Russell Howard: There Is NO Culture War

[BBally81]

UK comedian Russell Howard had this to say about the so-called culture war.


youtu.be/U26-D-7Ey2w

[clearspira]

There is a culture war. We can argue who the sides are, what form it takes, whether it is as bad as people claim it is; but I find it very hard to sit here post-Trump, post-Brexit, post-Gamergate, post-Comicsgate, post-Fandom Menace, post-Covid hysteria etc. and say that there is no culture war.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Also post civil war. I mean what kind of shit was that, right?

[McAvoy]

Culture wars have been going on for a long time. Centuries really.

Think about it. Low class fighting the higher class for more rights in a government set up for the higher class to exploit the lower class? Culture war.

[JL_Stinger]

There were whole books written about a "culture war" back in the 1990s when I was a kid.

How long there has been a "culture war" (or wars, some perhaps simultaneously), at bare minimum there has been a culture war since the 1960s when hippies and feminists started pushing back against cultural conservationism with sex, drugs, and some rock-n-roll. The intensity of that culture war has ebbed and flowed over the last 55+ years, but the conflict has never stopped. The rise of modern evangelism is a direct reactionary movement in response to it.

Whenever there exists two segments of society whose general social beliefs are incompatible with each other and where neither is small enough to be simply ignored, culture war should be expected - I daresay inevitable. Social conservatism and social liberalism (at least in 21st and late 20th century America) are diametrically at odds with each other; it's baked into their nature that the existence of their opposite is intolerable. The conservatives say there are rules which must be followed and some of which the liberals will always violate, making them the bad guys. To the liberals, anyone trying to make rules that restrict such personal behavior is the bad guy. The only way the war ends is when the conservatives surrender their beliefs or die out, or the liberals are wiped out.

Even if you strip away political policy disagreements like economics, civil rights, and abortion you're still left with intractable conflict on sexual practices, substance use, and style of clothing & accessories.

[Riedquat]

Well the "liberals" seem to have little tolerance for any behaviour that doesn't tick their box either.

The real issue is that society all too often's retreated to childishly simplistic extremes, my way or the highway thinking, you either completely agree with me or you're scum who shouldn't be listened to or treated like a proper human being, with no ability to distinguish between those who that's a fair assessment of and those who you simply disagree with.

All generic "yous" of course.

[clearspira]

''There is no culture war''.

How can anyone look at what is happening with the Harry Potter game right now and claim this with a straight face? Come on now.

[hammerofglass]

This is why nobody likes centrists.

[animalia]

This is why nobody likes centrists.

Is it because when people want to fight, they don't like it when others tell them to try and see their similarities instead of their differences?

I really don't know, I haven't even watched the video in question, I just know that I have become disillusioned with the extremes on both sides.

[hammerofglass]

This is why nobody likes centrists.

Is it because when people want to fight, they don't like it when others tell them to try and see their similarities instead of their differences?

I really don't know, I haven't even watched the video in question, I just know that I have become disillusioned with the extremes on both sides.

It's less "you have similarities" and more "you don't actually have any disagreements I decided".

I mean the first few minutes with examples of fake moral outrages that everyone forgot in a day he had a point but the way he generalized from there was freaking wild.