Douthat, Freaky
by tristero
Douthat is one weird white dude:
In 1990, 65 percent of Americans told Pew that children were “very important” to a successful marriage; in 2007, just before the current baby bust, only 41 percent agreed. (That trend goes a long way toward explaining why gay marriage, which formally severs wedlock from sex differences and procreation, has gone from a nonstarter to a no-brainer for so many people.)
I'm sure this reasoning makes logical sense to someone, somewhere. But I'm not seeing the causation in the correlation.
I would suspect that the reason why same-sex marriage has become a "no-brainer for so many people" is not because children are now seen as less important for a successful marriage. Instead it's probably because once "so many people" started to think about gay marriage for, I dunno, like five seconds, they realized there was no earthly reason why two people who love each other should be prohibited from marrying - and also, by the way, from raising children if they wanted to.
As for Douthat's comments on decadence and cultural exhaustion, I'll refrain from comment... Okay, you twisted my arm, I'll say something:
Unless you're talking about really good chocolate cakes, "decadence"is just a feelgood word with no real meaning. It just makes the person bruiting it about feel oh-so-morally-superior.
And if anything could be said to be decadent, it's that smug, obnoxious, attitude.