It’s about time someone noticed that Conservatives’ exclusive fixation on economic arguments has lost them the culture war.
Daniel Bendele writes:
If the culture degrades even as the stock market climbs, there must be something else that we are missing? If the rising tide is lifting all the boats, why is society so unhappy? Why is it that society continues to call good evil and evil good? Conservatives and Christians are losing the culture war because we fail to promote GOOD art. It’s not the economy, stupid, it’s Truth transmitted through culture.
I wrote in my last piece about the desecration of statues and churches. Last year, prominent “Conservative” columnist David French called Drag Queen Story Hours at public libraries, “One of the blessings of liberty.” Leftists have argued that people should be able to use the restroom of whatever gender they identify as that day. God and the Bible have been taken out of our schools, courthouses, and the public sphere. But Republicans are happy because the stock market is up?
Oftentimes during this discussion, friends tell me, “Conservatives don’t make good art.” There’s this idea that we’re losing the culture war because we are not good at creating or because we’ve failed to engage in that type of work. I’m here to tell you that this is absolutely false. Conservatives are NOT losing the culture war because we fail to make good art and/or fail to participate in that sphere. Conservatives are losing the culture war because our leaders fail to promote the good art that does exist, and we are too lazy to find it for ourselves and promote it to our friends and family.
Two of the best-selling literary series of all time were written by strong, Conservative men of faith, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. You may be surprised to learn that Christians didn’t stop writing fantasy after Tolkien and Lewis. Believe me, after years of being sick to death of only finding fantasy with morally ambiguous heroes, gratuitous and often violent sex scenes (looking at you George R.R. Martin), and grim portrayals of humanity, I was shocked to find a plethora of amazing literature written by Christians and Conservatives. These works are for the most part not explicitly Christian, but like Tolkien’s work they promote important themes: heroism, sacrifice, integrity, and the battle of good versus evil.
The readily observable fact that Conservative leaders acknowledge the culture war yet refuse to engage the enemy on the cultural level is all the proof you need to conclude they’re either terminally stupid or cynical grifters.
Support artists who want to entertain you. Don’t give money to people who hate you.
I prefer to called them stupid, cynical grifters.
Same here.
Because they've been taught to worship mammon, most right of center see more value in grifting outrage and boosting enemies to keep the gravy train going.
This is why so many long to be canceled. They make more money being canceled then by working in the system. It's a warped version of Vox's "making the rubble bounce" by instead siphoning funds from the righteously perturbed to live off of.
They don't want to change the culture, because that would be less profitable. There's more money to be made in being a loser, and it's easier.
Some of the boomers might be too out of touch to understand this, but the younger ones absolutely know what they're doing.
Ben Shapiro didn't cry foul over James Gunn's firing while cackling over Roseanne losing her show for nothing. He doesn't want to win; he wants to cash in.
See also: the National Rifle Association
If the leadership of the NRA actually cared about the right to keep and bear arms, they would not have made a business model of pretending to defend RKBA while actually leading from behind. Conservative, Inc. systemically validates Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy as just like, and in some part because, the progressives assiduously validate the slippery slope argument.
JD
The fixation on economic arguments is an Anglosphere phenomenon. The Euro conservative still regard culture as more important.
I suspect the astounding success of British (later American) industrialization and the hitherto unfathomable wealth allowed the Brits to minimize culture.
The Euro conservative were less sanguine. They had to fight the left from the proto socialists to incipient commies and anarchists. Further European industrialization was much more uneven and mitigated so the Euro conservatives had to think about culture and provide cogent arguments in favour of tradition, order and a shared outlook.
xavier
You're correct, JD. It'll be interesting to see how the grifters change their pitch after we become a one-party state.
They'll suck with even more enthusiasm to the new overlords!
Wormtongue still gotta worm his tongue.
xavier
There does seem to be a lack of understanding about the greater culture war going on. "Conservatives" won't support conservative created art usually because the creator can't pass some mythical standard of purity. If you aren't the sort one would find in the National Review break room, you are obviously too "extreme" to be taken seriously. It's the same logic that gave us President McCain and President Romney.
You could argue economic "prosperity" was the last thing holding the country together. There are a lot of people whose only investment in a peaceful society is receiving a subsistence income from the government. When that income dries up, KABOOM.
The only thing that shared economic prosperity can hold together is a corporation. If that's all we have left, we have nothing
I just saw a Faceberg thread in which a bunch of leftist memes about how bad tax benefits for corporations are proof of how bad right-wing economic theory is.
Of course, they never stop to consider the beams protruding from their own eyes…