The New Statesman tweeted a thread about family abolition, citing Sophie Lewis’s new book Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation.
We humbly suggest you ignore anyone who puts the word ‘manifesto’ in the title of their book. That said, the idea of family abolition has made the rounds on social media and news outlets a few times over the years. The idea has common roots with Marxist and socialist ideology and makes an appearance in the Communist Manifesto:
On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based? On capital, on private gain. In its completely developed form, this family exists only among the bourgeoisie. But this state of things finds its complement in the practical absence of the family among the proletarians, and in public prostitution.
The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its complement vanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of capital.
Do you charge us with wanting to stop the exploitation of children by their parents? To this crime we plead guilty.
Family is a terrible way to satisfy our desire for love and care, according to the writer and academic Sophie Lewis. The solution? Abolish it.
~ thread ~https://t.co/rZk2LZ1brM
— The New Statesman (@NewStatesman) September 24, 2022
Sophie Lewis has currently abolished access to her Twitter feed, so we can’t share any of her tweets with you, but we’ll give you the basics of ‘family abolition’ and Twitter’s reaction to the concept.
If we begin by abolishing our kitchens, what else might we get a taste for destroying, and for creating? A bit of self-governance here, some collectively organised childcare there: begin with the kitchen, and we might end up with a whole new society.
— The New Statesman (@NewStatesman) September 24, 2022
This is the premise of the revolutionary politics of family abolition. Sophie Lewis's new book, Abolish the Family, offers a powerful introduction to the world beyond the nuclear family. pic.twitter.com/aMLi5Ziw3Q
— The New Statesman (@NewStatesman) September 24, 2022
The legal and economic structure of the nuclear household warps love and intimacy into abuse, ownership, scarcity. Children are private property, legally owned and fully economically dependent on their parents.
— The New Statesman (@NewStatesman) September 24, 2022
Essentially, promoters of family abolition see the traditional nuclear family as a poor vehicle for raising children, propped up by the evils of private property and capitalism. Family, as we know it, wouldn’t even be necessary in the coming utopia with universal childcare, education of children by the state, communal control of production, and so on.
Sure, there’s no major political party in the United States openly calling for family abolition, but many of the ideas required to get there, according to Marx, sound way too familiar. We’re looking at you, Democrats.
You all had some thoughts about these ideas.
Just here for the ratio pic.twitter.com/LZLYGORen3
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) September 25, 2022
Twitter did not disappoint. LOL.
"I'm going to die alone and I think you should too."
— The Zeus Goose. (@TheZeusGoose) September 24, 2022
It’s hard to imagine being an advocate for family abolition without being miserable, right?
reminder that it’s bad on purpose to make you click
— bungoman (@bungoman) September 24, 2022
Yeah, we clicked, and shared, and posted on Twitchy (please click), but it’s what we do, man! Hey, at least we didn’t pay to break through the paywall.
How about we abolish people that want to abolish the family instead?
— Dan, Purveyor of Balderdash and Chicanery (@Libertybibbledy) September 25, 2022
Abolishing family abolition sounds like a solid plan. We’re in.
So, what you’re telling us is Sophie has a lot of cats?
— JayJay McMaster, CD (@tantrumblue1) September 25, 2022
Bwahaha!
The state does such a wonderful job of raising children. And the suicide and murder rates will help reduce the population.
— Jim Pacing His Cage 🤦♂️🤞🧨🚁🆓 🐱👤🕊 (@iamisgo11) September 25, 2022
We’ve got to admire a man who looks for the silver linings. Ha!
Oh well if academic and writer Sophie Lewis hates her family and cooking we should probably all completely change our way of living for the last ~8000 years to make her more comfortable. She is an academic and writer after all, she knows best.
— Vice President Chani (@vp_chani) September 24, 2022
Logic checks out.
Hey remember when it was a right wing conspiracy that the left was actively destroying the nuclear family with government policies? https://t.co/jHaW2T1dyy
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) September 25, 2022
We remember.
Family is the very definition of love and care. This entire premise is rooted in stupidity. https://t.co/ooCfTrTUMn
— Brad Slager: Distracted at the Auto Show (@MartiniShark) September 25, 2022
We’re gonna go with MartiniShark on this one.
They aren’t even coy about it anymore. The family – the bonds it forms, the functional, happy, intellectually curious people it tends to produce – is a grave threat to those who desire mindless automatons whom they can control. https://t.co/wlCHA5xrQd
— Anna James Zeigler (@ajzeigler) September 25, 2022
That pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it? Families create a wall of separation between individuals and the state. Those who would control us can’t have that.
Ok, I read it and all I can conclude is this woman wants to entirely overthrow the way people have ordered themselves since they emerged from the primordial slime because she hates cooking and children. https://t.co/Ne3JpYTiJh
— Boo (@IzaBooboo) September 25, 2022
Haha!
https://t.co/IoK0tUg6KL pic.twitter.com/zXkAOXOeBg
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 25, 2022
There was no shortage of responses using the C-word (communist). It might be one of those overused words on Twitter, like ‘racist’ and ‘fascist’, but it checks out in this case. Family abolition is a communist idea.
This thread, while insane, should be noted for vigilance …. the war against the family, esp the natural and adoptive family, is real. This is merely the quiet part out loud. https://t.co/V7u76YP7tK
— Gray Connolly (@GrayConnolly) September 25, 2022
It’s a good warning. While you may not hear radical progressives like AOC saying “Abolish the family!” directly, the policies of many on the Left are leading there.
Not a good idea https://t.co/CFNIEgufO0
— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) September 25, 2022
Yep, that. Let’s just wrap this one up with a quote:
‘It is true that a man (a silly man) might make change itself his object or ideal.’ — G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Sometimes it’s okay to just leave things alone.
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