Does it feel like culture has died and there's only politics now?

It's a symptom of growing information addiction. Weaponization of social and news media is really nothing new, but it’s getting way easier to drive narratives with the help of ever-widening access to a constant stream of information via phones, tablets, and computers. Fear and divisiveness sell, and the online mediums through which they sell are pervasive.

Pretty much anywhere online where people can congregate and talk, there’s guaranteed to be at least one person who thinks that somehow, somewhere, it is entirely appropriate and related to make a disparaging remark about liberals or conservatives while discussing the latest “hack” for sous vide pot roast. There will also very likely be someone else who is entirely invested in battling them tooth and nail about it, and there goes the discussion.

Despite that, there are definitely plenty of venues, both online and irl, where that isn’t the norm. There are also plenty of people out there who share your outlook and live lives in which politics have little bearing.
 
Sloe Djinn said:
It's a symptom of growing information addiction. Weaponization of social and news media is really nothing new, but it’s getting way easier to drive narratives with the help of ever-widening access to a constant stream of information via phones, tablets, and computers. Fear and divisiveness sell, and the online mediums through which they sell are pervasive.

Pretty much anywhere online where people can congregate and talk, there’s guaranteed to be at least one person who thinks that somehow, somewhere, it is entirely appropriate and related to make a disparaging remark about liberals or conservatives while discussing the latest “hack” for sous vide pot roast. There will also very likely be someone else who is entirely invested in battling them tooth and nail about it, and there goes the discussion.

Despite that, there are definitely plenty of venues, both online and irl, where that isn’t the norm. There are also plenty of people out there who share your outlook and live lives in which politics have little bearing.
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Social media continues to surprise me about how many people actually want to be recognized. This is true before when people had to call into radio stations to have air time. It's much easier now though.

The fascinating thing is that I think we're all slowly moving towards global politics more than national. I think culture is also slowly being globalized to a certain degree, and that's due to the inurnet. Before the inurnet, none of us here would even think the other existed.
 
Sometimes Yeah said:
You nailed it in your previous post.

There's a mindset, which I really cannot understand, which seems to think something like this:
(might be a bit straw man or exagerrated)
"My ideas are so true, self evident, logical, and good, that anyone who doesn't agree with them is either not understanding them, is ignorant of them, or is evil."

And that mindset seems to think if they very explicity insert their ideas and message into some entertainment, and people actually grasp it, they will automatically embrace it.

(again excuse how straw man, oversimplified or innacurate this caricature might be).

I see that mindset in people who will quote a scriptural verse, then wait to see if you utterly accept it, and if you don't, they conclude that you are one of the damned.

I also see that mindset in people who take a hot movie franchise, and make the an installment expressing their beliefs and ideals, expecting it to break through some barrier which has kept people from understanding certain ideals. And if people don't embrace them, the conclusion is that those people are "evil".

What fails to be grasped by both the religious enthusiast with a pamphlet of scripture quotes, or the movie producer with a very politicised script, is that people may all agree entirely on a list of 100 good propositions, but they will prioritise some things more than others.

As much as culture can die, when there is a heavy, distrustful religious zealotry in society; similarly, culture is destroyed when there is a heavy and distrustful political zealotry permeating what should be creative, imaginative, and extremely wide-horizoned.
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Jonathan haidt's coddling of the American mind is good at touching on this an this other book "conflict is not abuse" as well as "difficult conversations"
 
Culture and politics are often intertwined. Sometimes they support each other, and sometimes they clash. I think there is a desire to politicize everything too much today just to create a sensation or huge reaction, and people play into it, buy into it. Right now, it's all about, "you're either with us or against us!"

I do agree with the OP that we are not allowed to have a wide variety of opinions anymore, just one opinion that is perceived as "progressive" or "woke." How can you have reasoned discussion or debate if only one opinion of just a few are allowed?
 
What do you mean by political exactly? For instance, many people view the inclusion of LGBT people in media as being political. For others, things as simple as women in media having short hair and multi-dimensional personalities are considered political. Even casting a woman in a role that would have historically gone to a man (i.e. Rey in Star Wars) is seen as political by some. There is a large amount of "political" talk over race and ethnicity in media as well of course.

For people who are not white cishet men, being included and properly represented in media is not necessarily political. They just want media they can resonate with/characters they can actually relate to, but this is viewed as catering to liberals by many conservatives. This is because conservatives view the inclusion and proper representation of minorities and women in media as pushing some sort of political agenda because they want to use politics to control the lives of others. They would ban gay marriage, double down on the new Jim Crow, and do a variety of awful things to transgender people.... among other things if they could. Well, they are doing much already, but they want to do more. Media is only political to them because they are control freaks who can't stand the idea of seeing two men holding hands and kissing, black people in prominent positions, etc.
 
When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade
We've braved the belly of the beast
We've learned that quiet isn't always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn’t always just-ice
And yet the dawn is ours
before we knew it
Somehow we do it
Somehow we've weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished
We the successors of a country and a time
Where a skinny Black girl
descended from slaves and raised by a single mother
can dream of becoming president
only to find herself reciting for one
And yes we are far from polished
far from pristine
but that doesn’t mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms
to one another
We seek harm to none and harmony for all
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious
Not because we will never again know defeat
but because we will never again sow division
Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid
If we’re to live up to our own time
Then victory won’t lie in the blade
But in all the bridges we’ve made
That is the promise to glade
The hill we climb
If only we dare
It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it’s the past we step into
and how we repair it
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation
rather than share it
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy
And this effort very nearly succeeded
But while democracy can be periodically delayed
it can never be permanently defeated
In this truth
in this faith we trust
For while we have our eyes on the future
history has its eyes on us
This is the era of just redemption
We feared at its inception
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs
of such a terrifying hour
but within it we found the power
to author a new chapter
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves
So while once we asked,
how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert
How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was
but move to what shall be
A country that is bruised but whole,
benevolent but bold,
fierce and free
We will not be turned around
or interrupted by intimidation
because we know our inaction and inertia
will be the inheritance of the next generation
Our blunders become their burdens
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might,
and might with right,
then love becomes our legacy
and change our children’s birthright
So let us leave behind a country
better than the one we were left with
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,
we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one
We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west,
we will rise from the windswept northeast
where our forefathers first realized revolution
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states,
we will rise from the sunbaked south
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover
and every known nook of our nation and
every corner called our country,
our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,
battered and beautiful
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it
- Amanda Gorman
 
MoonFlier said:
When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade
We've braved the belly of the beast
We've learned that quiet isn't always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn’t always just-ice
And yet the dawn is ours
before we knew it
Somehow we do it
Somehow we've weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished
We the successors of a country and a time
Where a skinny Black girl
descended from slaves and raised by a single mother
can dream of becoming president
only to find herself reciting for one
And yes we are far from polished
far from pristine
but that doesn’t mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms
to one another
We seek harm to none and harmony for all
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious
Not because we will never again know defeat
but because we will never again sow division
Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid
If we’re to live up to our own time
Then victory won’t lie in the blade
But in all the bridges we’ve made
That is the promise to glade
The hill we climb
If only we dare
It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it’s the past we step into
and how we repair it
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation
rather than share it
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy
And this effort very nearly succeeded
But while democracy can be periodically delayed
it can never be permanently defeated
In this truth
in this faith we trust
For while we have our eyes on the future
history has its eyes on us
This is the era of just redemption
We feared at its inception
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs
of such a terrifying hour
but within it we found the power
to author a new chapter
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves
So while once we asked,
how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert
How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was
but move to what shall be
A country that is bruised but whole,
benevolent but bold,
fierce and free
We will not be turned around
or interrupted by intimidation
because we know our inaction and inertia
will be the inheritance of the next generation
Our blunders become their burdens
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might,
and might with right,
then love becomes our legacy
and change our children’s birthright
So let us leave behind a country
better than the one we were left with
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,
we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one
We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west,
we will rise from the windswept northeast
where our forefathers first realized revolution
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states,
we will rise from the sunbaked south
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover
and every known nook of our nation and
every corner called our country,
our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,
battered and beautiful
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it
- Amanda Gorman
Click to expand...
She was awesome!
 
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