the
courage to follow their dreams.

If many women feel frustrated that they can’t be a bigger part of their children’s lives and if it is
impossible to add to the birthrate when paid careers are the priority, then the government must
create family-friendly policies so that women can both work and be mothers.

Conclusion

While believing themselves to be at the forefront of a successful women’s rights movement, the
five Nordic ministers have instead revealed their inability to convince younger generations of the
benefits of feminist ideology or to reverse a rapidly-declining population rate.

They emphasised their belief that it is wrong for men to be perceived as the breadwinners,
underscoring how feminists impose their own definitions on the roles of men and fathers. They
then keep reminding society of the definitions they have advanced in order to maintain them. This
itself is proof that the definitions are not self-evident: they must be imposed rather than observed.
Despite the slick packaging as “women’s justice”, the Nordic ministers showed that the tools of
choice for feminists are propaganda, censorship, and an unhealthy reliance on the welfare state.

About the author
Kathy Clubb is an Australian mother and grandmother and home-educated her children for the
best part of 30 years. In 2016, Kathy was part of an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Victoria’s abortion
exclusion-zones, which led to a constitutional challenge in the High Court of Australia in late 2018.
Her articles have appeared at Family Life International, LifeSiteNews, the Daily Declaration, Caldron Pool and Fidelity magazine.

CIA promoted LGBT & abortion to Muslims

Published on February 27, 2026February 27, 2026 by EF TeamLeave a comment

Redacted reports show how CIA analysts recommended “discrete” promotion of LGBT rights in the Middle East, increased funding for “sexual and reproductive health services” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

By Stefano Gennarini, J.D.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe has ordered the intelligence agency to retract and revise nineteen “intelligence products” because they were determined to be highly politicized and contained substandard work. Three of the reports were published by Ratcliffe in a redacted format.

The published reports show how CIA analysts recommended “discrete” promotion of LGBT rights in the Middle East, increased funding for “sexual and reproductive health services” during the COVID-19 pandemic relying primarily on reports from abortion industry groups that stood to receive those funds, and meddling in German politics through “tailored gender-conscious approaches” to prevent the recruitment of women with traditional views of motherhood by “white extremists.”

The three products released until now may be the tip of the iceberg. They are likely the least controversial of the nineteen, the ones deemed least dangerous to national security. This raises the question of how bad the other sixteen CIA intelligence products are that have not been published.

The reports were produced while Obama, Trump, and Biden were in the White House. A CIA press release that accompanied the reports said they show how the intelligence agency failed to remain “independent from a particular audience, agenda, or policy viewpoint.”

“The intelligence products we released to the American people today — produced before my tenure as DCIA — fall short of the high standards of impartiality that CIA must uphold and do not reflect the expertise for which our analysts are renowned,” said Director Ratcliffe. “There is absolutely no room for bias in our work, and when we identify instances where analytic rigor has been compromised, we have a responsibility to correct the record.”

The reports were reviewed by the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB) alongside hundreds of other reports containing intelligence assessments and analyses produced in recent decades.

Notably, a CIA “Wire” report titled “Middle East-North Africa: LGBT Activists Under Pressure” produced in 2015 shows the inherent dangers of attempts at cultural engineering abroad, something C-Fam, publisher of the Friday Fax, has reported for many years.

This report should be understood in the context of the Obama White House designating LGBT issues a U.S. Foreign Policy Priority beginning in 2011 and expanding that commitment with several subsequent executive actions by Obama and Biden. The Trump administration revoked all those actions.

The report warns that the governments of majority-Muslim countries in the region would “almost certainly” portray U.S. efforts to advance LGBT rights as “foreign meddling” and that this in turn would undermine the U.S. goal of protecting LGBT rights abroad. It cites the reactions of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, calling this “cultural imperialism” in the context of United Nations debates, as an example of the resistance to be expected.

The report specifically warns of backlash against the very individuals intended for protection.

“Discreet international support could help avoid drawing undue attention and possibly counterproductive backlash against activists,” the report reads.

It warns that “Egyptian civil society organizations –already vulnerable to government scrutiny—have warned US officials that overt engagement puts them at risk” and that “a Lebanese activist in May 2014 stated that public outreach by the US would be counterproductive.”

Nevertheless, it calls for “community engagement with local police forces and the Ministry of Interior to limit the targeting of LGBT individuals” and “supporting gender studies in academic institutions in the Middle East and North Africa.”

By Stefano Gennarini, J.D. . C-FAM: The Centre for Family & Human Rights was founded in the summer of 1997 in order to monitor and affect the social policy debate at the United Nations and other international institutions. C-Fam is a non-partisan, non-profit research institute dedicated to reestablishing a proper understanding of international law, protecting national sovereignty and the dignity of the human person.

Unholy alliances: how divorcing sex from procreation married two movements

Published on January 30, 2026January 30, 2026 by EF TeamLeave a comment

The abortion and transgender movements have been linked for a very long time; parents and lawmakers must first understand where these ideas came from in order to combat them.

by Sheena Rodriguez

(Live Action News) In 2023, Planned Parenthood Action claimed that abortion and ‘transgender care’ go ‘hand-in-hand.’ But few know the history behind transgender ideology and why the nation’s number one abortion provider became so invested in trying to reach young people with pro-transgender sex-ed materials and services.

Activist groups such as Advocates for Youth (AFY), Planned Parenthood, SIECUS, and other organizations aligned with the Future of Sex Ed coalition, continue to shape society by employing digital platforms, educational programs, and a variety of resources to promote abortion, birth control, and transgender ideology. These radical groups seek to counteract parental rights and re-engineer the attitudes of future generations.

Many Planned Parenthood donors are beginning to question why the organization’s mission appears to have shifted — but has it, really? As this series will show, pro-abortion and transgender ideologies have been linked for a very long time.

Parents and lawmakers must first understand where these ideas came from in order to combat them.

(Read Parts Two and Three of this series at the links.)

Key Takeaways:

A look at the history of collaboration between abortion advocates and advocates of transgender ideology reveals shared, disturbing philosophies.
These advocates all believed in the idea that minors can give “consent” to any number of things related to sex — sexual activity, abortion, and ‘gender transition.’
Over the past two centuries, efforts were made to distinguish between homosexuality and those who committed child sexual abuse (leading to the classification of ‘pedophiles’). Then, those who held to the idea that children are ‘sexual from birth’ and can ‘consent’ led efforts to sympathetically portray pedophilia as ‘innate’ and acceptable with ‘consent’.
Efforts were also made to distinguish ‘sexual expression’ as separate from procreation, drawing in the cooperation of pro-birth control and pro-abortion eugenicists.
Disturbing philosophical ideas led to early “sex reassignment” experimentation; one of the doctors performing the earliest surgeries had participated in torturous experiments on human victims within the Nazi regime.

The False Idea of Minor ‘Consent’:

Neuroscientific and psychological communities have long understood that a minor’s brain development, particularly the maturation of the prefrontal cortex, is not complete until 22-25 years of age. The prefrontal cortex regulates behavior, assesses risk, and enables comprehension and proper planning. Consequently, children, minors, and young adults are particularly prone to engaging in risky or dangerous behavior. They cannot developmentally comprehend potentially life-long detrimental consequences.

Yet, despite this scientific reality, the idea that youth can provide ‘consent’ for sex, life-ending abortions, and life-altering ‘gender-affirming care’ is promoted by purveyors of comprehensive sex education.

This idea is foundationally based on concepts propagated by early proponents of the transgender movement.

Context

After World War I, severe economic hardship in Germany contributed to widespread prostitution in Berlin, involving minors and children. As awareness of child development and the harms of sexual abuse grew in the late 1800s and early 1900s, documented abuse cases prompted efforts to distinguish homosexuality from child sexual abuse (p. 271). Consequently, at the turn of the 20th century, “sexual scientists” began using the term “paedophile” to describe child sexual abusers (p. 271).

Read the entire article here at Live Action News

By Sheena Rodriguez. This article was originally published at Live Action News and is reprinted here in part with permission.

Live Action exists to shift culture and law on abortion. Through compelling educational media, human interest storytelling, investigative reporting, and community activism, Live Action reveals the humanity of preborn children and exposes the abortion industry’s exploitation of women and families for profit.

The feminists’ assault on the family hurts children most

Published on January 23, 2026January 23, 2026 by EF TeamLeave a comment

In the name of ‘liberation’ and ‘progressiveness’, the family has been dismantled, fathers marginalised, and children quietly reshaped to fit adult belief systems; the consequences are catastrophic.

by Melania Gill at The Conservative Woman

THERE is no such thing as a baby,’ wrote renowned paediatrician Donald Winnicott in 1942. ‘There is a baby and someone.’

His meaning was simple and profound: an infant does not and cannot exist in isolation. It is attached. In the 1960s John Bowlby’s great insight into child psychology known as ‘attachment theory’ explained why. Over the last few decades neuroscientific research has confirmed the observations his theory (of attachment, maternal deprivation and separation anxiety) were based on. A baby comes into being initially through its attachment to its mother – ideally through attuned care, emotional presence and the steady regulation of distress by either parent. This infant dependency is not a flaw to be overcome, it is the foundation of its development.

Yet it is precisely this truth that contemporary feminist ideology and thinking denies. As science has clarified and confirmed the importance of connection, social practices have moved in the opposite direction. Practices that formally cut or break this connection, from abortion to institutionalised early day-care through to family separation, have increased or been normalised in recent years. Decisions that are framed in terms of autonomy share a common feature: the deliberate severing of human dependency at its most vulnerable points.

We are living through a cultural moment that denies such dependency, sees attachment as danger, and relational need as oppression. In the name of ‘liberation’ and ‘progressiveness’, the family is dismantled, fathers marginalised, and children quietly reshaped to fit adult belief systems. What is presented as progress increasingly resembles something else: a refusal to accept the basic conditions under which human beings develop at all. The casualties from this are not abstract. They are children.

Decades of developmental neuroscience show that the human brain is shaped through early emotional relationships. The neuroscientist Allan Schore’s work demonstrates that the systems responsible for emotional regulation, empathy, stress tolerance and social understanding develop in direct response to the quality of caregiving. Brain development is not merely biological; it is relational.

When caregiving is emotionally attuned, a coherent sense of ‘self’ forms. The child learns that feelings can be experienced without catastrophe, that relationships survive disagreement and that dependence does not mean annihilation. When caregiving is mis-attuned, when parenting is driven by unresolved anger, trauma, grievance or rigid belief, particularly in cases involving parental alienation, something else happens. Children learn which emotions are safe and which are dangerous. They learn which parent must be protected and when, which feelings must be hidden and which version of reality is safest to adopt. Over time, the child’s inner life thins. They stop discovering who they are and start performing who they need to be. Across nearly 20 years of family assessment, I have repeatedly seen this occurring even when there is no overt cruelty. Often it is quiet: originating in a parent who can’t tolerate ambivalence or who requires their child to mirror their emotional reality.

Unresolved anger and distress from childhood relational harm is rarely expressed directly; rather it’s projected outward on to those whom cultural narratives have already positioned as dangerous or blameworthy – men or fathers, for example. In present ideological climates, they frequently serve this function. The child becomes the carrier of this projected anger. What looks like confidence or moral clarity is, in reality, fear held rigidly in place.

Such children can speak with striking certainty about adult matters they cannot possibly understand. They repeat slogans rather than thoughts, show contempt where curiosity should be, and appear strong while lacking emotional depth. What looks like independence is a self that has had to harden too early; a fundamental and unconscious lack of trust in all relationships.

Underlying this is a failure of early emotional attunement. When children are not accurately seen, soothed, or mirrored by primary caregivers, the brain systems responsible for emotional regulation and identity integration do not fully mature (Schore, 2015; Fonagy et al, 2002).

The result is chronic, often unrecognised anger and emotional instability. During adolescence, these vulnerabilities may manifest as identity confusion, distorted memory, intolerance of dissent, and defensive self-enhancement (Erikson, 1968; Kernberg, 1975). The thousands of reality-based professionals working on family law cases across the world witness this time and again in depressingly increasing numbers.

Dependency is not weakness; it is the engine of development. Children become independent through relationship and connection, not in defiance of them. Yet much contemporary ideology rests on the opposite premise: that needing others is oppression, that attachment is danger, and that autonomy demands severance. Here, radical feminism reveals its deepest psychological error. By reframing attachment as a flawed concept and dependency as harm, it renders parental care, especially paternal care, suspect. Fathers become optional, even inherently dangerous. It creates a ‘case’ for chopping off half of a child’s relational world. By prioritising adult identity claims over children’s developmental needs, it inverts the moral order and takes over culture.

Unsurprisingly, societies that celebrate this model now face collapsing birth rates, rising loneliness and escalating psychological distress. Extinction-level fertility is not only an economic warning; it’s a psychological one. It signals a culture that has lost faith in continuity and is heading for oblivion.

It’s impossible to ignore that this same distorted psychological ‘logic’ underpins both radical feminism and contemporary transgender ideology, despite their surface-level conflicts. At their core, both reject biological givens, evolutionary continuity, and developmental constraint in favour of self-definition unconstrained by body, relationship or reproduction. When realities are treated as oppressive rather than formative, identity becomes unmoored. This creates fertile ground for narcissistic adaptation.

For children and adolescents already struggling with mis-attuned parenting or fragile identity formation, ideologies that promise absolute self-definition offer powerful relief. The projection of unresolved childhood attachment anger becomes a demand for justice. Self-righteous certainty replaces curiosity. Any challenge is reframed as harm and aggressively denied using howling moral outrage and ‘cancellation’ of those who disagree.

From a developmental perspective, this is profoundly anti-evolutionary and truly dystopian. A society that denies sex, embodiment, reproduction and dependency is not merely redefining identity, it is splitting itself from continuity. The result is fragility: identities that cannot tolerate disagreement and relationships that cannot survive difference. And there is a chilling historical parallel.

What we see now is not biological eugenics, but a cultural analogue: deciding which family bonds are expendable, which parents are suspect, and which children must adapt to ideologically curated environments.

Fatherhood becomes a developmental risk by presumption. Children are expected to reorganise themselves accordingly. They call it liberation; ‘back in the real world’ we know it as catastrophic damage to families and children on an industrial scale.

History shows that systems convinced of their moral superiority struggle to see the harm they produce. Once children become symbols rather than developing minds, the line between safeguarding and social engineering disappears. The appalling outcomes are being and will be written into the psychology of the next generation. When a culture teaches its children that they need no one, it should not be surprised when they grow up unable to love, trust, or carry the future they were meant to inherit.

The family is not a patriarchal relic. It is the primary psychological infrastructure of all societies. Undermine it, and everything downstream weakens. Winnicott was right: there is no such thing as a baby alone, a child, or in fact anyone. And there is no such thing as a society that survives the denial of dependency.

By Melanie Gill. This article first appeared at The Conservative Woman and is republished here with permission.

Melanie Gill is a UK-based attachment specialist, psychologist and forensic consultant, working as an expert witness in complex family proceedings for nearly two decades. Despite an ongoing feminist-inspired campaign to ‘cancel’ her from her family court work she continues to campaign for children and families and remains passionate about bringing psychological science and knowledge into policy and family law.

The Conservative Woman is one of Britain’s fastest-growing websites and is committed to explaining and promoting the virtues of people’s instinctive social conservatism and its importance for children’s wellbeing.

Gen Z, social media, and envy

Published on November 18, 2025November 24, 2025 by EF TeamLeave a comment

Social media causes desensitisation to things that should disturb us and hypersensitivity to things that should not disturb us. It afflicts Gen Z with a toxic culture of envy.

My generation, Gen Z (born between 1996 and 2010), finds itself in the throes of individual depression, pessimism about the future, and a strong tendency not to take personal responsibility. As a 20-year-old college student, I have witnessed this firsthand. I believe much of the problem can be traced to social media and its creation of a make-believe world, a world defined by pronounced social envy.

Only 39 percent of Generation Z aged 18-29 believe that achieving the American dream is still possible, while 60 percent do not.¹ It is disheartening, to say the least, that a large majority of our youth do not believe in the American tradition of achieving success through hard work and determination.

Gen Z has grown up in a different world from previous generations—an online world, one that immerses them in fantasy. Fantasy leads inevitably to disappointment as this made-up online world creates unrealistic expectations for the real world.

Abundant research shows that social media is harmful to youth. Social media use is correlated with rising instances of self-harm and suicidality in boys and girls.² At the same time, American girls use social media far more than boys.³ While boys are off playing video games or consuming online porn, girls succumb to toxic self-comparison at a time when they are most confused about their identity. This allows them to be taken advantage of by predators, by influencers espousing extreme ideology, and by other women who tell them to prioritise themselves above all others.

The results of this gender gap are ominous for the future of America. More young men than young women report wanting to have children.⁴ At a time when America’s birth rate continues to plummet below replacement, Gen Z is dropping the ball on family formation. It is not just apathy towards having a family. Gen Z is growing more anti-capitalist, more anti-natalist and more callous about the deaths of others. Reactions on social media in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s horrific assassination come to mind.

Social media causes desensitization to things that should disturb us and hypersensitivity to things that should not disturb us. It afflicts Gen Z with a toxic culture of envy.

The inside view

Generation Z’s ailments are clear from the outside, but even more so from the inside. It is important to note that the author is a member of Gen Z himself, born just a few years after the turn of the millennium. I have been spared the despair of my generation because of my family.

Raised in a large family with close bonds with my siblings, I was never alone in the sense that many Gen Zers report themselves feeling. My parents ran a household that was strong in moral teachings and founded upon family values. Furthermore, my parents had the foresight to withhold social media from my siblings and me far longer than most of our generation. We were not subject to the culture of envy that we watched our friends endure. I made it all the way to my 19th birthday before I became curious, suspecting that social media might prove useful or practical as an adult in college.

I deleted all my accounts in less than a year. My experience on social media was far from anything I had expected. Perhaps I was naive to expect pictures of pleasant scenery and the occasional post about a family trip. But I could not have foreseen the extent to which social media is riddled with depravity, dishonesty and delusion. What I saw as an outsider to my own generation made plain precisely why my close friends and peers seemed so distant and anxious. It was clear why they had lost faith in themselves, their communities and the American dream.

The reason social media has had such a horrendous effect on American youth is that, fundamentally, social media is not what it seems. The photos and videos that are posted online are often edited into an unrecognizable version of the truth. What is presented as a casual selfie is often an hours-long commitment that requires professional equipment, painstaking attention to detail and constant revision. Instead of honest photos, our youth sees perfection. But it is perfection presented as something attainable. Or rather, something that seems attainable, but isn’t attainable in reality. This is the root of Gen Z’s envy.

Incessant comparison

Social media’s inherent culture of envy is bad enough. But what makes it particularly dangerous to Gen Z is that members of my generation are obsessed with comparing themselves to their peers. Gen Zers average about nine hours of screen time every day.⁵ It is not unusual to have a screen time of 10 or even 14 hours a day. Some of my friends can spend 20 hours a day looking at screens.

Social media takes up a significant amount of these appalling screen times. Sixty percent of Gen Z spends at least four hours a day on social media, and 22 percent report spending seven or more hours a day.⁶ Time spent on social media is time not spent socializing, working, exercising, reading, spending time with family, and more. Rather than engage with the real world as much as possible, a sizable majority of Generation Z spends the greater part of their day in an online fantasy.

Living in the fictional world of social media is a major cause of Gen Z’s pessimism, and Gen Z’s members know it. About 83 percent of America’s youth have tried to limit their social media use, albeit largely unsuccessfully.⁷ Gen Z recognizes the harms of social media as a group. But while 48 percent of teenagers agree that social media is harmful to people their age, just 14 percent believe that social media affects them personally.⁸

What these statistics reveal is an element of denial. The youth culture’s expectation of perfection requires hiding imperfections. But upon a closer look, it becomes clear that this perfectionism is a symptom of envy. The desire to be as affluent, powerful, attractive and popular as influencers on social media comes from spending too much time in the online world. Carefully curated posts that are funneled to the right audiences create an infinite network of nested mini-worlds in which our youth have become lost. The resulting lack of direction is part of why Gen Z feels so pessimistic. Generation Z’s pessimism expresses itself in many ways: class resentment, hetero-pessimism, apathy and sensitivity.

Class resentment is the byproduct of economic forces on social media. Online sites kick consumer culture into hyperdrive. It begins with extravagant displays of wealth. Influencers who advertise perfect dress, flawless appearance, ideal travel experiences, luxurious homes and fine dining inevitably attract viewers for the simple reason that wealth is desirable. Considering that Gen Z is significantly more dissatisfied with their economic situation than other generations, it is no surprise that young people are drawn toward such content in large numbers.⁹ Much of Generation Z sees what they want but cannot have, for hours at a time each day.

Displays of unrealistic wealth

Individual envy is then amplified into pessimism. Social media algorithms recommend to users what they are most likely to click on. The more outraged users are, the more likely they are to become even more outraged and to be connected to other users who reinforce their indignation. Since Gen Z is uniquely susceptible to economic pessimism, they are at a greater risk of falling victim to this outrage. As time passes, young social media users fall farther down the rabbit hole, becoming more radicalised and more pessimistic.

The consequence is a strong current of anticapitalism and economic pessimism that views the American system as fundamentally unfair. And so long as they remain isolated in their online echo chambers, my peers will continue to be overexposed to the shortcomings of American capitalism and underexposed to its many benefits.

The hyper-individualization of Gen Z encouraged by social media applies to dating and family dynamics as well as economic concerns. Just as algorithms radicalize the youth into anticapitalism, they do the same for hyperfeminism.

Recent surveys continue to show that young women are ranking their career and individual interests ahead of starting a family.¹⁰ This is unsurprising given the prominence of anti-male trends on social media. As of late, a proliferation of social media posts with the hashtag childfree suggests that childlessness as an identity is growing.

There are also movements encouraging women to become “boysober” and swear off all emotional and physical relationships with men.¹¹ Some women online are using the term “mankeeping,” which is primarily used to complain about the burdens of supporting their partners through hard times. Popularized in 2016, the MenAreTrash movement swept social media platforms and gained rapid popularity for disparaging men and heterosexual dating in any way possible.

Toxic feminism

The online environment culminates in a general pessimism about dating and family called “hetero-pessimism.” Originally coined in 2019, hetero-pessimism refers to a movement where women are ashamed of being straight and view “heterosexuality as a prison within which they are confined against their will.”¹² Gen Z women are especially vulnerable to trends like hetero-pessimism.

Again, considering the radicalising nature of social media algorithms, it is easy for girls to fall for ideas that promote individualism and the prioritisation of self over pair-bonding or community. As a result, teenage girls sometimes enter the dating scene with unrealistic expectations because of exposure to fake relationships on social media. Young men who encounter such women are then treated to a rude awakening where they are expected to act as an accessory to a woman who is more interested in superficial pleasures and material wealth than true partnership.

It is worth pausing to emphasize that this is a somewhat extreme characterization of a complex phenomenon. Not all young women who use social media are anti-male. Yet, anti-male sentiment weaves itself into social media in various ways.

More widespread than hetero-pessimism is the creation of echo chambers by social media algorithms that amplify and radicalise opinions and perspectives.

Consider the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk. In the era before social media, it may be true that the victim of such a horrific and violent act would have received near total sympathy from the American public, including its youth. Regardless of whether this was the case in the past, it is certainly not true now.

Apathy—and in some cases jubilation—from the left over the murder of Charlie Kirk is not originally because of inherent cold-heartedness and cruelty. It is because of desensitisation. This is an important distinction. Desensitisation by social media is what leads to coldheartedness and cruelty when left unchecked. Such apathetic and jubilant individuals did not express sympathy because that is not what they were shown. Social media algorithms likely predicted that such viewers, especially some progressive youth, would not have clicked on such content. Instead, they were fed increasingly extreme posts that dismissed or mocked the death of Charlie Kirk. And in viewing such posts, their views were validated and radicalised instead of moderated.

The condoning of Kirk’s assassination that spread across the internet is emblematic of a growing apathy towards the plight of persons outside each individual’s social media bubble. Within these anonymous echo chambers, algorithms supercharge this apathy into a callous joy that is not just inappropriate, but dangerous.

The tyranny of online policing

Online policing of political correctness reached a fever pitch during the Covid-19 pandemic, when American society was as far from the real world as it had ever been. This had a detrimental effect on Generation Z, given that they came of age around the use of chosen pronouns, progressive terminology like “safe spaces,” and leftist ideology that accused most social and economic institutions of being inherently bad. So rather than work to develop empathy for those different from them, Generation Z was immersed in a ruthless online culture that focused on the faults of those who were different from them, instead of what we have in common as Americans.

Generation Z is steeped in a fabricated version of reality that amplifies outrage, promotes individualism and heightens our differences. The culture of envy engendered by social media has made our youth so pessimistic that many of them no longer believe in the American dream. Who can blame them? Because of social media, much of Gen Z is entering adulthood unchallenged, un-self-aware, and unable to see that they are part of something greater than themselves.

As a member of Gen Z, I place my hope in those of us who are strong enough to stop looking at our screens and start looking at all that is happening around us. For when we do so, we begin to see that the beauty of reality is far more rewarding than any online illusions of perfection.

This article is published by the Cardinal Mindszenty Foundation in St Louis, Missouri, USA. The original article is available from the foundation’s website: www.mindszenty.org. The Mindszenty Report is not copyrighted, and readers are invited to forward copies to their local bishops, priests and pastors.