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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   30032 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 8, 2023

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How do you tell whether "no wait, don't bring that crap here!" is importing a reaction from America, or whether it's a local product?

I had that thought while writing the post. Did Irish progressives import wokeness, then the conservatives followed suit? Or did Irish progressives import wokeness, then conservatives reacted against it, and it just happens to look very similar to the American conservative backlash against wokeness because of convergent evolution?

I don't really know one way or the other, but I'm leaning towards the former.

You have to start earlier than that, after all wokeness is a reaction itself.

Did the US have that "conservatism" imported from Europe, assimilated it, had elements react against and create wokeness, then re-export that AND the "conservative" reaction to wokeness again.

Much of the US's cultural information was imported to them. Its why the US is largely aligned with the Anglo world in the first place. Plus Ireland due to high immigration. If not for large amounts of Irish people bringing their cultural exports with them the Presidents wouldn't be touring Ireland so regularly and they wouldn't dye the rivers green (and the beer).

They are re-exporting to us as we once exported to them. Partly because thats what the global hegemon does and partly because of the close relationship.

Lots of funding came from the US for the IRA for example. The US was also a big part of the Good Friday Agreement happening at all.

You have US immigration in Dublin airport so you can fly into a domestic terminal when you reach the US!

The US has a big finger in the Irish pie so to speak (and vice versa) if you believe that nearly everyone i meet in the US after learning i am from Ireland tells me some story about their grandmother being from Meath or similar. Progressivism (or the reaction to it) is hardly only the most recent.

When one uses specifically American right wing shibboleths, I dare say you are importing the reaction and not just saying "none of that here".

To be clear, the animosity may well be local, but the words they use to express it isn't always so.

I disagree. I'd buy it's importing the reaction if suddenly the Irish started talking about something actually specifically American, that has no bearing on what's happening to them at the moment, the same way progressives imported BLM to Europe wholesale.

Yeah, I'll buy that as an example of conservatives importing culture war. The depressing conclusion seems to be that whoever does it the most, wins.

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