Want to understand why Trump won the election? Look at pop culture.
Want to understand why Trump won the election? Look at pop culture.
How entertainment, from Morgan Wallen to Twisters, predicted the MAGA pivot.
Summary
In 2024, pop culture reflected a conservative resurgence, marked by increased popularity of hyper-masculine “bro” figures, country music, and traditional femininity.
Stars like Sydney Sweeney were embraced as symbols of a backlash against “woke culture” and the Me Too movement.
Country artists like Morgan Wallen and Zach Bryan dominated charts, while conservative films, such as Reagan and Am I Racist?, saw box office success.
Analysts suggest this cultural shift is both a response to progressive movements and a strategic attempt by conservative media to shape public sentiment.
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I honestly can't fathom people identifying with what one would describe as "backlash against the metoo movement"
"Can't stand hearing all those women say they were raped or sexually harassed. I just won't tolerate it."
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“You’re not allowed to say anything these days! Next they’ll come for me!”
Bro if what they’re saying about rapists and harassers means they’ll come for you then you are a bad person and they should come for you. But probably also you’re just victim complexing and nobody is going to accuse of anything other than being an annoying ass
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There was major backlash to black people saying that their lives matter.
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It's easier to blame the movement than taking a look at themselves.
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"hearing about all that stuff makes me uncomfortable, and I personally didn't do anything wrong"
This is literally the argument.
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I guess in a society that is increasingly lonely especially for young people, it's easy to get dragged into the redneck incel rhetoric. I don't really know where this activity is taking place but it seems to be everywhere.
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The backlash makes more sense when you consider it's a purely emotional reaction. It's a backlash against "feeling bad." Nevermind that feeling bad when seeing someone who was wronged is appropriate.
Rather than even try to reckon with those feelings, the part of the nation that is not being victimized decided it's too hard to empathize with victims. They didn't like feeling bad. And happily for them, there were plenty of conmen and women, influencers, and other people more than happy to tell them they shouldn't feel bad, in exchange for money and power.
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It just makes me conclude that they're pro-rape
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Meanwhile, the success of Chappell Roan, Inside Out 2, and the Fallout TV series tell us absolutely nothing /s
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This is moronic
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You need a serious break from posting.
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Author of the article? Probably yes. OP? No, this is a fascinatingly wrong opinion (imo).
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Dumb ass take. Wow.
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What’s the “dumb ass take” from this? Because based on what just happened a lot of this is accurate. Sad, but accurate.
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I'm not who you were asking, but I've got at least two problems with this,
The biggest problem is cherry picking examples to reach a conclusion while ignoring contradicting evidence. We had plenty of more successful pop culture stuff that had overtly progressive and feminist themes, and conservative stuff doing well isn't really a new phenomenon this year (the article even points this out where it talks about American Sniper and Passion of the Christ).
The second biggest problem is that the numbers underlying this are suspect - it's easy to manipulate streaming numbers and book sales, and church groups are taking whole congregations to movies if they think it's a culture war win. Also, reading Sydney Sweeney and hawk-tuah girl as conservative wins are stretches that the author never really justifies (not to mention seeing Beyonce getting shit out by the CMAs as anything other than a sign that country music executives don't like independent black women who already have successful music careers beyond their influence).
Which gets to a problem that might only bug me, but this article has nothing to say about any of the art it's bringing up and misses what I think could be an actually interesting conversation - what does the kind of art conservatives are getting into tell us about them? Like, the fact that they've meme-d around hawk-tuah girl, when did conservatives get "sex positive"? (rape positive if we're being honest, but that'd be a conclusion an article could build towards by actually engaging with the material)
e; ttpos
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Today, on "we can't admit that Democrats' strategy of running to the right has failed."
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Bruh I forgot "charts" are still a thing. I've not listened to an artist above 600k monthlies on Spotify in like 5 years neither does anyone I know. We're all in our niches. I guess this "death of common big media/pop culture" is yet another intellectualist bubble.
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Charts these days mostly seems to mean how many tiktok videos play the song. When I ask people what kind of music they like it's either "whatever I find on tiktok" or some random niche band I've never heard of like Ralph and the Orange Peels.
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That thumbnail photo reminds me so much of why I absolutely loath modern country.
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Stars like Sydney Sweeney were embraced as symbols of a backlash against “woke culture” and the Me Too movement.
I've heard this, too, but, um, she's unbelievably attractive in a conventional way with an amazing body? Anyone with eyes and enjoys the female form is going to appreciate that, so, of course she's going to be embraced in a medium like films?
I don't get how this is anti-woke, but maybe I'm not terminally online enough to get it. Has there been some parade of very unattractive women with unattractive bodies being embraced in film that I missed?