In the first two installments of this three-part series, I introduced you to Malcolm and Simone Collins, a Pennsylvania couple who identify as “pronatalists” — part of a growing movement to encourage, and hoping one day perhaps to mandate, larger families and to instill in their multiple children their ultra-conservative, right-wing, anti-liberal, anti-“woke” standards.

And I alluded to the fact that they, and their fellow travelers, were seeking government support for their movement from like-minded individuals at the top of the Washington hierarchy . . . including Donald Trump, JD Vance, and none other than the king of sperm donors himself: Elon Musk — each of whom has spoken in favor of population growth and a resurgence of their idea of “traditional” family values.

As I stated previously, what these folks choose to do with their lives is their business . . . big families can be great in the right conditions. But Malcolm Collins has described their movement as follows:

“We are a coalition of people who are incredibly different in our philosophies, our theological beliefs, our family structures. But the one thing we agree on is that our core enemy is the urban monoculture; the leftist unifying culture.”

From that, I infer that a “rightist unifying culture” would, on the other hand, be just dandy with them. Hmmm . . .

It does sound as though there is disunity within the movement’s own ranks. At their second annual Natal Conference in March, two very different branches of the American right were brought together: conservative Christians, and members of the so-called “tech right” — an outgrowth of the libertarian, start-up culture of Silicon Valley. [Stephanie Hegarty, BBC, April 1, 2025].

One of last year’s speakers was Michael Anton, recently appointed by Trump as the State Department’s Director of Policy Planning. And one of this year’s speakers — economist Catherine Pakaluk, herself the mother of eight and stepmother of six — hesitates to call herself a pronatalist. “It’s like an unholy alliance,” she says. “It’s a complicated movement and includes people with very different positions.” [Id.]

Malcolm Collins has said: “[If you ask me] do we have pronatalists in the White House right now who are pushing policy, my response to this would be, ‘I mean, duh, like Elon and JD Vance.’”

As he said . . . “Duh”!

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Which brings us back to Washington’s best-known baby daddy, Elon Musk. Father of an estimated 14 children (and counting) by at least four women (of questionable judgment), he has caused millions of people around the world to ask themselves one simple question regarding his proclivity for procreation: “WHY??”

And now there may be an answer to that.

He wants to populate Mars.

Well, no . . . not immediately. I’m not suggesting he plans to pack all of his kids onto one of his experimental space ships and send them soaring off into space. But his “more-is-better” philosophy of family planning and his aspiration to colonize Mars are connected.

According to Ashley St. Clair — a right-wing social media influencer and the chosen mother of one of Musk’s children — he is creating a “legion” of children to prepare for the apocalypse. [Shannon Carroll, Quartz, April 16, 2025.]

That’s “legion” as in:

No, no, sorry . . . more like this:

Are you still with me? Good, because there’s more.

St. Clair is said to have shown the Wall Street Journal texts she received from Musk while she was pregnant with their child, suggesting they enlist other women to join them in creating this medley of Musks more quickly. One such message read, in part:

“To reach legion-level before the apocalypse, we will need to use surrogates.” [Id.]

He has written on X that he believes “becoming multiplanetary is critical to ensuring the long-term survival of humanity and all life as we know it.” [Id.]

He also believes that civilization is under threat because of a declining population. At a conference in Saudi Arabia last year, he flatly stated:

“I think for most countries, they should view the birthrate as the single biggest problem they need to solve.” [Id.]

Not wars; not environmental decay; not pandemics; and not Donald Trump’s tariffs. Just crank out the babies, ship them off to Mars, and let Earth destroy itself.

But this was not a universal recommendation to every part of the world. On the contrary, others familiar with Musk have said he is concerned that third-world countries have higher birth rates than the U.S. and Europe, and that he sees his role as “helping seed the earth with more human beings of high intelligence.” [Id.]

Oh! My! God! He thinks he’s frickin’ Johnny Appleseed! “Seed the earth”??!!!

But wait. He also said, people of “high intelligence.” So I take it back — he’s not Johnny Appleseed . . .

. . . he’s this century’s Adolph Hitler, hell-bent on creating the Master Race.

And he is the idol of the pronatalist movement.

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As usual, I have questions:

— Wouldn’t it make more sense to try to fix the problems we’ve created here on Earth than to begin making the same stupid mistakes elsewhere?

— When should we expect the apocalypse? Should we begin planning now?

— How soon does he expect Mars to be habitable?

— Has he heard about all of the elements on Mars that are toxic to humans?

— Does he even know that his rockets keep failing?

— What makes him think his progeny will be intelligent? For that matter, how does he define “intelligent”? It’s different from merely being “educated,” you know.

— How sure is he that his children, grandchildren, etc., will choose to go along with his Dr. Strangelove-ish scheme?

— And finally . . . strictly from my own point of view . . . who wants to survive the apocalypse in any event? Have you seen those movies about the last people on earth?!!

*. *. *

There is no longer any doubt in my mind: the inmates are, in fact, running the asylum. And my first and foremost thought — to borrow the title of a show by the late, great Anthony Newley — is:

“Stop the World: I Want to Get Off.”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/19/25