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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   30341 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 14, 2025

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This isn't really something I'm commenting on, but it is culture-war related and I do genuinely want to know, so...

https://archive.ph/20250513114111/https://morlock-holmes.tumblr.com/post/783396406003187712/on-the-one-hand-the-environmental-justice-and

[...]

But I think that culturally, a lot of ordinary left-leaning people had no idea that there was this constantly building demand for Republican Wokeness.

[...] the idea that the dominant majority would be jealous of those tools and want to use them is absurd.

[...] and I never found another left-winger who understood that part of the impetus was to satirize #ownvoices. [...]

I think to a very large extent left-wing culture in the US was totally unprepared for that kind of jealousy. [...]

[...] to a large extent a lot of left-wing culture has been caught flatfooted by this phenomenon because they didn’t see it coming at all. They don’t understand where the psychological impulse comes from and so they have trouble understanding how to fight against it.

Can anyone who considers themselves left of center comment on the accuracy or lack thereof of this post? Is this a thing, or more something particular to this specific guy.

Edit: I'm asking about his description of "what is understood" and preparedness. I'm not really interested in "which specific policies is it this time" or "what makes people feel good about themselves."

I am a bit left of centre and can see some truth in this.

I do think a lot of language policing was done by people who didn't really believe it was a huge favour to the downtrodden groups they were defending. They though it was a small, token thing, and many language policers were actually motivated not because they truly believed they were helping a lot, but more by the status points they got as champions of the disadvantaged.

For this reason, yes, I do think they were surprised that people on the right would want a piece of that. In their heart of hearts, they thought the main prize was the high ground, not being a recipient of some meagre linguistic charity.

This para I slightly disagree with

I think to a very large extent left-wing culture in the US was totally unprepared for that kind of jealousy. Because they sort of thought of themselves as underdogs it was really hard to process the idea that right-wing culture contained a ton of people who desperately wanted to be underdogs in the same way, who didn’t view those things as scraps left over by the powerful, but instead thought of it as what power looks like.

Because I don't think language policers did, for the most part, think of themselves as underdogs. On the contrary, they saw themselves as privileged people defending underdogs. And it's something of a tribute to their power that folks on the right wanted some of the same cultural perks bestowed on them.

Some thoughts that immediately jump to my mind on this subject:

  1. The euphemistic treadmill, which is more of a linguistic phenomenon than a "woke liberal" phenomenon. There is a progression that occurs where words are first used academically and scientifically, then colloquially, and then in a vulgar way. Examples being retarded or hysteria. The role of pseudoscience here is also richly ironic from a culture war perspective as well. IMO this aspect of linguistics is inherent to human nature, and opposition to it is not well-founded in reason. Just accept that words change meanings in a highly predictable way, please.
  2. The leaking of academic or "non-profit" language into colloquial discourse, especially in cases where it disambiguates nuanced concepts within that domain. One example is "unhoused" vs. "homeless", which actually do have utility in terms of what they're precisely trying to describe, but do not have much utility on the 24-hour news cable network.
  3. When words become "purity" memes in academic subcultures: the word Latinx polls very poorly outside of very specific niches. But, if all of your colleagues are using the word Latinx, and you are not, despite the fact that you don't necessarily agree with it, your paper will not get published. But every subculture has its own "purity" memes, and a lot of them are incredibly cringe-inducing. That's what keeps me coming back!

All of these are great cannon fodder to get the red tribe of the culture war fired up, but I personally think they're pretty weak in terms of showing actual flaws in blue tribe principles. There are plenty real flaws in blue tribe principles that these don't really make me lose any sleep.

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