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Script on Culture war and comparision US with Europe (Patreon)

Published:
2023-09-25 05:18:38
Imported:
2026-06

Content

A while ago I wrote a long script on American culture war politics and where it comes from. I deleted it when i decided to focus more on Europe. But American viewers have repeatedly asked me to at least consider making a short video on this.

I am a bit hesitant, because American history is very much outside of my scope. But I did write a short script. But before I even turn this into a video i would like to especially ask the American here to read it in a very critical way, and point out any mistake you think I made.

Link to script: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rKL5Z2Dex7Udz4t89tiOhIxSX3LvjNOh0zNO4sUguaY/edit?usp=sharing

Comments

Anonymous

Sorry, this is a long response. Honestly, I feel that this script heavily misses the mark. Mainly, I think the framing of the conversation from the perspective of the opioid epidemic is far too narrow. Lean into your feeling that the impact is overblown. The opioid epidemic has been devastating to America, but I feel you need to be careful to not elevate that issue as the central cause when it could just as easily be a symptom. The analysis of opioids electing Trump and driving the culture war issue ignores the way culture war issues have shaped America long before the opioid epidemic. Asimov's "Cult of Ignorance" statement about America was in 1980. The communist paranoia of McCarthyism dominated the 50s. We abolished alcohol in the 20's in an earlier incarnation of our "War on Drugs" pursuits. The wave of Christian revivalism in the late 1800's led to a wave of Christian iconography in our political institutions in the midst of the reconstruction period where the battle over American's ecosystem of power, culture, race, and economics were in extreme disarray. Each of these were culture war issues that laid the groundwork for what we're experiencing today. You are right to say that America is still wrestling with the fallout of the civil war. But we have many other factors at play as well. I think far more clearly than opioids, America's political ecosystem today is shaped by rural vs urban, big state vs small, and the shifting economy of America that has centralized our industry and agriculture out of our far-flung communities. I think that opioids are functionally downstream of these issues. As far as getting trump elected, the Evangelical community voted in overwhelmingly for Trump, but the rate of opioid abuse in Evangelical congregations is lower than the national average. I feel this mitigates the idea that opioids played such an outsized role. At the very least, it questions whether it's the cause or is just correlated. I guess, I feel that focusing on opioids requires us to ask the question - what led to the mass use of opioids and should we use that as our analysis of the problem? Was it jobs leaving their communities? Was it TV and the Internet pulling people in front of their screens and away from in person activities like sports/pubs/community centers? Is it the far flung geography making cars, and by extension, cheap gas, essential for survival? Was it the irresponsible way those drugs were marketed and prescribed? The answer is yes to each of these… to some degree at least. And there are many other reasons that have been left out. Does that mean that those are in fact the cause of our culture wars? I'd say no – at least not by themselves. “In any other country in the world, an event as devastating as the opioid epidemic, would dominate the news, cultural, and political agenda. It would be considered a national catastrophe. Other issues would be ignored or sidelined, and society would galvanize behind finding a solution to the problem..." I guess something I want to stress is that I really find this sentiment to be ignorant of the issue, because this issue HAS galvanized an enormous movement of our institutions and local communities to attempt to combat the issue. It IS seen as a national catastrophe. But of course, there is no straightforward way to "find a solution to the problem" because the causes of the problem are so varied, and the depth by which those issues are ingrained into the scope of history in America is far deeper and far more complex than what individual solutions to the problems can grapple with. You can't begin to reverse the flight of capital and jobs from rural areas - not only is it cheaper to do those jobs with robots or overseas, but the experienced workforce of those communities has either aged out or left those communities. You cannot undo the presence of the internet. You can't un-isolate the far-flung geography of rural America where car dependency and distance are an unavoidable ingredient of daily life, etc - etc. But as America flails around for solutions - going after the pharma companies; re-educating rural communities (anyone can be a coder!! yeah, okay, even if that were true, that's not helpful when you're in your fifties); attempts to save our coal and oil industries in the face of the economic inevitability of renewables; funding rural drug awareness campaigns and recovery centers; extreme anxiety about the border (which these rural republicans believe is the sieve that is bringing the drugs to their communities)... we discover again and again that the issue is far more complex, and that the drug use itself is a symptom of so many wider issues. All that to say, this is a nicely written script, but it's a too nicely packaged framework for the issue. For me, at least, I came away feeling like you were a foreigner commenting on an issue that they don't have enough context to understand, which is the reason you've kept away from commenting on it in the first place. I think your discussion of the American vs the European social contract might be an interesting discussion. That part of the script didn’t have anything that felt like it fell flat to me. I don't think it should be done in context with a discussion of the American opioid epidemic. At least not while framing the opioid epidemic as a principal driver of the issue when it seems to be, at best, one among many symptoms down the line of a complicated socio-political history. As always, I love your work, and thank you for so much of the amazing research you’ve done. Sorry if I came across as too critical here. But I do think this script is a miss.

Anonymous

Sorry for the late response, just wanted to add two things to the conversation: 1) The apathy part you mentioned is due to either A: Americans not having confidence the government will do anything to change the problem. (Think the gun debate, and previously opioids within the idea of big pharma). Or the much more relevant B: The "issue" is overblown and or being used a gateway to link a much larger idea to. (Think GOP railing against Fentanyl, but Fentanyl is a really small issue, Fentanyl is just code word for "We need more law and order because the drugs are out of control! How do you get more drug crackdowns specifically? You hire and arm more police and give them more leeway to detain people that are more likely to use like POC). 2) The reasons such issue "gateways" exist and tend to be true most of the time is because both parties are umbrella parties. Most informed Americans like Germany's system and if Germany had a political system due to first past the post voting like the US they would have the SDP, Greens, and Die Linke forming the Democrats (Left) and the CDU, FDP, and AFD being the Republicans (Right) these two groups normally tend towards the center if ever get into power and towards their over respective parts when not in power, but every wing be it the progressive wing of the Democrats or the far-right of the Republicans gets a chance to influence the party with their views especially if American corporations/big donors/interest groups like said wing. This is why politics is so divided in the nation because first past the post forces two parties if you want any real power plus the parties fight within themselves set their party on their idea of it's path. (Example, Far-right Republicans blocking Congress from passing pretty basic stuff like spending or house speaker until they get concessions). Sorry to for using more GOP examples the binary is just more clear there. The wings of the parties are typically clear in votes for primaries in their nation especially for president. lastly for reference I'm from Minnesota, in college in Wisconsin.

David Malinsky

The Columbine shootings were the 9/11 before 9/11

David Malinsky

Rewatching Bowling for Columbine is actually VERY revealing, about violence and institutions

Deep Myth

Kraut - I really like your insight here: "The legacies of inter state wars, of being at war with a foreign aggressor, is that it builds trust in your own institutions, in your own citizenry, in your social contract. " Thanks for sharing!