Conservatives Have Lost the Culture War | Washington Monthly
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We live in the world of Taylor Swift and Barbie, not Elon Musk.

Republican politicians like Ron DeSantis may rail against “woke” corporations. The reality is that when companies like Nike and Disney—no progressive angels themselves—seem to align with the left by promoting anti-racism and LGBTQ causes, they are catering to the tolerant demographic that matters most to the bottom line. It’s understandable why older conservatives would feel business has left them behind, ranting about supposed lefty strongholds like Blackrock and Disney. But there’s no top-down conspiracy of woke corporations as defined by Tucker Carlson. It’s just capitalism.

This is especially true given the Republican Party’s increasing reliance on far-right religious voters, whose cultural power is also waning rapidly despite recent judicial and legislative wins. Americans are becoming rapidly less affiliated with organized religion. Younger people are markedly less religious than their elders. In 2021, membership in religious organizations fell below majority levels for the first time, and “nones”—those who describe themselves as atheist, agnostic, or nothing specific—now account for around 30 percent of Americans, up from just 9 percent thirty years ago. White evangelical politics is the province of mostly older voters disconnected from the broader culture and economy.

  • DessertStorms
    3•5 months ago

    This is a perfect example of how liberalism enables fascism - conservatives have managed to frame superficial human decency as “leftist” (or - bad) to the point where catering to them is no longer profitable? Not a problem, corporations just put on their “we care” masks (while the machine underneath is still, in some cases literally, crushing orphans) so now they can firmly milk the liberal (but definitely not leftist) consumer who will gush about how “good an ally” or whatever one brand or another is, while they continue to do business as usual - destroying the planet, exploiting and oppressing workers globally, and funding the states that enable and even support these actions, all to fill the pockets of a room full of people, who already have more money that anyone could spend if they lived a thousand lives, and who will never willingly stop this system that works so well for them (and that will decay in to full blown fascism again and again as they fight for power at our expense).

    People think, rightfully, that horseshoe theory is bullshit, but pointing out that both sides (edit to be clear: that is conservatives and liberals, not actual leftists) serve the same master - capitalism, isn’t that, it’s indisputable fact.