I feel like conservatives are winning the culture war

you're inviting the crazy, you know?

the left lost it 2010 to 2019, then the right said hold my bathtub gin.

Yeah I've noticed this too. That Joe Rogan isn't helping either, nor are characters like Andrew Tate or Peterson (both Rogan guests btw). I'm noticing a lot of makes under 40 leaning right. Maybe not on everything and maybe not as out right republicans -- more like some kind of rightish libertarian.

I'll be honest and admit I'm more of an old school democrat, that tends to be open minded about always picking sides (yet I'll never ever vote republican), depending on complicated topics, but even here I've been taken aback sometimes by opinions that really cross the line into red territory -- like idk, homeless issues, where quite a few are insistent they're all beyond hope, need to be locked up, and/ or shouldn't expect too much help since they're all junkies. Like holy shit.

It's getting very weird politically. Idk if it's the stress or what. I know it's bad when my liberal peers are all out buying guns the past 2 years (never touched one before), "just in case". Same people that are cool about views like ending the drug war. Very strange.

I think part of it is the pendulum swinging back in the other direction (tick... tock... tick... tock) and the other part has Putin's dirty little hands all over it. In the US but even more in Europe. The good thing is that the pendulum will once again swing back in the other direction and Putin, well Putin probably has less than two years left in him, so.

Overall, liberals are winning the culture wars. Just because the right has a loud voice doesn't mean anyone is buying it.

The midterms showed us that the right's culture war BS didn't convince many people.

I feel like they’re losing the culture war and like to have an outsized voice on anonymous gay forums to think they’ve won. We’ve only just begun!

Oh btw, the one friend that bought a gun? Ex fking vegan, due to typical love for animals millennial stereotype. Why? To kill shit. Went from laid back hippie type personality, even does yoga, to jumping out of a vehicle to shoot Bambi, all Adderall hyped, like some kind of nutter. All about guns out of nowhere. Not that hunters can't be liberal, but it's weird to see someone with a strong stance to completely go 180 and it's not just about that.

The "culture war" is an artifact of a lazy media reporting on itself and an overfunded Republican Party with a shrinking base desperate to find relevance in a society that's outgrowing its medieval worldview.

R6, that's mental illness, not winning the culture wars

Please. In the long run liberals win every culture war because society progresses socially and conservatives want to keep us in the 1950s

Everyone is terrified, and that makes people mean.

Idk keep an eye on that Joe Rogan, I'm telling you. I'm seeing a lot of young men loving him and he's good at covertly promoting right wing BS.

I dont think conservatives are winning, but they are surelly getting more vocal and organized, saying out loud things that would be unthinkable some years ago re race, minorities, lgbt rights, etc. Radicalization doesnt always help (eg some more radical trans activism, for instance, just give them amunition while some rights thought as given are under attack).

I think the right is having their last hurrah so they are doubling down on the blatant bigotry.

The left has decidedly won the culture war.

My friend watches rupaul drag queen show and also listens to Joe Rogan podcast . I don’t know how his brain switches back and forth

There's always someone in the culture who is "good at converting people to conservativism" though. I figure these are people who would be rightwingers no matter what, and they just need one person (William F. Buckley, Rush Limbaugh, Joe Rogan) to use as an excuse as to why they were "converted."

No, I don't think so. Look at how voters reacted to the Republicans during the midterms. The opposing party typically destroys the other one during midterms but by many accounts, this was the worst "win" for the opposition since the FDR times. A large part of that was in reaction to the abortion issue. I do think the extremists are getting louder and more in-your-face though.

R14 Sounds like a bit to unpack. 🧳

When the GOP understood that it couldn't offer "cut taxes" as a solution to the current economic situation, it decided to push culture war stuff to divide America during the last election.

CRT, drag queens, gays as predators.

Collectively, America looked at that and sighed "More bull from the right."

Joe Rogan Opens His Anti-Cancel Culture Club in Austin:

r4 rocks. That is all.

I think you might be wrong, OP.

R9 is correct.

I agree as well with R4 but I would also say this: they're winning by being slightly less frightening. If the Republicans ever get their shit together, the game changes.

I believe this deeply: most people are now so skeptical and distrusting of politicians of all beliefs that they now vote mostly to limit the damage. That's what politics and government has come to, limiting the damage. One of the burdens of becoming an eldergay is the realization how much talk there's been and how little change.

[quote] Everyone in urban centers seemed progressive when gay rights was the biggest wedge issue of the day. Now that the political/cultural landscape has become decidedly more complicated, everyone's looking out for themselves.

OP that's the backlash Republicans are working towards .. by making race a wedgenissue, involing " woke" as a wordnto describe leftist ideology and aligning it with race, thus blaming eveything they disagree with on wokenes/ "race" /blacks and sadly it looks like they are winning B ecause of course why wouldn't whites "look out for themselves" when the woke /blacks are the cause of their misery when Republicans and conservatives have constantly told them so.

Neither is winning any culture wars. The pendulum swings back and forth sometimes on a weekly basis depending on what's going on in the world.

A belief in cancel culture and railing against wokeness are indicators of low intelligence or a fat stipend from the far right. These are bullshit fringe issues meant to distract you from wondering why these fat fucks don't pay taxes, your healthcare is so lousy and so expensive and affordable housing is disappearing.

I don't follow Joe Rogan, have no idea about his opinions.

I come from a long line of liberal Democrats who also live traditional values. I don't think that is unusual. For example my wildly creative architect, designer uncle railed endlessly about paying taxes. No one likes to pay taxes, but we have to support a functional infrastructure, safety nets for the vulnerable, national parks, and other perks of living in a wealthy country.

My family is rife with small business owners and military vets. Independent, fiscally careful, and appreciative of the contributions of minority, even refugee, employees. My father assisted a stellar black manager in his business to set up his own franchise. This was in the 1960s when big corporations in San Francisco and across the nation routinely did not hire minorities. We forget how bad it was. Not Magats, they want to go backwards.

Magats are a disgrace. They hate and exclude and intrude into the intimate lives of others, thinking they can change everyone to buy their stunted viewpoints. Fuck them. Live and let live, be kind, look out for others and take care of yourself and your families. I'm leery of extremists of any type but if protecting the environment, allowing for equal opportunity, while resisting oppression and lies, then I'm an extremist.

Culturally, diversity is fantastic. Food, art, music, design: every culture has something to enhance the earth. Culturally, conservatives live in a bizarre space of cruel judgement and stupid rules.

The extremist kooks on both ends are winning: Qanon, CRT/1619 Project, Dominionists, TRAs, Christian Nationalists, academic no-platformers, Proud Boys, BLM, Putin-supporting fascists and leftist tankie apologists. All part of the same shitstream.

Normal people who see them all as charlatans or worse are losing.

My thoughts:

1. Conservatives are not the ones winning. If I were a true conservative, I would not want to be lumped into the muddy pool of crazies that rule the Republicans these days. But that's just me.

2. The left, especially progressives, acquired the unsettling habit from the religious right of making maximum requests and always wanting to be right. That constant lecturing about every little thing went way overboard. I find it exhausting and makes me more open to listening to the needs of the center (left and right).

You may as well, R29, it's where the majority actually is.

There are a lot of Democratic Socialists (Bernie) and Social Democrats (Liz Warren) among Gen Z and Millennials; together they comprise the majority in that age group. There are also a lot of conservative Trumpers and Rhonda Santis fans in that group too, but they're a smaller group than the leftists in their age groups. The ones who lean hard right are basically the racists of those generations. They aren't the majority, they're just one of the loudest and most visible groups.

Leftists and progressives are still winning more than the RWNJs. We win the popular vote and we've kept GOP gains like the fabled Red Tsunami of 2022 (aka the Red Trickle) to an absolute minimum. We also saw what happens when the right wing overreaches like they did with overturning Roe. Another lesson from 2022 is that the culture wars only go so far in winning elections for the GOP; wedge issues like Trans bring out BOTH sides, not just one. Democratic voters are activated and ready to vote out Republicans. Democrats will keep the WH and win back the House in 2024. State legislatures will also continue to trend for Democrats.

Little by little we are winning. History is never a straight line, it's more of a zig-zag. Still, we go forward more than we go backwards. Keep hope alive.

"Conservatives" conserve nothing, they should be called regressives. Or, alternatively "con serves", like they use "democrat" instead of democratic. Why do we let them define every debate? it drives me crazy that we follow all their rules of engagement.

"Pro-life" maniacs should be called "Pro-rapist" or "Mother killers"

[quote] I find it exhausting and makes me more open to listening to the needs of the center (left and right).

This was posted 2 hours ago and I'm shocked you haven't been trolled by someone calling you a Fascist yet.

Yet you just had to come in with the hyperbole, R35. "I'm shocked that a shocking thing I'll describe but have no examples of hasn't happened yet!"

Massive eye roll.

It’s incredibly easy to “win” by stoking fear in the populace.

R36 Right, it's hyperbole you twat. But you need examples! What a fucking moron.

Their "pro life" views are losing even in red states like Kansas

I don't think anyone is winning anything but most of all we are all losing. 10-20 years ago no one thought about picking sides. Now you are either on one side or the other and pitted against the other side. We used to be able to listen to different sides and form an opinion. Now we just have to follow the side we think we are on and are supposed to follow faithfully.

^ Ah, yes, back in the good old days when most people were against things like gay marriage and gays in the military

R40, what "other side" should we be listening to? The people on Fox News who knew Trump lost but pretended otherwise for ratings? Anti-vaxxers?

r39 most pro-life don't want complete ban.. just as most pro-choice don't want it completely open ended but rational discussion is out of bounds as the polarization drives opposing sides to extremes. The state needs us to be a clear right or left in a system dominated by only two parties.

Good Lord, sheeple. There is no such thing as a culture war. Created my the media to keep us clicking on the news. They hope we will adopt an "us and them" mentality so we will be invested by "wins" and "losses". Please just stop. Read. Talk to smarter people than you. Listen. And make you own decisions about what you believe.

[quote]10-20 years ago no one thought about picking sides.

WTF are you talking about? 10 years ago Obama was starting his second term, and the Tea Party had been in full swing for 4 full years of his first term. We had Republicans in Congress heckling him at this first State of the Union -- sound familiar?

20 years ago we were on the verge of war with Iraq -- another highly divisive era that would be followed by George W. Bush proposing a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, a vile election year ploy that might've won him his second term. A year later we watched New Orleans drown on his watch, with largely black and poor people crowded into a flooded arena with no protection. And all of this made possible by the stolen election in 2000.

This rewriting of history -- only10-20 years ago! -- is shameful and ignorant. Just stop it. What we're seeing right now is NOTHING NEW. It is absolutely the result of years of planning and activism from right wing conservatives. Stop claiming otherwise. You are ignorant as fuck when you do that.

Trans rights support polls =

R45 Even though you have a bazillion sock puppet accounts, do you know how we know it's you, the most prolific troll on datalounge?

It's the random capitalizations and your need to always insult and demean other commenters.

You're a cancer to this platform.

[quote]It's the random capitalizations and your need to always insult and demean other commenters.

Can you just name names because that ^ really doesn't narrow it down.

R48 It has more to do with the insults.

All of us throw shade from time to time, but we try to be clever about it. Sort of like when Leslie Jordan would say to Karen, "Well well well, if it isn't Karen Walker. I thought I smelled gin and regret."

That's throwing shade.

But that poster is never clever, just insulting and mean-spirited.

This poll about "woke" just came out today =

^ Game over for the GOP woke wars.

When the likes of Roxane Gay are the prominent "public intellectuals" of liberalism, many converts to conservatism are made.

R50 The writer of that article is Sarah Elbeshbishi

R52 That's what we thought too.

So committed:

I feel like conservatives are winning the culture war The other day I caught myself having a surprised reaction when I found out this 28 year old straight white guy I met through a mutual friend was a social democrat and hated Joe Rogan. I've been wondering why I had such a reaction, because ten years ago, I wouldn't have presumed a college educated young white guy from a blue state to be more likely conservative than liberal. Nowadays, right leaning is usually the safe bet.

That's the case in both America and Europe. Everyone in urban centers seemed progressive when gay rights was the biggest wedge issue of the day. Now that the political/cultural landscape has become decidedly more complicated, everyone's looking out for themselves.

How the U.K. Became One of the Poorest Countries in Western Europe Britain chose finance over industry, austerity over investment, and a closed economy over openness to the world.

How the U.K. Became One of the Poorest Countries in Western Europe Interesting tidbit:

[quote] Although British media worry about robots taking everybody’s jobs, the reality is closer to the opposite. “Between 2003 and 2018, the number of automatic-roller car washes (that is, robots washing your car) declined by 50 percent, while the number of hand car washes (that is, men with buckets) increased by 50 percent,” the economist commentator Duncan Weldon told me in an interview for my podcast, Plain English. “It’s more like the people are taking the robots’ jobs.”

How the U.K. Became One of the Poorest Countries in Western Europe [quote] The most relevant statistic—-GDP per capita—-is never mentioned.

When 80% of your GDP comes from the service sector, GDP per capita absolutely isn't the most relevant statistic.

How the U.K. Became One of the Poorest Countries in Western Europe R57 Well, may the reincarnation of Thatcher emerge soon to save the day. Then again, what do you have left to be sold off?

How the U.K. Became One of the Poorest Countries in Western Europe R84 How is China raping and pillaging the Global South, exactly? Any concrete examples? Comparable examples please, no strawmen or hypotheses.

How the U.K. Became One of the Poorest Countries in Western Europe If this is China raping and pillaging the Global South, what's the IMF doing there?

This is literally coming from the Godfather of anti-China propaganda by the way, before you start screaming CCP shills.

How the U.K. Became One of the Poorest Countries in Western Europe R88 By raping and pillaging it?

How the U.K. Became One of the Poorest Countries in Western Europe R91 And in what ways is that comparable to the UK's version of raping and pillaging, which happens to be the subject at hand?

op- liberals r spineless, they only speak out when something bad happens to the straight black guys n the straight muslim guys

I feel like right wing trolls are telling us about conservatives winning the culture wars. And "Posho" is probably some MAGA cap wearing trash in Oakley sunglasses, sitting in a trailer park, thinking about where to score fentanyl - very un-"posho."

R57 is Peter theil, pretending to be a liberal, to collect intel so his straight replublican masters won't kick the shit out of him

This is one of their tactics, to demoralize opposition and condition people to accept their new conservative overlords. Resistance is futile, yadda yadda.

Fuck you, OP. You're just another dumb troll with an agenda.

"posho" please go die in a grease fire tia.

R60- u n ur straight replublican masters can go die in the grease fire

"I wouldn't have presumed a college educated young white guy from a blue state to be more likely conservative than liberal. Nowadays, right leaning is usually the safe bet."

This is literally the opposite of current political trends. College educated white people tend to be liberal. It's why DeSantis is going after university curriculums and other Republicans are scrambling to do the same.

It's even why some minorities are turning to the right.

You should have stuck with the "elitist" argument, which was actually kind of working out for you types until Trump.

Man, you guys are so STUCK with Trump.

I would put more energy into trying to fix that.

Or not, because Trump fucking up the Republican party works for me.

You “feel like” they are winning?

They are without question winning.

If this is a war over the right to trans children they I don’t care to fight it, either.

The massive millennial generation is entering their forties and not becoming more conservative. This should absolutely terrify conservatives.

Anything else in your bag of shit, R63?

I feel like trolls are ramping up their campaign to hijack DL. Time for Muriel to do some spring cleaning. She can use this thread to purge a number of right wing shit locusts.

Name one single social issue that the conservative side has won longterm. Society has moved toward the liberal position every single time for the entire history of not only our country but the entire world.

R64 It makes sense. My generation grew up with Republicans being seen for the wealthy and elite. Most millennials can’t afford to be Republicans.

Of course the Republican Party has become the white trash party but everyone knows that they vote against their interests and compromise their core needs over secondary political social agendas like trans rights and religious rights and abortion.

They’re being played like fiddles. I feel like my generation has no interest in that.

I don’t think Republicans are winning.

This fixation on drag queens is scraping the bottom of the barrel. They’re running out of outrage and interest.

DeSantis and Trump are ready to collapse the entire party.

[quote]10-20 years ago no one thought about picking sides

That is not even close to true. Republicans were all about picking sides as far back as FDR. They exploited it for their own purposes with the Southern Solution. Even if you didn't remember all of that, you'd have to know that Limbaugh was big in the early 1990s, a full 30 years ago.

It is White Christian Racist Supremacists who control the levers of power in the states and the HoR.

The biggest lever of power is the radical gerrymandering of the HoR.

They are at war with EVERYONE WHO IS NOT LIKE THEM.

With the MAGA Supreme Court, they have coalesced EVERYONE who are not like them.

We must all come together and NOT VOTE FOR WHITE RACISTS. Just that simpe.

R66, time to see the doctor about your meds.

[...]

[...]

The default position for all societies is CHANGE IS BAD. So maintaining the status quo is always the easier downhill path.

No conservatives are not winning the cultural wars but it won’t matter anyway because after they lose every fkin war everybody acts like they wasn’t against that shit 2 decades later. That’s essentially what modern conservatism is.

What R26 said

The Culture Wars is actually White Evangelical Racist Supremacists against the rest of us. Plantation Owners versus the people they do not recognize as citizens.

[...]

"Social Democrat" = NAZI (?!?)

[...]

Not at all, R81. But any time a person starts slipping the word "Social" or "Socialist" into a political label WATCH OUT

[quote]R82: But any time a person starts slipping the word "Social" or "Socialist" into a political label WATCH OUT

Quite often it's bullshit. The Nazis were 'socialists' to about the same extent that the 'Democratic Peoples' Republic of North Korea' is democratic.

R83, My point, exactly. Yet OP proffers the meaningless moniker: "Social Democrat". I've never heard this term before an makes me suspicious of the point OP is trying to make . . .

[quote]I found out this 28 year old straight white guy I met through a mutual friend was a social democrat

It’s hard to tell because they’re so loud. They never shut up.

[...]

I'm a single-issue voter, I vote for the candidate who doesn't talk about having sex with his own daughter.

[...]

It's too bad that it had to become a war. I came to the US initially because I thought it was a melting pot where different cultures were free to coexist. Now everybody feels like their own culture is the only valid one and MUST be imposed on everyone else, too. If you want to make America great again at least in one aspect, go back to the times where politics were personal and not subject of public debates. Do what you feel is right, just don't impose it on me. Yes, I realize that this is not exactly how the US used to be. But a little bit more privacy on political views wouldn't hurt anyone and would take the heat out of public life.

Keep trolling, OP.