Editing Culture war (section)

====2012–present: Broadening of the culture war====
{{See also|List of monuments and memorials removed during the George Floyd protests|List of changes made due to the George Floyd protests|List of name changes due to the George Floyd protests}}
[[File:JEB Stuart Monument 2020-05-31.jpg|thumb|The [[J. E. B. Stuart Monument]], defaced during [[George Floyd protests in Richmond, Virginia|protests in Richmond, Virginia]], was removed on July 7, 2020.]]
In the early 2010s, the [[American right]] took issue with the perceived worldwide dominance of leftism in international politics and corporate activity, [[anti-nationalism]], and secular [[human rights]] policies and activism not based on [[Abrahamic religions|Abrahamic religious]] worldviews.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bob |first=Clifford |title=The Global Right Wing and the Clash of World Politics |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-521-19381-8 |location=New York |pages=i}}</ref> 

While traditional culture war issues, like abortion, continue to be a focal point,<ref>Smith, Karl.  [https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-05-21/abortion-debate-it-s-different-from-other-culture-wars "The Abortion Debate Is Not Part of the Culture Wars."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190720175834/https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-05-21/abortion-debate-it-s-different-from-other-culture-wars |date=July 20, 2019 }} ''Bloomberg''.</ref> the issues identified with the culture war broadened and intensified in the mid-late 2010s. [[Jonathan Haidt]], author of ''[[The Coddling of the American Mind]]'', identified a rise in [[cancel culture]] via [[social media]] among young progressives since 2012, which he believes had "transformative effects on university life and later on politics and culture throughout the English-speaking world," in what Haidt<ref>{{cite news |last1=Haidt |first1=Jonathan |title=Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/ |work=The Atlantic |date=11 April 2022 |language=en |access-date=2022-08-29 |archive-date=April 10, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410164044/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and other commentators<ref name="Mirzaei 2019">{{Cite web |url=http://theconversation.com/where-woke-came-from-and-why-marketers-should-think-twice-before-jumping-on-the-social-activism-bandwagon-122713 |title=Where 'woke' came from and why marketers should think twice before jumping on the social activism bandwagon |first=Abas |last=Mirzaei |website=The Conversation |date=September 8, 2019 |access-date=April 10, 2023 |archive-date=March 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230320231919/https://theconversation.com/where-woke-came-from-and-why-marketers-should-think-twice-before-jumping-on-the-social-activism-bandwagon-122713 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Yglesias |first=Matthew |title=How Hillary Clinton unleashed the Great Awokening |url=https://www.slowboring.com/p/how-hillary-clinton-unleashed-the |access-date=2023-01-06 |website=www.slowboring.com |language=en |archive-date=March 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328160348/https://www.slowboring.com/p/how-hillary-clinton-unleashed-the |url-status=live }}</ref> have called the "[[Great Awokening]]". Journalist [[Michael Grunwald]] says that "President [[Donald Trump]] has pioneered a new politics of perpetual culture war" and lists [[Black Lives Matter]], [[U.S. national anthem protests]], [[climate change]], education policy, healthcare policy including [[Obamacare]], and infrastructure policy as culture war issues in 2018.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Grunwald |first=Michael |date=November 2018 |title=How Everything Became the Culture War |url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/11/02/culture-war-liberals-conservatives-trump-2018-222095 |magazine=Politico |access-date=May 24, 2020 |archive-date=May 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200524050840/https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/11/02/culture-war-liberals-conservatives-trump-2018-222095 |url-status=live }}</ref> The rights of [[transgender]] people and the role of religion in lawmaking were identified as "new fronts in the culture war" by political scientist Jeremiah Castle, as the polarization of public opinion on these two topics resembles that of previous culture war issues.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Castle |first1=Jeremiah |date=December 14, 2018 |title=New Fronts in the Culture Wars? Religion, Partisanship, and Polarization on Religious Liberty and Transgender Rights in the United States |journal=American Politics Research |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=650–679 |doi=10.1177/1532673X18818169|s2cid=220207260 }}</ref> In 2020, during the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], North Dakota governor [[Doug Burgum]] described [[Face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States#Attitudes|opposition to wearing face masks]] as a "senseless" culture war issue that jeopardizes human safety.<ref>{{cite news |last=Blake |first=Aaron |date=May 23, 2020 |title=GOP governor offers emotional plea to the anti-mask crowd: Stop this senseless culture war |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/23/doug-burgum-masks/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=May 24, 2020 |archive-date=May 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200524005046/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/23/doug-burgum-masks/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{Multiple image
| total_width       = 350
| image1            = Anti-abortion protest, 1986.jpg
| image2            = Drag Queen Story Hour Protest - 52452239331.png
| perrow            = 2/2/2
| image3            = Save our children hashtag (cropped) (cropped).png
| image4            = Chaya Raichik and MTG.jpg
| footer            = Clockwise from top left: [[anti-abortion movements|anti-abortion]] protesters in 1986; members of [[the Proud Boys]] protest a [[drag queen]] story hour; Representative [[Marjorie Taylor Greene]] of Georgia and [[Libs of TikTok]] creator [[Chaya Raichik]] hold up an anti-transgender sign; "Save Our Children" graffiti near downtown [[Lufkin, Texas]] in relation to the [[LGBT grooming conspiracy theory]].
}}

This broader understanding of culture war issues in the mid-late 2010s and 2020s is associated with a political strategy called "[[owning the libs]]." Conservative media figures employing this strategy emphasize and expand upon culture war issues with the goal of upsetting liberals. According to [[Nicole Hemmer]] of Columbia University, this strategy is a substitute for the cohesive conservative ideology that existed during the [[Cold War]]. It holds a conservative [[voting bloc]] together in the absence of shared policy preferences among the bloc's members.<ref>{{cite news |last=Peters |first=Jeremy W. |date=August 3, 2020 |title=These Conservatives Have a Laser Focus: 'Owning the Libs' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/us/politics/the-federalist-trump-liberals.html |work=New York Times |access-date=August 3, 2020 |archive-date=August 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803161740/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/us/politics/the-federalist-trump-liberals.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Charlottesville 'Unite the Right' Rally (35780274914) crop.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.25|The [[Unite the Right rally]] in [[Charlottesville, Virginia|Charlottesville]], Virginia, in August 2017, an alt-right event regarded as a battle of the culture wars<ref>{{cite journal |last=Buffington |first=Melanie L. |date=January 1, 2017 |title=Contemporary Culture Wars: Challenging the Legacy of the Confederacy |url=https://jcrae.art.arizona.edu/index.php/jcrae/article/view/74 |journal=Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education |volume=34 |pages=45–59 |doi=10.2458/jcrae.4883 |s2cid=148760859 |issn=2152-7172 |access-date=May 24, 2020 |doi-access=free |archive-date=July 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729022613/https://jcrae.art.arizona.edu/index.php/jcrae/article/view/74 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]

A number of conflicts about diversity in popular culture occurring in the 2010s, such as the [[Gamergate controversy]], [[Comicsgate]] and the [[Sad Puppies]] science fiction voting campaign, were identified in the media as being examples of the culture war.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Hurley |first=Kameron |author-link=Kameron Hurley |date=April 9, 2015 |title=Hijacking the Hugo Awards Won't Stifle Diversity in Science Fiction |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/04/the-culture-wars-come-to-sci-fi/390012/ |magazine=The Atlantic |access-date=May 23, 2020 |archive-date=December 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205115606/https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/04/the-culture-wars-come-to-sci-fi/390012/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Journalist [[Caitlin Dewey]] described Gamergate as a "[[proxy war]]" for a larger culture war between those who want greater inclusion of women and minorities in cultural institutions versus anti-feminists and traditionalists who do not.<ref>{{cite news |last=Dewey |first=Caitlin |date=October 14, 2014 |title=The only guide to Gamergate you will ever need to read |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/10/14/the-only-guide-to-gamergate-you-will-ever-need-to-read/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=May 23, 2020 |archive-date=June 11, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170611104007/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/10/14/the-only-guide-to-gamergate-you-will-ever-need-to-read/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The perception that culture war conflict had been demoted from electoral politics to popular culture led writer Jack Meserve to call popular movies, games, and writing the "last front in the culture war" in 2015.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Meserve |first1=Jack |date=Spring 2015 |title=Last Front in the Culture War |url=https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/36/last-front-in-the-culture-war/ |journal=Democracy: A Journal of Ideas |issue=36 |access-date=May 23, 2020 |archive-date=August 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200817142610/https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/36/last-front-in-the-culture-war/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

These conflicts about representation in popular culture re-emerged into electoral politics via the [[alt-right]] and [[alt-lite]] movements.<ref>{{cite book |last=Nagle |first=Angela |author-link=Angela Nagle |date=June 30, 2017 |title=Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars From 4Chan And Tumblr To Trump And The Alt-Right |publisher=Zero Books |isbn=9781785355431}}</ref> According to media scholar Whitney Phillips, Gamergate "prototyped" strategies of harassment and controversy-stoking that proved useful in political strategy. For example, Republican political strategist [[Steve Bannon]] publicized pop-culture conflicts during the 2016 presidential campaign of [[Donald Trump]], encouraging a young audience to "come in through Gamergate or whatever and then get turned onto politics and Trump."<ref>{{cite news |last=Warzel |first=Charlie |date=August 15, 2019 |title=How an Online Mob Created a Playbook for a Culture War |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/15/opinion/what-is-gamergate.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=May 24, 2020 |archive-date=July 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702142826/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/15/opinion/what-is-gamergate.html |url-status=live }}</ref>