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I see a lot of dark muttering from "old left" circles that the point of culture war is distraction. To keep focus on cultural and symbolic issues to divide us w

I see a lot of dark muttering from "old left" circles that the point of culture war is distraction. To keep focus on cultural and symbolic issues to divide us with infighting and keep us from focusing on shared economic interests. Culture war to distract from the class war, to put it like that. And I think there may be something to that. It's not all about grifters. But I think it would be wrong to attribute all that to cynicism. I think e.g. workers at big organizations need to feel that they're doing good, especially when it looks like they're doing some pretty bad things. All the culture war drama at Google, for instance, or CIA's infamous "Intersectional mentally ill latina millennial" ad, I think they may not be top down efforts to whitewash, but genuine attempts to cast yourself as good in a messed up way.

pphysch 5y ago
I generally don't buy into theories that it was by design, i.e. a conspiracy to distract us. Instead, it's a result of market forces (the attention industry) and the powerful (oligarchs & SIGs) gradually nudging things in a direction that works better for them. Coupled with virtually zero accountability to the American people.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  It doesn't really need to be "by design". Those with an outsource chunk of wealth and power tend to (a) be a small percentage of the population (b) have naturally aligned goals; those goals will be addressed using the tools at hand. Those without much wealth or power represent a large and almost ridicuously diverse population, by almost every metric except having much wealth and power. It is much more difficult for them to agree upon goals let alone coordinate any sort of action that would further those goals. Consequently, the "natural" state of affairs, once you allow wealth and power to accumulate in the hands of a fraction of the population, is for the goals of the wealthy and the powerful to take precedence.
rayiner 5y ago
Worth reading: https://www.amazon.com/Woke-Inc-Corporate-Americas-Justice/dp/1546090789 https://www.amazon.com/Woke-Inc-Corporate-Americas-Justice/d...

pphysch 5y ago

I generally don't buy into theories that it was by design, i.e. a conspiracy to distract us. Instead, it's a result of market forces (the attention industry) and the powerful (oligarchs & SIGs) gradually nudging things in a direction that works better for them. Coupled with virtually zero accountability to the American people.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
It doesn't really need to be "by design". Those with an outsource chunk of wealth and power tend to (a) be a small percentage of the population (b) have naturally aligned goals; those goals will be addressed using the tools at hand. Those without much wealth or power represent a large and almost ridicuously diverse population, by almost every metric except having much wealth and power. It is much more difficult for them to agree upon goals let alone coordinate any sort of action that would further those goals. Consequently, the "natural" state of affairs, once you allow wealth and power to accumulate in the hands of a fraction of the population, is for the goals of the wealthy and the powerful to take precedence.

rayiner 5y ago

Worth reading: https://www.amazon.com/Woke-Inc-Corporate-Americas-Justice/dp/1546090789 https://www.amazon.com/Woke-Inc-Corporate-Americas-Justice/d...