We all know what the culture wars are, and why conservatives have been steadily losing for decades.

The culture wars are not just annoying and spiteful, they’re consequential. At its broadest, in Andrew Breitbart’s famous dictum, “politics is downstream from culture.” More specifically, the culture wars are the background conflict that fuels the odious excrescence that is Cancel Culture.

Conservatives have steadily given ground in the culture wars for several reasons. Firstly, because too many conservatives, especially political leaders, labour under the delusion that if they just give an inch to the left, then the left will call a ceasefire. That’s nonsense, of course: every inch only encourages the left to demand another mile. One minute, you’re conceding gay marriage, the next, drag queens are telling your toddlers that they’re not really boys or girls at all.

Secondly, while conservatives slept through the afterglow of the 80s, the Long March through the institutions has steadily subsumed nearly every cultural industry, from academia to Hollywood.

As a consequence, the culture wars are truly asymmetrical. One side is held to a narrow Overton window that yawns wide for the other. One side has the biggest guns: nearly all the media, Big Tech, the entertainment industry and academia. The other… well, an army of bloggers and new media journalists; and a few conservative politicians with something resembling a backbone.

Dan Crenshaw. The BFD. Photoshop by Lushington Brady.

One of those is former Navy SEAL and Texas Republican Dan Crenshaw.

Dan Crenshaw does social media good. What he may lack in depth perception, he makes up for in a Don Henley-esque way of getting down the heart of the matter. Like with this “Conservative Guide to the Culture Wars.” It’s no doubt in response to the latest casualty of the culture wars, Gina Carano. In case you didn’t know, the former Star Wars star is right-leaning. She was found guilty of the high crime of tweeting right-leaning opinions. Ironically, the same week we found out far-left director Joss Whedon may have allegedly been abusing his female stars for decades. But again, he was far left. So … meh.

Louder With Crowder

Dan Crenshaw has tweeted a 23-point guide to fighting the culture wars. Some of the points are specifically American but can be easily tweaked to local circumstances: for instance “[Insert your country here] is worthy of our love and patriotism”.

Others are debatable, depending on your personal stance. But debatable doesn’t mean unallowable. We can debate principles we disagree with, rather than simply forbid them.

So, read Dan Crenshaw’s guide to the culture wars, and decide for yourself where you stand.

  1. America is worthy of our love and patriotism.
  2. Victor mentality is better than a victim mentality.
  3. Free speech is absolute. “Hate speech” is not an objective term.
  4. It doesn’t matter what kind of gun you restrict, criminals still hurt people. Let us protect ourselves.
  5. You get to keep wealth you create & pass it to your kids.
  6. The govt has no right to shut down your business or invade your home without due process, even in pandemics
  7. Women should not have to compete against men in women’s sports.
  8. Verifying ID to vote is not racist. It is common sense.
  9. Borders and national sovereignty are not racist or xenophobic.
  10. You can’t have freedom without order, order without law, law without morality, morality without religion, or religion without God.
  11. Innocent until proven guilty – not the other way around.
  12. Personal responsibility is a virtue.
  13. Never give into cancel culture (but stay humble and apologize when you’re wrong).
  14. The founding was 1776, not 1619.
  15. Stand for the anthem.
  16. Policy that favors one race over another is not “social justice,” it is racist.
  17. It’s Latinos, not Latinx.
  18. Less abortion, more adoption.
  19. Only women can be pregnant and breastfeed.
  20. It’s ok to lose in competitive sports, and second place trophies don’t help anyone (but also see # 7).
  21. More police, not defund the police.
  22. We don’t tear up the past, we learn from it.
  23. This list is not exhaustive.

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Punk rock philosopher. Liberalist contrarian. Grumpy old bastard. I grew up in a generational-Labor-voting family. I kept the faith long after the political left had abandoned it. In the last decade...