Are conservatives actually winning the culture war? 

In the wake of President Trump’s absolutely massive victory, sweeping every swing state and taking the popular vote and Republicans flipping the Senate and maintaining the House (pending latent results), many on the left are reeling. They don’t understand how this could happen. They had all the popular celebrities. They control almost every major media outlet in the country. So how could they have lost to “MAGA America?” 

According to X used Paul Anleitner, the writing has been on the wall for a long time and it looks like conservatives have turned the tides and are actually winning the culture war. 

Can that be true? After decades of what we now call ‘wokeism’ building and dominating every pocket of our society, have conservatives started pushing it back? In his thread, Anleitner posits that we have and gives some strong examples of why he thinks so. 

He points to movies. He uses Top Gun: Maverick as a specific example but there are many other examples of average movie watchers rejecting DEI, political content in favor of good old fashioned American fun. The success of Twisters is another great example of this as is the popularity of actors like Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell whose politics have remained unknown and who often play ‘American apple pie’ type archetypes on screen.

He also points to comedy. The most popular comedians in the country are by far right leaning voices. While these comedians aren’t per se “republicans” or even “conservatives” they do stand against progressivism and ‘woke’ ideology in favor of what many believe to be common sense and certainly free speech. Not included in this analysis but I think noteworthy in the space of comedy is Dave Chappel and other black voices which in the past have so often leaned left but now have so often represented viewpoints against leftist censorship and prescriptive ideologies. 

He also brings up an often underreported trend of corporations rejecting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives even if they started down that path earlier on. Corporations are finding DEI to hurt their branding, credibility and bottom line.

Paul looks at trends in schooling. Christian school enrollment has skyrocketed. What he doesn’t mention but is worth noting is also the trend toward homeschooling where Christian (or other religious) schooling may be less available. In 2023, homeschooling was the fastest growing form of education. These trends are a direct rejection of liberal public institutions who had crossed so far into politically motivated education that families could no longer trust them with their children. Especially in the wake of COVID-19.

It may seem silly, but he makes a good point about the Star Wars fan outrage culture becoming much more mainstream. Executives at Disney wanted Star Wars to reflect their own values which they believed were the cultural values of the masses. Paul doesn’t get too far into the weeds but there is a lot to unpack out of just this one franchise. While the new Star Wars trilogy featuring the character Rey was a commercial success by any stretch of the imagination, Disney’s follow-up series on their streaming platform have struggled with the exception of The Mandalorian which once starred conservative star, Gina Carano and is run by a relatively apolitical (if not conservative friendly) Jon Favreau who has successfully focused on story and fan loved lore over shoe-horned political ideology. The contrast to the success of The Mandalorian is the abysmal failure of The Acolyte. The Acolyte was marketed as a LGBT, feminist, anti-Christian anti-western manifesto and while I’d argue the end product wasn’t as bad as people said, the entire notion of the story offended viewers so badly that Disney canceled the show and pulled all merchandise from their stores. It was a catastrophic financial loss to the company.  

Finally he provides a contextual timeline of the rise and fall of the band Creed. This one he admits is a lot more nuanced. There is nothing per se political about Creed. And yet if you can read a room, check a vibe, you know that unironic love of Creed is definitely conservative culture. 

There are a lot of other cultural indicators that some in the comment section pointed out like the rise of Country music. Morgan Wallen is one of the most popular artists in the country regardless of genre. Artists who do not traditionally perform country music are putting out country songs like Beyonce and Chappell Roan (Lil Nas X arguably started this trend). 

The war wages on and will likely see surges and recessessions of both sides of the ideology battlefield. But for now it looks like the right side is gaining toward a W.