The biggest mistake of the "culture wars" is that conservatives get to pretend they are the defense

[ck4829]

That amidst all the scary pronouns, different subcultures popping up, immigrants, sexual orientations, etc. they are the force holding back the tide of all these changes, that they are the ones saying "not so fast."

That it is the Democrats, left, or liberals that is this frightening presence forcing all these changes onto the American people and conservatives are merely responding to all these changes.

But how true is it really?

And is this creating a bias that is giving conservatives an unfair advantage? That they get to benefit from things like status quo bias, system justification, and cognitive inertia.

Here are a couple of points...

What exactly are conservatives defending?

And I mean *what* exactly. When conservatives want to keep the clock from going forward or want to turn it back, what does that mean?

Imagine this discussion instead:
"You painted my house blue, I liked it red!"
"Nuh uh, it was never red!"

The person can then present a photo of the red house and have it turned back red. Conservatives want to turn our country's clocks back to an era that never existed. When they say some previous era, like the 50's or the 80's, they don't mean those eras, they mean how they thought that era existed... they thought we had peace and harmony in the 50's or the 80's, and no we didn't.

Case in point:

Link to tweet

Fox News panelist claims we have a crime explosion that we wouldn't have had 30 years ago because of all the morals and values that supposedly existed back then - despite crime being higher 30 years ago. This is the past they are defending, not a real thing, but something that only exists in their minds, in their perceptions.

The things they claim to be responding to aren't all that new

If you believe conservatives when they say they are merely responding to the societal changes forced upon them, you might as well believe...

"You wake up one day and BOOM! People have strange pronouns! BOOM! Suddenly you have Muslim neighbors! BOOM! Kids are getting vaccinated! BOOM! People are turning transgender! BOOM! Abortion on demand! Oh my, NOOO!"

But this isn't true.

Gender-neutral pronouns - Wikipedia page on it from 2002
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gender_neutrality_in_languages_with_gendered_third-person_pronouns&oldid=456837

There were Muslims in the US before it was even founded - So there's no Secret Muslim invasion.
https://pluralism.org/the-first-american-muslims

The first vaccine - Before 1800
https://www.immune.org.nz/vaccines/vaccine-development/brief-history-vaccination

Here's Christine Jorgensen - She transitioned in... 1952! She was celebrated for it, it was considered an achievement by many in the country. There was no massive other side that demanded to be heard that was saying she was some sort of evil wizard who only did it so she could see women changing in locker rooms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Jorgensen

Critical Race Theory - page on it from 2005
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Critical_race_theory&oldid=14809300

Rank-and-file conservatives aren't being agitated into action as a response against liberal activism, no they aren't, they are goaded into action because conservative elites tell them that liberal or leftwing activism is going on and it is somehow hurting them... when that thing or issue was actually going on for years and they didn't notice it until conservative elites told them to notice it.

Defense doesn't automatically mean 'good'

Go back to the 1950's and 1960's and take the definition of "culture war" with you and if you could talk to the people of that time, what would a "culture war" be? Abortion? No. Gay rights? No. It would be the civil rights struggle.

You couldn't really call MLK and other civil rights activists the defense since they were making a change - The defense would be the segregationists hitting people with fire hoses, it would be the KKK bombing churches.

Go back a hundred years from there, and the "culture war" issue of the day would be slavery. Abolitionists would be the renegades and ruffians, the slavers would be the ones "getting their property stolen"

Not necessarily good to be on the "defense", indeed.

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We need to call out conservatives, politicians, media, and others that act like this is the case... they don't necessarily have morality or even reality on their side.

Not the defense, just another side.

[underpants]

1. That isn't The Real World

What happened to their bit about GOD being eliminated from our culture?

Something tells me this “family” line is basically blaming black people and women who aren’t married.

[ck4829]

7. For a lot of the 30%, that's EXACTLY what that "family" line is

[maxsolomon]

2. They fear change.

They fear the unknown.
They fear people who aren't in their tribe.
Fear fear fear.

It's always been this way.

[Caliman73]

5. They fear losing their hegemony

It is about power.

White people have advantages over Black and Brown people.

Men have advantages over women.

Christianity is given preference over all other religions, or the lack of religion/faith.

Wealthy people are able to buy almost anything in this country including "justice" and public policy.

They fear those specific changes. If people were truly equal in consideration, they would actually have to make a valid argument as to why their viewpoint deserved ANY consideration.

[maxsolomon]

6. True, but most are blind to their Privilege.

As evidenced by their reactions to having it pointed out.

Conservatives never have to defend their positions in an actual debate. They've crafted a mediascape & a legislative process where there is no actual discussion based on facts. Just uni-directional invective.

[Ray Bruns]

3. Even after he's reminded that violent crime was far worse in the '90s than today,

he still says "not like this."

All the maturity of a three year old.

[ck4829]

4. They have to be dragged kicking and screaming from their imaginary golden age pasts