politics

I feel that this really sums up the sentiment that I notice in my area.

"Most crucially, major corporations crave younger consumers and lifelong brand loyalists. Outside of cable news, older consumers are less attractive to most advertisers. And younger people (meaning anyone under 45!) lean decidedly to the left. The most coveted 18-29-year-old demographic leans farther left than any other. Long gone are the days of the Reagan youth, when 18-24-year-olds backed the Republican over Walter Mondale by over 30 points in the 1984 presidential election, and corporate America catered to them accordingly."

The 55+ demographic has had the cultural and political focus on them their whole lives. Now that it's not catering to their opinions they are throwing a tantrum.

They also lost the science war.

I feel like statistics on religion are largely useless, especially in Western, mostly Christian nations. So many people follow the "I said a prayer when I was 10 so now I won't go to hell" version of Christianity that a huge chunk of those yes responses are actually functionally atheists and have been for a long time.

I don't mean to imply anything negative about atheists here. I just think the only thing really changing is that younger people don't see the point in pretending to be religious anymore. They're at least casually familiar with the tenets of Christianity and are pretty aware that what their parents are doing is not religion but some sort of weird social and political club with little resemblance to the religion it's supposedly based on. In fact, I'd argue that the percentage of people who take religion seriously on a personal level has always been much lower than official numbers like this would indicate.

since when has losing stopped them

Winning the culture war doesn't matter one whit if we let a fascist in power. Too many of those young less religious people don't vote and any culture they have will be deleted.

I think we have very different definitions of "lost".

Because last I check, they still have a microphone and are getting away with book burnings, still attend large rallies, and even have jobs.

They've rejected reality and created their own. They didn’t lose, they seceded. Their reality is almost quite literally made up to suit whatever they want whenever they want to.

BlackRock is leftist? It's a nightmare built from unrestrained neoliberalism!

They don't really lose. They just stop talking about things and start talking about something else crazy. Their followers do not care.

I hate the use of the word "tolerant"; I don't tolerate people of different races, religions, sexual orientations, etc., because there is nothing to tolerate. I just accept them.

The people I tolerate are people who try to impose their religion by force, people who profit from hurting others, Nazis, terrorists, etc. I don't tolerate them because I'm tolerant; I tolerate them because I have no choice in the matter. They exist no matter what I think of them. If I could banish them all to Siberia, I would.

But there's no top-down conspiracy of woke corporations as defined by Tucker Carlson.

Anyone remember Bill O'Reilly ranting about the "War on Christmas" years ago?

Same shit, different day.

I'll consider them as having lost when they're out of political power and no longer a serious threat.

Abortion rights aren't going to reinstate themselves.

The most woke thing any corporation cares about it its own bottom line. And actually Nike and Disney are smart enough to know which demographic matters most so of course they're going to be as inclusive and anti-racism as possible (or at least put on the face of being such). And I really think today's upcoming generations are smarter in that regard - they see the values of inclusivity, not the drawbacks. I hope people today will really help turn the tide in the coming election and show the old guard that the status quo and this catering to religious over-zealotry has no place anymore, and isn't something most people in the world want to be around.

This is the case I try to make to people on the left who complain about corporate white washing, or whatever they want to call it. Mainstream corporations feel like it's advantageous to have their symbols out there in pride parades, environmentalist goals, anti-racism, and anti-sexism. Corporations are obligated at a certain level to follow the money, and they have read the signs and chosen to align themselves with these progressive causes. If nothing else, this is a good sign of where the country is headed.

I'm not sure I agree - the change of generations isn't a new process and our political parties have survived it before. Certain ideas that were controversial for past generations won't be controversial for future ones, but conservatism and the general phenomenon of the culture war will persist. (I think the Trump phenomenon is in fact conservatism adapting itself to modern conditions.)