Apparently, it’s been a one-sided affair up until now.
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Via memeorandum, I see an essay by Ben Domenech and Emily Jashinsky at The Federalist headlined “At Long Last, The Right Has Joined The Culture War” and with the subtitle “The left has understood the power of the culture war for half a century. But something happened leading into Tuesday: The right figured it out too.”
All I can say is, it’s about time.
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It’s a side issue, but given that Ben Domenech adores Trump and his wife Megan McCain loathes Trump, I’ve always wondered how they can stay married, let alone live in the same zip code.
As for the right suddenly joining the culture war…they’ve been fighting it since most of us were kids, if not longer.
I was getting mighty lonely.
Thank Odin the right finally decided to join in. I was getting bored.
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I know Domenech is pretty stupid. Did he really believe that the right was not waging political culture war?
Jerry Falwell would disagree. And that was the 70s.
The pearl clutching makes me want to vomit.
@gVOR08:
They might act as if there was a war on Christmas.
Be super pissy at you if you happened to say “Happy Holidays” to them. While ignoring the fact that most of Christmas is essentially pagan.
Scott Lemieux at LGM reviews the sudden and recent origin of CRT as a political issue. Compare and contrast with the Federalist piece James linked. And thank you James, as @Sleeping Dog: says, for reading The Federalist so I don’t have to. Although you made me skim this piece.
The Federalist piece is what I refer to as The TAC Fallacy, the belief that changes in culture are the result of some Demoncrat/Deep State/Soros conspiracy and the right is just clumsily and slowly responding. Except the TAC guys actually believe this and it’s unlikely Domenech does. It’s basically an extreme version of the Murc’s Law fallacy. Contra the Federalist link, I’ve been commenting for some weeks that CRT provides us an unusually clear and well documented example, if we’ll just look, of how FOX and the GOPs manufacture this nonsense almost from whole cloth.
@gVOR08: It is also very much the abuser’s excuse: look what you made me do!
Are they A) actually so stupid they believe their own lies? Or is it that B) they know their people are such idiots they’ll believe anything? As usual the answer is C: Both of the above.
D. Neither. Their speech is primarily pre-symbolic and if the particular words they’re saying have some meaning attached to them is irrelevant. Like a parrot saying “Polly wants a cracker”, the vocalization just means they want attention, or at best that they’re hungry, but it doesn’t have any actual attachment to having a preference for crackers.
@Jon:..Gah…
At least he’s not groaning from catheter pain…
@Mister Bluster: We don’t know that for sure; the Bible is unclear as to whether or not Cain was catheterized when he killed Abel. I’ve seen cogent arguments for both sides.
I used to have a neighbor that had a smart bird. We were buds. Her bird was a total effing bad-ass.
That bird would perch on my shoulder. Demand head strokes. I think it was a guy. It was bright and beautiful and the bird plumage truism is that guys are gaudy and preening. He (I really have no idea, I am assuming) loved head strokes.
He was quite the character. I was a new person he could buddy up to.
@Stormy Dragon:
If all they want is attention they seem to have accidentally acquired an awful lot of power in the process.
@Jon:..the Bible is unclear…
Apparently there are two creation stories in Genesis so how are we ever to know?
I think James did us all a disservice when he didn’t quote anything from the article.
While radical illiberalism crept from academia to the so-called real world, the establishment assured us it was a non-issue. Republicans boasted of their brilliant strategy to moderate on social issues, a theory that earned them Twitter follows from Very Serious People and airtime on cable news.
It was all wrong. All of it. The culture war is not only a moral battleground for conservatives, it’s a politically advantageous one. It animates voters. People care, not because they’re racist or unsophisticated, but because an unhealthy culture affects their everyday lives just as immediately as a higher tax bill. It’s not a distraction from “the issues,” it underlies all of them.
It’s a lot of words.
@Michael Reynolds: There’s an advanced bit of Q lore about the bloodlines of JFK, Patton, Donald Trump and Michael Flynn, which I barely followed when I heard about it.
So, now they are crimping from the Da Vinci Code, along with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Except now Tom Hanks is the villain rather than the hero.
@Michael Reynolds:
Well, there was Trumpkin par excellence Rick Santorum, who became CEO of Echolight Studios, a Christian moviemaker, in 2013. They seem not have made any movies since 2017.
Apparently there are two creation stories in Genesis so how are we ever to know?
I don’t know, I’m still trying to sort out the 20 Commandments, Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.
@Michael Reynolds:
Since conservatives suck at creating culture, of course they are losing the Culture Wars. As is typical, they think they are losing due to a lack of trying. They can’t grok that they are out of ammunition. They’ve wasted what little imagination they have on their alternate reality BS.
@de stijl: Alas, the Supreme Court of the United States decides what is constitutional and what is not. This is why who gets on it has been considered so important by so many people (and why the Notorious RBG and now the other octogenarian whose name I’ve forgotten are so foolish to not have known when to retire–and there’s even a Chinese/Korean proverb about it, too).
@Mister Bluster: Yeah, that the accounts represent two different stories by two different authors is certainly one opinion. The one I grew up with holds that the second being more in depth and more focused on the creation of man sets the stage for the further story about the fall and why that fall is significant, but are the work of one writer. I’m sure there are others available also.
@CSK: Wow! I just looked them up. They made a lot more movies than I thought they had–or is it that they made the same 2 or 3 movies 17 times total? Archetype is always confusing for me.
Whenever I seek guidance from Scripture I consult Azimov’s Guide to the Bible which ends thusly:
Jerusalem
A second creation, a perfect one, now replaces the old imperfect one:Revelation 21:1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; . . .
Revelation 21:2. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God . . .The new Jerusalem is filled with the triumphant symbolism of the number twelve both in its old and new meanings:
Revelation 21:10. . . . the holy Jerusalem . . .
Revelation 21:12. . . . had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates . . . and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
Revelation 21:14. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.And when the description of the city in the most glowing possible terms is completed, the writer of the book quotes an angel to remind the reader emphatically that all that is predicted is rapidly to come to pass:
Revelation 22:6. . . . These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God . . . sent his angel to shew . . . the things which must shortly be done.
Revelation 22:7. Behold, I come quickly . . .And with that assurance—still unfulfilled nearly two thousand years later—the New Testament ends.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Probably the same 2 or 3 17 times over. I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard of any of them. Sony Pictures and Universal Studios don’t seem to have ever quaked in their boots at the competition.
@Scott F.:
I just watched on over-long but interesting video on why conservatives aren’t funny. It made the point that conservative comics used to exist – the blue collar comedy tour, for instance – but the retreat from reality into a cultish paranoia made comedy essentially impossible for them. Comedy rests on identifying commonalities and looking at them from a different perspective, not on retaliating against liberal humor, and none of that happens when you’re swallowing hateful lies as your main diet and the only way you know how to punch is down.
There used to be a belief that Germans were not funny. But Henning Wehn is a stand-up working mostly in the UK, and he’s funny even in his second language. It’s not so much that Germans couldn’t be funny, rather it’s that Nazis can’t be.
@CSK: From what I read at IMDB, the movies are all “inspiring Lifetime/Hallmark overcoming tragedy and/or inspired by true events” fare. Given that both Lifetime and Hallmark have established production infrastructure, I’m not sure who would be buying these movies (I haven’t streamed a movie since… ever), so I can see how need for new productions might have dried up.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I think they used to have a website, but it seems to have vanished. Anyway, Rick seem to have moved on, not necessarily to greener pastures, given that he got bounced from his commentator’s gig at CNN this year.
I’ll never forget him saying that when he was elected president, his first message to the American people would be that it’s not okay for married Christian couples to use birth control. I suppose that means it’s okay for Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, pagan, and agnostic and atheist couples.
@CSK: I remember that. My reaction, as I recall, was that I hadn’t realized that he was being elected Prophet of God as well as President. But, yeah, Christians don’t have much say over what “the heathens” do. I wish more Christians realized this and will give him points (a very small number) for his restraint on the whole “Christian Nation” meme. (And probably be forced to take them away as soon as Kylopod or somebody else weighs in with something else more radical that he said. [sigh–eyeroll, facepalm])
Wait. Patton Oswald is part of Q lore now?
That’s pretty cool.
Zvei peanuts vere valking down the strasse. One vas assaulted.
But, yeah, Christians don’t have much say over what “the heathens” do.
It’s not that — it’s a competition, and they’re the adversary. Criticizing married Christians for not breeding comes from the same place as criticizing whites for not breeding — namely, a fear of being outnumbered by Them.
(It also recognizes the truth that religion is primarily inherited, not acquired — which should be proof all by itself that people’s beliefs are generally grounded in anything but indoctrination…)
@DrDaveT: Aren’t generally grounded in…
I got the edit button, and rejoiced — but when I submitting the edit, it told me I was no longer able to edit that comment. Pretty weird, since the comment had only been up for 30 seconds or so.
