If the question is asked, is it a good, just, and righteous thing for a Christian couple to adopt one of those embryos, those snowflake adoptions, I think the right answer to that is yes. And if you ask why, what would be the moral reasoning? It is this. In that case, those Christians would not be morally responsible for the circumstances that produced this embryo. They are taking responsibility, in an effort to try to be good stewards, of what is presented as an opportunity to rescue, in the sense, an embryo from what will be almost certain destruction. Now, that’s also different than a command given to Christians to be fruitful and multiply and go undertake a snowflake adoption. This is where we also have to come back to the fact that Christian moral reasoning is never meant to be the responsibility of a single, solitary isolated Christian on his or her own.
At “Wrong Side of History,” Ed West explains how Warsaw was entirely rebuilt, in medieval style, after it was nearly wiped off the map after the 1944 Rising. Warsaw is evidence that we can, in fact, build beautiful, traditional cities again if we tried—and indeed, Hungary is doing so, retrofitting garish Communist-era monstrosities with classical facades. Restoration is possible.
The next stage in the porn revolution—and the mass and increasingly total digitization of human relationships—has begun. Sex robots have been a thing for awhile, and now “AI girlfriends” are taking it to the next level:
Apparently ads for AI girlfriends have been all over TikTok, Instagram and Facebook lately. Replika, an AI chatbot originally offering mental health help and emotional support, now runs ads for spicy selfies and hot role play. Eva AI invites users to create their dream companion, while Dream Girlfriend promises a girl that exceeds your wildest desires. The app Intimate even offers hyper-realistic voice calls with your virtual partner.
This might seem niche and weird but it’s a fast growing market. All kinds of startups are releasing romantic chatbots capable of having explicit conversations and sending sexual photos. Meanwhile, Replika alone has already been downloaded more than 20 million times. And even just one Snapchat influencer, Caryn Marjorie, makes $100,000 a week by charging users $1 a minute to chat with the AI version of herself.
Of course most people are talking about what this means for men, given they make up the vast majority of users. Many worry about a worsening loneliness crisis, a further decline in sex rates, and ultimately the emergence of “a new generation of incels” who depend on and even verbally abuse their virtual girlfriends. Which is all very concerning. But I wonder, if AI girlfriends really do become as pervasive as online porn, what this will mean for girls and young women? Who feel they need to compete with this?
Mary Harrington, one of the most interesting thinkers to emerge of late (and the author of an excellent new book titled Reactionary Feminism), has a savage takedown of Pornhub with a succinct and apt title: “Shut It Down.”
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This is brilliant. A daughter insisted that she was “trans”; and so a mother tested her commitment to the fluid principles of gender ideology by identifying as trans, as well: “You’re Trans? Me too!”
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How are teachers grooming kids to identify as “transgender”—or a host of other identities? Read on: “A is for Authentic Self...”
