Archive for the ‘Culture Wars’ Category

Politicians and media told to stop fabricating culture wars – The Guardian

Much of the focus on so-called culture war issues in the UK is based on confected controversies, a thinktank analysis has suggested, with the debate artificially inflamed by politicians and commentators and then amplified by social media.

While some countries waged such battles over more genuine societal divides, the UKs culture wars simply pitted deprived communities against each other and tended to caricature movements for equality, the Fabian Society said.

The report from the leftwing organisation charted the trajectory of a series of recent controversies attributed to culture wars, such as debate over whether Rule, Britannia! should be played on the final night of the Proms, and supposed efforts to cancel the film Grease, concluding that these do not reflect genuine divisions and are largely stoked by politicians and the media.

It warned politicians from both the left and right to avoid taking part in such antics, lest political discourse in the UK become as fractured as that in the US.

The public deserves better than fabricated fights, said Kirsty McNeill, a charity executive and former Labour adviser who co-authored the analysis.

The temptations for all political parties are clear. Riling up a base and pointing it at an imagined enemy is much easier than doing the hard yards involved in meeting the prime ministers ambition to level up. Equally, ignoring rivals attempts to sow division wont help Keir Starmer assemble a broad and diverse coalition to back his vision of a fairer country.

Roger Harding, the other author, who heads the Reclaim youth charity, said: Culture-war peddlers often use contrived stories to pit working-class communities against one another and caricature movements for racial and LGBT equality.

Boris Johnsons government has been accused of seeking to capitalise on culture war issues to stir up its base, with attacks on so-called woke culture, and a campaign to prevent the institutions such as museums and galleries from critically re-examining the UKs past.

Among the most vehement criticism came in June when Samuel Kasumu, Johnsons former adviser on race, said he feared such provocations could beget another outrage like the murders of Stephen Lawrence or Jo Cox.

The Fabian Society analysis warned politicians on the left to avoid the temptation to engage in such culture war battles, arguing that they tend to simply divide opinion over the prospects of positive change.

Another report on the issue, published last week by the rightwing Centre for Policy Studies, based on polling among the public, argued that while genuine differences of opinion on values existed between Conservative and Labour supporters, the bulk of voters were more exercised by matters such as paying bills.

The study, compiled by the veteran US pollster and communications expert Frank Luntz, uncovered what he called alarming findings of discontent about UK politicians. Asked to rank 18 descriptions of how British political leaders made them feel, split between positive and negative emotions, the top eight choices were disappointed, ignored, irrelevant, fed up, betrayed, forgotten, left behind and angry.

Andrew Harrop, general secretary of the Fabian Society, said those on the left must focus their energy not on winning culture wars, but on calling them out.

He said: It will not be easy to end the culture wars which have become a valuable tool for cynics on the right. These fake controversies create division between people with shared economic needs and they distract the public from a low tax, low regulation, libertarian worldview that few in Britain support.

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Politicians and media told to stop fabricating culture wars - The Guardian

Whos Actually Responsible for the Culture War? – The Bulwark

There is a poll thats been going around for the past week or so that is providing some comforting affirmation of priors for the crowd of elite Republicans who secretly hate Trump but are just scared shitless about Kamalas America. The Edmund Burke write-in set, if you will.

The data was first compiled by the liberal blogger Kevin Drum in a post titled, If you hate the culture wars, blame liberals. Drum looked at a series of metrics to demonstrate that Democratic voters have moved further left than Republicans have moved right in recent years. You can read the whole thing here.

Peggy Noonan essentially turned over her entire WSJ column last week to Drum (a nice gig if you can get it), quoting him at great length before asking Why, then, is it still conventional wisdom on the left and in the mainstream media that it is conservatives who are culture warmongers?

When I got to that rhetorical query I was taken back to fourth-grade social studies class when I still felt an earnest jolt of joy knowing I had the answer. Pick me! Pick me! I know!

And well, the TL;DR is this: that data is addressing the views of voters, while the conventional wisdom is responding to the actions of politicians and political media personalities.

Look again at Drums polls:

First, a couple nitpicks.

Nitpicks aside, it is undeniable that Democratic base voters have moved left and become more uniformly partisan on a series of issues. And theres no doubt that schools and corporations and other institutions have shifted left alongside them.

Drum writes that if this shift is not done with empathy and tact it risks outrunning the vast middle part of the country, which progressive activists seem completely uninterested in talking to.

This is valid political analysis. There are political ramifications to swift leftward shifts on various cultural issues that the Democrats should reckon with as David Shor and others have argued. There are also real social and cultural ramifications. It can create social strife for culturally conservative Americans to feel uncomfortable expressing their views at home or in the workplace for fear of being chastisedor worseover issues they have little familiarity with.

All of this is absolutely correct.

But when it comes to the actions of politicians, the aggressive, top down Culture War is being driven overwhelmingly from the right. And the shift rightward among Republican politicians on culture war issues is as dramaticif not more sothan the leftward shift among Democratic voters on policy.

Consider the Ohio Senate race as just one representative example. Rob Portman was the first Republican senator to come out for gay marriage and he even beat quite a few of his Democratic colleagues to the punch. You would no more catch him feigning outrage over the latest culture war nontroversy du jour than you would see him taking down Herschel Walker in an MMA fight.

Well, Portman is yesterdays man. Hes exiting stage right and any other such Republicans with accommodating dispositions are being either actively expelled from party politics or are self-deporting.

Meanwhile, the race to replace Portman is a culture war parody so ludicrously mockable that the dialogue would make Christopher Guest roll his eyes and ask that the volume be turned back down to a 9.

In the past week, J.D. Vance has:

His opponent, Josh Mandel, uses a pinned tweet atop his Twitter timeline in which he robotically burns a mask like a high-school pyromaniac.

Mandel has tweeted about many of the same issues as J.D.while adding a dollop of Islamophobia and a broadside at the gay pride parade as well, going so far as to suggest Bidens preference for it over the Mt. Rushmore fireworks might reveal his real agenda. (Dont tell Josh, but heres a preview of what the gays have planned. Its going to be lit!)

Now look across the aisle at what the Democrat running for the that Ohio Senate seatRep. Tim Ryanis doing with his social media feed. It is entirely made up of pablum about jobs for working families and pictures of him visiting union workers. His most recent issue-related post endorsed voting rights, infrastructure, and bringing down health care costs. Hes not running on reparations, or a program to take away the tax exempt status of churches or mandating Ibram X. Kendi books in middle-school curricula.

Tim Ryan wont even engage in culture war battles when his opponents bait him with a Fight Me About Drag Queen Story Hour I Dare You dunce cap. I tried to find the last example of Ryan sending a tweet that could be described as liberal culture war fodder but got bored around mid-June and gave up.

The story is basically the same in competitive races all across the country, where you see Democrats focusing on bread-and-butter issues while their Republican counterparts get big mad about Dr. Seusss self-cancellation.

And this is a replica of last years general election during which Biden leaned into the Sleepy Joe nickname with the most soporific presidential campaign rhetoric in memory, while Trump was drunk-driving from outrage to outrage looking to pick any fight he could. Caravans! All Lives Matter! CNN and Fredo! Flag Burning! Murder Antifa! Kneeling NFL Players!

Meanwhile here in 2021, Republican bigwigs spent the weekend participating in an anti-vaccine, election truthing freak show in Texas that could best be described as All Culture; No Cattle. And the entire party unified last week around the fabricated and deadly culture war that vilifies public servants who are simply trying to offer people a life-saving vaccine in the comfort of their own home.

Back to Peggy Noonan for a moment. In her column she concluded that the cultural provocations that are currently tearing us apart do, certainly and obviously, come from progressives.

Are the provocateurs she refers to the politicians in power, or the double masking Average Janes (She/Her) who annoy her at her Upper East Side zumba class?

Thats kind of an important distinction.

Take this for example: Last year around this time George Floyd was brutally killed by a police officer in Minnesota, which set off a nationwide protest movement calling for police reform. This was a leftward shift! A bipartisan group of politicians has tried to address the issue by debating a wide range of policy options. Progressive activists agitated for more aggressive change (ACAB). And the Republican president gassed the protesters and threatened to shoot them. In the political context, who is the provocateur? The killer cop? The protesters? The anarchists? Or the president who used this moment of strife to divide rather than to heal? I know my answer.

The thing about Drums analysis is that its undeniably true that the political Overton window has shifted left on some issues. But the voter support for that shift isnt the only determining factor in trying to understand whatand whois tearing this country apart.

Social change is constant.

Civil rights, technology, advancements in science, new religions and philosophical concepts, demographic shiftsthese specific changes are always new, but change itself is constant. Whether its people moving from farms to cities, computers remaking the workplace, or gay folks wanting the right to marry.

This country is a living organism, not a display in a museum.

And while social changes are inevitable, theyre also flammable. Throughout history demagogues of all political persuasions have used these changes to try to create resentment as a tool to amass power.

Its the inflamers, the arsonists who are responsible for the war part of the culture war.

Yes, the scores of millions of people who create cultural change in the daily comings and goings of their lives should be more forbearing with everyone else. That would be awesome. #Endorse #LiveTheChange

But thats not where the culture war comes from. The culture war is the creation of specific, powerful peoplewhose names we all knowwho cynically and intentionally view conflict as a means to increase their power.

Link:
Whos Actually Responsible for the Culture War? - The Bulwark

The culture wars invade the Alamo – POLITICO – Politico

With help from Quint Forgey and Patterson Clark

HOW TO REMEMBER THE ALAMO The Alamos halo extends far beyond the San Antonio square it occupies. For many Americans, the historic site is a symbol of the virtuousness of fighting in a righteous, losing cause. Texas politicians have long debated how to depict the 1836 battle in which Davy Crockett and a handful of Texas legends unsuccessfully tried to defend the outpost against the Mexican army. But a new book has made the argument more urgent, especially because its being released at a time when the GOP has been fighting progressive attempts to incorporate racial reckoning into American history curriculums.

Today Texas Gov. Greg Abbott included a ban on critical race theory in schools on the agenda for a special legislative session that starts Thursday. Hes already signed a bill that prescribes a list of founding documents that Texas students must be taught. And last week the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin canceled an event, after pressure from Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, for the authors of Forget the Alamo, a newly published book that is part of an effort to recast the Texas creation myth as a battle for white slaveholders.

Dan Phillips, a member of the San Antonio Living History Association, patrols the Alamo during a pre-dawn memorial ceremony to remember the 1836 Battle of the Alamo and those who fell on both sides, in San Antonio. | AP Photo/Eric Gay

Bryan Burrough, a longtime Vanity Fair correspondent and one of the books co-authors, talked with Nightly today about how the Alamo became embroiled in the new culture war over American history. This conversation has been edited.

The Alamo has so much symbolism in Texas. Abbott signed a number of conservative gun bills at the San Antonio spot a few weeks ago. Can you describe what it means to Texans?

Its always been broadly accepted that the Alamo is the heart of the Texas creation myth, the heart of the whole idea of Texas exceptionalism which is the idea that we were somehow a cut above the Rhode Islands and the Delawares of the world. And that is an idea that probably is a little bit more popular with Anglos and older conservatives.

Where once opinion was monolithic about the Alamo 50 years ago, it has slowly divided the state over the last 15 years with the birth of Alamo revisionism, which we trace to the oral traditions of the Mexican American community.

The book builds on 30 or 40 years of new academic work to bring these ideas to a broader audience. Im aware that three middle-age white guys are not the ideal messenger for that, but look, nobody else was saying it.

Well, Mexican Americans in Texas have been saying it for awhile.

This was utterly news to me, like it was to a lot of Anglos, what the Alamo and the Texas creation myth have meant to Mexican Americans in Texas. The way its been used to beat them down. Until the last few years I was proud of these myths.

How should the Alamo be taught in Texas schools?

What were advancing is the standard academic understanding of the Texas revolt. Whats radical is the fact that a great portion of Texas Anglos still accept these and embrace these fanciful legends.

At a time when America is going through such a sweeping reassessment of its racial past, its time for Texas and the Alamo to stop getting a pass, to actually deal with its history, to rediscover the actual history, the actual Alamo, rather than the one of legend.

Why is it so hard for many Texans to accept what you are trying to say in this book?

This book is incredibly hard for Texans to accept, because they grew up being taught this just like they were taught the Bible or the Constitution or anything else. It was fact, not open to question. On an emotional level, this speaks to what many Texans want to believe desperately about the state, that it arose from heroic circumstances, that theres a reason that the state is special and therefore you and I are special. The first time I told my girlfriend the name of this book, she literally slithered out of the booth onto the floor. This is sacrilege down here.

Dont hate me Iowans, but without the Alamo, Texas is just Iowa.

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at [emailprotected], or on Twitter at @RenuRayasam.

Trump filing class action suits against Twitter, Facebook and Google: Former President Donald Trump said today that he filed class action lawsuits against the leaders of Facebook, Twitter and Google after he was booted off their platforms in January. Trumps political operation issued fundraising appeals almost immediately after the announcement.

Remaining metal fencing around Capitol set to come down: The remaining metal fencing surrounding the Capitol is set to come down more than six months after the worst attack on the building since the War of 1812. The removal of the remaining fencing around the Capitol is expected to begin as early as this Friday and finish within three days, weather permitting, according to a memo from House Sergeant at Arms William Walker that was sent to all members of Congress and staff.

Conservative climate caucus head: GOP has shifted on warming: Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah) says hes poised to lead his party to the negotiating table in search of durable solutions to the climate challenge after years of working to understand the issue. He announced a new Conservative Climate Caucus last month, complete with the backing of nearly a third of House Republicans, in hopes of getting the GOP more comfortable talking about climate and their proposals. Curtis, a former mayor of Provo, Utah, who came to Congress in 2017, understands the skepticism some may have toward the group, and said hes ready to be judged in a year on what effect its had on the climate change conversation.

Judge: Air Force mostly at fault in 2017 Texas church attack: A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Air Force is mostly responsible for a former serviceman killing more than two dozen people at a Texas church in 2017 because it failed to submit his criminal history into a database, which should have prevented him from purchasing firearms. U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in San Antonio wrote in a ruling signed today that the Air Force was 60 percent responsible for the deaths and injuries at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs. The attack remains the worst mass shooting in Texas history.

Adams waxes national in post-primary interviews as Garcia and Wiley concede: Eric Adams hit the airwaves today to discuss how his Democratic primary win, which is almost certain to propel him into Gracie Mansion, has larger implications for the national politics of policing, violence prevention and public safety. We have demonized public protection in this city and this country because we have too many abusive officers who are allowed to stay in our agency, he said during an interview with CBS. But at the same time, we have ignored the problems that fed violence in our country. And I say we need to stop doing that. New York is going to show America how to run cities.

Belgium urgently recalls envoy in Seoul after wifes second fight: Belgian Foreign Minister Sophie Wilms is recalling the countrys ambassador to Seoul without further delay after his wifes fights have become big news in South Korea for the second time in four months. Belgium had already officially recalled Ambassador Peter Lescouhier in May after CCTV footage of his wife slapping a shopkeeper triggered a national scandal in Korea in April.

ASSASSINATION ROCKS HAITI Breaking news reporter Quint Forgey emails Nightly:

As youve probably heard, Haitis president 53-year-old Jovenel Mose was killed overnight in his private residence in the hills above the capital city of Port-au-Prince. The attack also severely wounded first lady Martine Mose.

The assassination of its leader is just the latest blow to the Carribean nation, which is battling a host of crises related to crime, Covid and accusations of mounting authoritarianism.

Mose ruled by decree for more than a year after Haiti failed to hold elections, and he had recently taken steps to expand his power despite calls by opposition leaders to step down.

Just a day before his death, Mose unilaterally tapped a new prime minister the seventh of his presidential tenure to form a government. But in a private call with lawmakers today, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Michele Sison noted that Moses appointee hasnt even been sworn in yet. Further complicating the line of succession, the head of Haiti's Supreme Court died two weeks ago after contracting Covid.

So who runs Haiti now? For the time being, it appears as though interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph is in charge. He said in a statement today that the countrys National Police and armed forces were in control of its security.

Things could change in September, when Haiti is scheduled to begin elections. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at a briefing today that its still the view of the United States that elections this year should proceed.

But Sison, the U.S. envoy, didnt seem too optimistic about that timetable during her phone call with lawmakers.

The political parties were to have registered for those elections from Tuesday to Friday of this week, she said. Obviously, with this terrible development, whether free, fair and credible elections can be held in a situation where parties cannot register for those elections would be something that we would need to be looking at.

DELTAS SPREAD The CDC estimates that about 52 percent of new U.S. Covid-19 cases are from the more highly contagious and potentially more dangerous Delta variant, which was first detected in India. CDC estimates that between June 20 and July 3, the Delta strain caused more than 80 percent of new cases across Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. Patterson Clarks graphic below shows the increase in Delta cases as part of the U.S. total.

$400,000

The payment Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck will make to the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control over a fatal drunken driving crash in 2015. As part of the agreement, the club in Monmouth County will also restrict alcohol sales to designated areas, including the main clubhouse and halfway house. The settlement was released as Trump announced his tech class action lawsuits in Bedminster.

POLITICAL FIGHTS HEAD TO THE HILLTOP Republican-held statehouses are clamping down on classroom discussions of systemic racism. Trump is still pushing for patriotic education. And the GOP has turned critical race theory into a campaign talking point. Howard University made it clear this week it wants in, Delece Smith-Barrow writes.

The Washington, D.C., institution is beefing up its faculty by adding two central figures regularly targeted by conservatives for their writings about slavery, discrimination and white privilege: Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of The New York Times Magazines 1619 Project, and reparations advocate and writer Ta-Nehisi Coates.

The university is already sensitive to the political mood of the capital city. As the only federally chartered historically black college or university, Howard is poised to face more flack from a Republican Party increasingly animated by its opposition to teaching young people about the nations long history of discrimination.

But the schools leader wants the institution to embrace the political tension of the moment.

Howard has been on a caravan to social justice for 153-154 years, Howard University President Wayne A.I. Frederick said in a phone interview Tuesday. That caravan is in a pregnant moment right now where its swollen. Lots of people have joined that caravan.

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The culture wars invade the Alamo - POLITICO - Politico

Football and the culture wars: exposing the Right’s underhand tactics – TheArticle

The culture wars in the US and the UK are very different. US culture wars are based on some pretty fundamental value divides, powered by the role of religion in American public life. But a new report from the Fabian Society shows it is not the same in Britain, because we dont have huge social chasms on values and identity.

Here the culture wars are an elite project, stoked by politicians and political actors who seek to benefit from dividing us. There are some who think this is good politics. But there are plenty more, on both the Left and Right, who are deeply concerned at this direction in our national conversation.

We see the truth in moments of national unity, like our pride in the English football team and the near universal disgust at the racism directed towards those young, black penalty-takers. On values and identity, we have more in common as a nation than that which divides us. And our sense of identity evolves, as is so evident in the character and values of Englands patriotic and progressive young footballers, who both take the knee and sing God Save the Queen. Most of us on Left and Right want to celebrate that.

There are some in the Conservative ranks who see the divisiveness of the so-called culture wars as a useful political tool. They think of it as a way of creating a wedge between the Labour Party and its traditional voters. Some have even tried to use this football tournament to do so, with the backfiring actions of Tory MP Lee Anderson being the most obvious example.

His petulance about not watching the games may have seemed politically advantageous when the conversation was still around whether or not the players should take the knee. But as the players refused to yield and as they went from strength to strength and success to success Anderson looked more and more out of touch with the national mood. His culture warrior stance has now made him a laughing-stock.

Similarly, the MP for Dover, Natalie Elphicke, has had to execute a sharp U-turn, after widespread criticism of her message attacking Marcus Rashford for spending more time on politics than penalties. His political crime was to try to get hungry children fed. The nation is in no mood to blame Marcus Rashford for missing a penalty. And no amount of stoking the culture wars in this area has proved successful for the Tories.

But we cannot rely on simply humiliating culture warriors when they get it as wrong as Anderson and Elphicke. The truth is often that this is a successful strategy at least in the short term. And the Government has been accused not least by former insiders of using culture wars to shore up an electoral base that has little in common economically.

Our report, Counter Culture, suggests that calling out people like Anderson and Elphicke, and exposing what they are doing, is one of the best ways of responding to culture war controversies. The research shows that progressives can all work together to defeat the culture wars, not by fighting them, but by naming what they really are: a shallow, politically motivated attempt to divide us.

The report has a warning for progressives who seek to win cultural battles rather than end them. If your response stokes division further, you are playing into the hands of your opponents. Cynics on the Right want the Left to show militancy in their response because they believe it will reduce public support for social justice causes and divide and demotivate potential supporters.

Progressives need to isolate culture warriors, by exposing their motives and the underhandedness of their tactics, rather than engage at face value with exaggerated or made-up controversies. There is huge and important common ground that politicians should be competing to guard and cherish. The Rights culture war tactics need to be exposed and challenged to ensure they lose their power.

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Football and the culture wars: exposing the Right's underhand tactics - TheArticle

Despite Conservative attempts to fuel culture wars, there is no such thing as ‘woke’ | Marie Le Conte – The Independent

I have had to rewrite the introduction to this column several times because it keeps turning into a eulogy of the England football team. It is hard to avoid; they are wonderful men who have done their country proud. In normal times, I probably wouldnt have cared French people rarely tend to want whats best for England.

Still, their pull was irresistible; they were players who cared about each other and about those less fortunate than them. They wanted to win but they also wanted things to be right; who could resist that?

A fair few Conservative MPs, it turns out. Lee Anderson boycotted the matches because of the teams decision to take the knee before kick-off. Brendan Clarke-Smith compared the knee-taking to the Nazi salute. Priti Patel refused to condemn the supporters booing the gesture. After the final, Natalie Elphicke told a WhatsApp group that Marcus Rashford should have spent less time playing politics.

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Despite Conservative attempts to fuel culture wars, there is no such thing as 'woke' | Marie Le Conte - The Independent