The 1990s (and to a lesser extent, the 1980s and 1970s) were marked by the "Culture Wars", initiated by key influential Right Wing figures. After 9/11 and the War on Terror, these culture wars seemed to disappear off the radar with some exceptions. Fighting terrorism and labeling anyone who disagreed with their approach or methodology in fighting it as being anti-American became the Right Wing's top priority after 9/11.

However, it seems the Right Wing has all but abandoned the cause of fighting terrorism abroad, and is focusing instead again on their long dead crusade--Defeating Communism in America and reviving fears of a Cold War with Russia (see the Right Wing's outrage over the START Treaty).

Given that they seem to be back to decades' old favorites of theirs, could the 2010s also see a revival of the Culture Wars? Glenn Beck seems to have added elements to it in his own rhetoric, saying for example that the "Hippes" are running the government and that Vietnam veterans need to go out and "fight the Hippies again", and that 1969 was the YEAR which cemented America, because Good Americans (tm) favored the Moon Landing, while the "dope smoking Hippies" attended Woodstock. In Beck's mind, you could either watch the Moon Landing, or go to Woodstock. There was no middle point. I kid you not--he's said all these things.

So what do you think? Will the dormant Culture Wars revive in this decade?

The economic power elites drum up "culture wars" in lieu of "class wars."

The 1990s (and to a lesser extent, the 1980s and 1970s) were marked by the "Culture Wars", initiated by key influential Right Wing figures. After 9/11 and the War on Terror, these culture wars seemed to disappear off the radar with some exceptions. Fighting terrorism and labeling anyone who disagreed with their approach or methodology in fighting it as being anti-American became the Right Wing's top priority after 9/11.

However, it seems the Right Wing has all but abandoned the cause of fighting terrorism abroad, and is focusing instead again on their long dead crusade--Defeating Communism in America and reviving fears of a Cold War with Russia (see the Right Wing's outrage over the START Treaty).

Given that they seem to be back to decades' old favorites of theirs, could the 2010s also see a revival of the Culture Wars? Glenn Beck seems to have added elements to it in his own rhetoric, saying for example that the "Hippes" are running the government and that Vietnam veterans need to go out and "fight the Hippies again", and that 1969 was the YEAR which cemented America, because Good Americans (tm) favored the Moon Landing, while the "dope smoking Hippies" attended Woodstock. In Beck's mind, you could either watch the Moon Landing, or go to Woodstock. There was no middle point. I kid you not--he's said all these things.

So what do you think? Will the dormant Culture Wars revive in this decade?



I have heard of the Culture Wars, but don't know much about it. I think I'll research it; it sounds interesting!!

Max is right, and the culture wars didn't end.  Just look at the struggle over gay rights

It is people spewing fear again. Nothing has changed.

You have to fear him/her because he/she is (a) _____.

Fill in the blank with whatever word you like: commie, socialist, Muslim, lesbian, Irish, black, Jew, liberal, not like us, etc, etc.


Cat
 

It is people spewing fear again. Nothing has changed.

You have to fear him/her because he/she is (a) _____.

Fill in the blank with whatever word you like: commie, socialist, Muslim, lesbian, Irish, black, Jew, liberal, not like us, etc, etc.


Cat
 


The same piper calls a different tune whether it's FOX or MSNBC.  You will notice two things about any major university:
1. Identity politics are encouraged and revered.
2. The more money you give them, the more actual respect you get.

It's a similar principal to what you see on television.  Mercedes-Benz doesn't care if you're black or gay or female or all three.  They advertise on major media to get you to buy their cars.  In return, they ask your media company to portray corporations as decent entities.  It's all right to rip on BP for the oil spill.  Just don't say capitalism itself is a scourge upon humanity and a cancer on the ecology. 
::)

I have heard of the Culture Wars, but don't know much about it. I think I'll research it; it sounds interesting!!


Culture War.

60s-70s: Yup, there were real commies, operating under instructions from Russia.  Some of them really were behind some of the hippie groups. 

80s: By this time, the right had pretty much figured that part out, and most of the left didn't believe it.  If you were a right-winger, that meant everyone on the left was a Goddless Russian Communist.  If you were a leftist, that meant that everyone on the right was a Paranoid Bircher Lunatic.

90s: By this time, the left had pretty much figured it out too, but didn't care.  And the right had bifurcated into country-club republicans and the Moral Majority.  Under the "big tent" philosophy, we all held our noses and voted together, even though we kinda despised each other. 

The quintessential moment of the 90s culture wars was in 1992 - when an early-90s sitcom plot line involving a wealthy/successful/professional/single/older/female news reporter (Murphy Brown) deciding to become a single mother because she wanted a kid without the hassle of having a husband, and then-VP candidate Dan Quayle said that "it doesn't help matters when primetime TV has Murphy Brown - a character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly paid, professional woman - mocking the importance of fathers, by bearing a child alone, and calling it just another 'lifestyle choice.'"

We capitalists took our chances with the fundies, figuring they'd be useful cannon fodder if we had to duke it out with Godless Russian Communism.  The fundies took their chances with us capitalists, figuring they could take over while we'd defend them from Godless Russian Communism.  (I shouldn't gripe too much - we both kept up our respective sides of the bargain. :)

00s: With Terri Schiavo, the schism in the Elephant Party became irreconcilable.  Republican-oriented message boards purged anyone who wasn't sufficiently religious.  And anyone reading this is aware of how the story's played out since then.  I'm bummed as anyone - I never thought the fundies would manage to hijack the party.

If the culture wars are truly back, I'll be heading to Canada, Australia, or Europe.  But I don't think they are.  I think the temporary resurgance is the last gasp of a dying (the conservatives among the Silent/Boomer) generation.  There aren't enough of them left to swing elections in the ways in which they were able to in the 90s/00s.  It's over.  They lost.  The younger generations are fed up; they simply don't care about cultural issues, and I thank "Bob" for that.

I never watched "Murphy Brown."  It wasn't my thing.  I never would have heard Murphy Brown had a baby out of wedlock if Dan Quayle hadn't flipped his wig about it.  That's a perfect example of ginned-up phony "Culture War."  Television is not reality.  Quayle and the Right wanted to blame poverty on out-of-wedlock births and blame out-of-wedlock births on television programs.  Therefore, it's Hollywood's fault that Compton looked like a war zone.  Crapola. 

Quayle also railed against Ice-T's "Cop Killer" as "Promoting a negative view of law enforcement."  Nothing to do with the police being the army of occupation in our inner cities.  Nothing to do with African American youth getting unwarranted beatdowns from the cops in the streets.  Nothing to do with cops profiling Black kids for harassment.  Nope, that wouldn't incite rage against cops.  It's rap music that's the problem, not economic injustice!

"Culture Wars" attribute the realities of people's lives to choices made under the influence of education and entertainment and minimizes the royal screwing the super rich give everybody else.
::)