To think this is the actual start of real-life Gilead...

[StandFirm]

Interestingly this conference is being held in a city that is normally described as a 'blue dot in a sea of red'... As I've been saying on other threads, the logic of the far right is to replace immigration with forced breeding of certain ethnicities. The ultimate agenda is that feminism in all its forms, and by extension the education & career prospects of women must be severely restricted and the white race force-bred. How? through restriction of access to birth control and abortion services, and numerous devious ways to undo women's progress in the workplace: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/03/natal-conference-austin-texas-eugenics
This is completely dystopian and sadly entirely predictable. Let's make sure this shite never gets here. It may seems far away over in crazy Trumpland but complacency will get us nowhere.

I quite often think America thinks The Handmaid's Tale is a how to guide.

JFC. They're describing themselves as scientific racists. I can't believe scum like this are so blatant but of course, they're all on Twitter.

I also think they put 1984 to good use

I implore everyone to read at least one other book.

It’s a niche conference with a predicted attendance of a few thousand people, in a city with a population of over a million, in a country with a population of around 350 million. Suggesting that it implies anything about how the average American actually feels is like finding a Flat Earthers event taking place in the Lancaster University Student Union and taking it as an indicator of the U.K. becoming anti-science and calling it the start of a real-life re-Medievalisation of the UK.

Of course people have read other books. But there is a very obvious parallel between this real event and the fictional world of Gilead. A conference about driving up birth rates in a state that has outlawed abortion in almost all cases. Essentially a bunch of right wing men getting together to override women's reproductive rights.

Rolling your eyes at the "obviousness" of the reference is a strange reaction, in my opinion.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Well it has already happened in Afghanistan, and the world doesn't seem to give a damn, so why not in America?

America isn't Afghanistan, hope that helps

I think the fact that it's being held in Austin is interesting. Austin is the most liberal city in Texas, I'd not be surprised if it was any of the other cities.

For a start, America is a democracy. We might not like how they vote, but they do have the right. And the vast majority of women there are not going to vote for Gilead.
It's a niche conference, it has no power whatsoever.

sorry if I've misunderstood your post but I'm actually in the middle of rewatching the Handmaids Tale. No female voted for Gilead did they (maybe Serena Joy who was involved at the start, or did all the commander's wives vote for it?).

I thought they had fake terrorist attacks which led to marshall law, then women were told to leave work and then had their bank closed only to be accessed with their husbands permission.

In the flashbacks it shows you crowds trying to protest against what was happening and them being shot at with June and Moira eventually running and sheltering in a coffee shop. Also you see crowds of people shouting hate at Serena Joy when she talks at a university.

(I might need to get out more!).

I'm sure though that the vast majority of woman did not vote for Gilead.

But that's my point. America IS a democracy. It can't happen the way it did in the Handmaid's Tale because of it. You cannot declare martial law and bring in unconstitutional rules. The system, the courts wouldn't allow it, no matter how much Trump would like it to. He couldn't even get out of paying his foreign aid bills this week. He was blocked by a republic majority, conservative-heavy Supreme Court that from the outside, would obviously be his supporters. The only way Gilead could be created is voluntarily, and that won't happen.

Actually, many dictatorships start with at least strong popular support. They don't materialise out of a vacuum. It's much more complicated than that. I am aware that this particular conference is fairly niche. What is not niche however is the context in which this is taking place: with a far right government in power and a natalist billionaire (Musk) exerting strong influence over it. Those elements combined with the reversal of Roe v Wade and the brutal pushback against anything promoting equality (including women-specific medical research) make this particular conference feel like the harbinger of something really sinister.