Hipster fascism is still fascism: Pronatalist runs for Pennsylvania legislature

Photo via Simone Collins for State Rep. campaign website

PHILADELPHIA—In the small town of Audubon, Penn., a suburban community neighboring Philadelphia, lives the Collins family. Millionaire parents Simone and Malcolm Collins have seen a recent stint of national media attention due to their advocacy of pro-natalism and corporal parenting style.

The couple are part of a growing movement obsessed with declining birthrates in advanced capitalist economies. With four children themselves, the Collinses founded the website pronatalist.org, where they encourage other couples—at least those like themselves—to have more babies, a lot of them. In 2023, the British Telegraph newspaper called them “the elite couple breeding to save mankind.”

They’re not the religious fundamentalist types that might come to mind in discussions about having large numbers of offspring. Instead, these are highly-educated tech investors who started their own travel company and emphasize their atheism and adherence to science (especially the “science” of better breeding).

The pro-natalist movement counts such prominent figures Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and X/Tesla owner Elon Musk among its backers. The goal of the natalists, as expressed by the conservative Claremont Institute’s Peachy Keenan at one of their recent conferences, is to “seize the means of production,” meaning they should have more children than liberals and progressives.

As for Simone and Malcolm Collins, they’re not just rank-and-file adherents of the trend; they’re actively working to increase its influence—and the political power of the bigger agenda behind it.

Simone is campaigning to become the Montgomery County (District 150) representative in the Pennsylvania State House. With no opposition, she very easily became the Republican Party nominee and is set to face off against Democratic incumbent Joseph Webster in the November general election.

Her platform, which can be found on her candidate website, mirrors whom she and Malcolm are, as well as the politics they embody. While her campaign endeavors to promote the image of the candidate and her husband as simply two young parents with earnest beliefs that center the wellbeing of children, the policies she advocates are nothing but far-right extremism.

Simone promotes “education innovation,” which in actuality amounts to the privatization of public schools. “Elimination of bureaucratic bloat” is code for dismantling of government-funded public services. Simone says that as an elected official she would “promote cultural sovereignty,” which really means the implementation and encouragement of state-sanctioned bigotry. “Automating and integrating AI into government services” is spin for the mass elimination of unionized government jobs.

And as for the pro-natalist ideology, in essence, it is merely a repackaged version of the white nationalist “great replacement theory.” Its proponents are regulars on the pro-natalist circuit these days. Jared Taylor, publisher of the white supremacist magazine American Renaissance, was one of the speakers at a pro-natalist conference the Collinses recently attended, for instance.

Behind Simone Collins’ vibrant, young, and fresh face for conservative ideas lays the same anti-worker, bigoted, far-right policies being advocated by the fascists within the GOP on the national level. Beneath the veil, the differences between her platform and the platform of overt MAGA Republicans are hard to find.

Given that Pennsylvania will be a heavily-contested state in the November general election, it is not inconceivable that this race may get more contentious over time as the presidential candidates at the top of the ticket duke it out over critical democratic and economic issues.

With millions of dollars in the bank and a social media following of nearly 10,000, Simone and Malcolm Collins will continue to strategically amplify their right-wing pro-natalist ideas as well as parrot the talking points coming from the MAGA-controlled GOP. Many in District 150 see the Republican nominee for who she really is, though. Democratic incumbent Webster has out-fundraised Collins to the tune of about $80,000 so far, and he has received endorsements from the AFL-CIO, SEIU, Equality Pennsylvania, Sierra Club, and more.

Fascism, a chameleon-like phenomenon, is constantly adapting to changing social and economic conditions, pulling from popular culture and fringe subcultures alike. The result of this synthesis is a “Frankenstein’s monster”-esque movement with multiple factions, cliques, and circles all pushing the same far-right ideas, repackaged to appeal to the different bases they’re attempting to reach.

In the case of Simone and Malcolm Collins, new parents, millennials, and the people of Montgomery County need not be fooled. Fascism with a cheesy hipster twist is still fascism.

As with all op-ed and news analytical articles published by People’s World, this article reflects the views of its author.

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CONTRIBUTOR

Dom Shannon

Dom Shannon is a labor organizer, cultural commentator, public health nurse, and Communist Party leader in Philadelphia.