…Or is this just how things are going to be from now on? We currently live in a world where the dominant narrative is essentially that every single trait a person can have marks that person as a historical enemy and existential threat to a person with the opposite trait. “Men have always been the cruel oppressors of women”, “women only want men for their money”, “Western civilization is inhumane and must be dismantled”, “POC are just jealous of Western civilization’s prosperity and want to destroy it out of resentment”, and all of these other extremely divisive statements that are literally keeping everyone at each other’s throats.
The differences are irreconcilable at this point. For any of these identities to compromise would be far too much to ask from their perspective, regardless of what the “kind” or “right” thing to do is. It wasn’t this bad before. I remember back in the days before social media that if a man abused a woman, the consensus among most men was that he was a monster and not an “Alpha”. And on the flipside it wasn’t a sin against progress for a woman to want a man’s affection. There was a general consensus that all the races of mankind should all set aside their differences and the prevailing attitude was that we should work to a more united world. But now every race is blaming another race for everything bad that’s ever happened to their people and nobody can even justify letting go of that argument because “justice” would mean that the other race has to “pay” for what it did in history.
I’m so tired of this. It’s made me lose my faith in humanity entirely and I hate feeling like there’s nothing on the horizon but more of this constant animosity. Is there any reason to believe that things can ever be back to the way they were in the 90s, 2000s and early 2010s? Or are we locked in a true cultural impasse that can only be resolved by a degree of violence that none of us would want to see?
Comments
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Culture war issues are the product of real antagonisms in society. Taking a vastly oversimplified example, as long as men hold the majority of wealth and political power in the country and one in six women are subject to sexual assault, our culture will find ways to express this gendered conflict in ways that are helpful and unhelpful, in the form of identities, assumptions, generalizations, narratives, etc … and then capitalism will commodify that conflict to sell it for profit.
I find simple Gramscian base/superstructure analysis useful here (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_and_superstructure): the material productive forces in society shape the art, law, culture society produces (and are maintained and shaped by them in turn). The culture we see under capitalism is a funhouse mirror reflecting the real material conflicts that undergird society. If we want to resolve or soften these cultural issues we need to take policy steps to resolve these conflicts in a just manner, at the base.
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Assuming your perspective is that of the US, this is an extremely rose-colored glasses view of how things were “before”. The MeToo movement came about specifically because sexual assault often went unreported for various reasons in the past, not because it didn’t happen or the perpetrators were properly handled in the community. They were clearly not properly handled, otherwise the movement wouldn’t exist. Likewise, your take on race is unfortunately wildly naïve. Segregation, continued redlining after segregation, a plethora of evidence of many other forms of racial inequality was the norm in the past and still persists today. It wasn’t dealt with. White America could just more easily shield itself from race issues in the past.
So yes, as long as there is inequality (or alternatively such brutal suppression of those who don’t fit in with the group in power that they simply cannot be heard, i.e. are likely killed), there will be “culture wars” as you describe. But please don’t paint this in the both-sides fashion that you have. These conflicts exist because oppression persists. When the oppressed fight for fair treatment, they are not asking to destroy society, and it is not the same as oppressors in power complaining about having to deal with calls for fair treatment.
Baugh, J. (2015). SWB (Speaking While Black): Linguistic Profiling and Discrimination Based on Speech as a Surrogate for Race against Speakers of African American Vernacular English. In S. Lanehart (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of African American Language (pp. 755–769). Oxford University Press.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (1997). Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation. American Sociological Review, 62(3), 465–480. JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.2307/2657316
Casanova, P. G. (1965). Internal colonialism and national development. Studies in Comparative International Development, 1(4), 27–37. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02800542
Firebaugh, G., & Davis, K. E. (1988). Trends in Antiblack Prejudice, 1972-1984: Region and Cohort Effects. American Journal of Sociology, 94(2), 251–272. https://doi.org/10.1086/228991
Harris, C. I. (1993). Whiteness as Property. Harvard Law Review, 106(8), 1707–1791. https://doi.org/10.2307/1341787
Holzer, H., & Neumark, D. (2000). Assessing Affirmative Action. Journal of Economic Literature, 38(3), 483–568. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.38.3.483
Jones, J. S., Alexander, C., Wynn, B. N., Rossman, L., & Dunnuck, C. (2009). Why Women Don’t Report Sexual Assault to the Police: The Influence of Psychosocial Variables and Traumatic Injury. The Journal of Emergency Medicine, 36(4), 417–424. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jemermed.2007.10.077
Lovejoy, P. E. (1982). The Volume of the Atlantic Slave Trade: A Synthesis. The Journal of African History, 23(4), 473–501.
Ray, V. (2019). A Theory of Racialized Organizations. American Sociological Review, 84(1), 26–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122418822335
Rhode, D. L. (2019). #metoo: Why Now? What Next? Duke Law Journal, 69(2), 377–428.
Smith, J. A., McPherson, M., & Smith-Lovin, L. (2014). Social Distance in the United States: Sex, Race, Religion, Age, and Education Homophily among Confidants, 1985 to 2004. American Sociological Review, 79(3), 432–456. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122414531776
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I hope I don’t get my comment deleted, because I feel your post.
Are you American? I ask because we had a tumultuous time during culture war in the 60-70s that had its roots in post WW2. People were just less aware of it because information and opinions were so readily available. This culture war isn’t a new thing, and it won’t be our last one.
My personal belief is that we need a cause to rally behind and shift our priorities.
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Why can’t I give this comment 100 up votes!?
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I’m noticing exactly what you are talking about in the comments section. A simple lack of reflection in what might be causing more extremism is ignored and the focus is brought back to an oppressed vs. oppressor narrative.
Algorithmic polarization, the linking of political identity to one’s intrinsic value system, and Russian agents that infiltrated Western social media whose purpose was to polarize society through popularizing extremist viewpoints contributed significantly.
Algorithmic polarization:
Source: Tufekci, Z. (2015). “Algorithmic Harms beyond Facebook and Google: Emergent Challenges of Computational Agency.” Colorado Technology Law Journal, [Link]().
Source: Bail, C. A., et al. (2018). “Exposure to Opposing Views on Social Media Can Increase Political Polarization.” PNAS. [https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1804840115]()
Combining political identity to a value system:
Source: Mason, L. (2018). Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity. University of Chicago Press.
Source: Fiorina, M. P., Abrams, S. J. (2008). “Political Polarization in the American Public.” Annual Review of Political Science.
Russian Social Media Influence:
The IRA, a Kremlin-linked organization based in St. Petersburg, led coordinated disinformation efforts across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube:
U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Report (Volume 2, 2019): “Russia’s Use of Social Media”
[https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume2.pdf]()
The IRA’s Instagram content received far more engagement than Facebook or Twitter in America:
DiResta, R. et al. (2018). “The Tactics and Tropes of the Internet Research Agency”. New Knowledge.
https://disinformationreport.blob.core.windows.net/disinformation-report/NewKnowledge-Disinformation-Report-Whitepaper-121718.pdf
Russian operatives identified identity-based flashpoints and targeted them with precision:
Howard, P. N., et al. (2018). “The IRA, Social Media and Political Polarization in the United States, 2012–2018”. Oxford Internet Institute.
[https://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/ira-political-polarization/]()
Thousands of automated accounts (bots) and human “trolls” generated millions of tweets. Trolls were trained in English, American cultural references, and memes:
Linvill, D., & Warren, P. (2018). Clemson University’s IRA Archive Analysis. [https://medium.com/@darren.linvill]()
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Why are so many comments deleted on this post? Why is interesting discussion censored?
I would say a lot of people was just oblivious to the culture war and mainstream didn’t cover it, mainstream is dead now, or rather social media is far larger and more active than mainstream now so you see it everywhere.
I also think the culture war wont lead to any sort of solution or unity or anything like that.
Which is why I created a subreddit that tries to fight against the ideas of division and culture wars, etc.
My only hope is that more of these types of subreddits and movements keeps popping up.
Here is the subreddit i’m talking about. https://www.reddit.com/r/NeoModernMovement/
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Look at the sixties for chrissakes , the world almost ended a few times and for the first time we were in a war that virtually all of the youth was completely against . Soldiers were “fragging” their officers because they (for the first time) have gotten a good idea of what was haopening on the outside , incredible. What a nightmare .
The seventies oh just choose something please , okay just look at New York in the seventies is like the charicature for what a bad city is. Burning garbage cans , car theft constantly , red light districts etc
Eighties and the AIDS epidemic alone I’m sure was fucking nightmare fuel and everyone being down on the gays and drug users because of how it’s spread like Ok omg that is absolutely horrifying.
The Nineties were like 100 years in ten I think due to the tech that was out there was what we have today basically we just weren’t sure about it yet . The govt through the Ruby Ridge accident and WACO the L Harlins murder lef to the LA riots and the premier American west coast city BURNED in front of the world as we shook our heads at the blighted dept of police that was absolutely destroyed and plagued by the most cruel and violent draconian racism . Rodney king getting best on tape , nope those guys go free . Like what? After a while of that it created a temp and sitch for OJ to do what he did and get away with it due to the poisoning of the zeitgeist it was absolutely incredible.
Nirvana collective soul Green Day sublime NIN notorious BIG Tupac Eminem Okg the list goes on of the musical contribution due to all the turmoil . Oklahoma City bombing BOOM. Insanely violent . Horrifying .
We are who we are, when we are . Expect about fifty fifty evil -good. Be a good person . No kids , no animals . Ever . That applies to violence ,sex, drugs etc. lol ij Russia alone , 28 MILLION people died from 1939-45. We won’t have to live through that so hey. When you live somewhere thats nice enough to be bored …. lol!
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Has a culture war EVER ended without a winner or loser? Basically one eventually overwhelming the other into leaving, oblivion, or dominion.
Genuinely would love to be proven wrong with examples.
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