How To Win The Culture War. . .

Yesterday, I tried to point out why it’s so important that conservatives “take back” the culture. If we leave things as they are, we will continue to face a massive uphill battle in getting conservative ideas put into practice. As the culture now stands, our views are ridiculed and mischaracterized by media outlets; movies, books and songs instill a fundamental pro-leftist/anti-conservative theme into all of our entertainment, to the point of making such beliefs a reflex response; and the constant assault creates a visceral anti-conservatism. This must end.

How to end that is the question. Before we discuss that, however, let’s talk about what our goals should be.

Many argue that because the left controls the levers of cultural power, we would be best served creating an alternative, “conservative” cultural structure. Presumably, the conservative product turned out by that structure would appeal to so many people that the current structure dominated by leftists would collapse.

I think this plan works for newspapers and it works for political publishing, because people today look to the news and political books largely to have their own views confirmed. But this won’t work to change the culture. In fact, I think this would be dangerously counter-productive.

Indeed, while replacing leftist propaganda with conservative propaganda has a certain appeal, it’s still propaganda. It is a fact of human nature that when someone with a stated bias makes a statement, we dismiss their comment as being shaded to reflect that bias. Affirmatively creating “conservative work” would run headlong into that wall. Indeed, there is no reason to believe that people would consider “conservative work” to be any better than what comes out of Hollywood now. Even worse, so long as the establishment continues to insist that they aren’t political, this new “conservative work” might even find itself rejected for being the only “real” propaganda out there. Thus, at best, this approach leads to an unhelpful “he said, she said” situation (which gives the left an equivalence it does not deserve). But, more worryingly, it also runs the risk of ending up in a “we-biased, them-not” situation that could prove disastrous.

Secondly, this is a war over credibility. And frankly, I doubt that there is sufficient conservative talent to create an alternative structure that could generate product that is on a par with what is currently being produced by the leftist establishment. First, they have access to resources that would take us decades to duplicate, and they have the advantage of existing contractual relationships with retailers and distributors (often exclusive relationships). Secondly, it’s fairly obvious that leftists far outnumber rightist in the culture industries, not to mention that with the likely blacklisting of anyone who associates with this new conservative alternative, it will be a huge risk for talent to shift over. Thus, we will be hard pressed to find talent. And that lack of talent is likely to lead to poor product, which will only strengthen the damaging stereotype that conservatives have nothing to offer when it comes to culture.

As I said in one of the comments, if you lined up the talent that would be available to the right against the talent currently available on the left, it would appear (using a military analogy) that the left is the United States military and the right is a local police force. That’s a battle we can’t win, nor should we try -- a poor start could permanently damage credibility, leading to a destructive downward spiral. Instead, we need to fight asymmetrically.

So what do I recommend? Well, for starters, I think the problem isn’t the lack of conservative product in the culture, the real problem is that our culture is too political.

For thirty years now, the left has struggled to make everything into a political issue. There aren’t enough women bosses on television? Protest. Kids shows don’t have positive gay stereotypes? Protest. Do you ever wonder why the only people who can be made fun of in advertising are white males? It’s because white males are the only interest group that won’t flood the sponsor with angry mail. It’s all about path of least resistance for sponsors. Do you want to know why a collection of 32 mostly-Republican NFL owners made it clear they didn’t want Rush to own an NFL team? It’s not that they don’t like him, but they feared the protests they knew would come.

Ok, so what does this mean for a solution?

First, I think it means that our goal should be to “de-politicize the culture,” meaning we should strive for a balance, where the political left and the political right can both do their advocacy pieces, but with the vast majority of cultural product remaining apolitical. In other words, we should strive for a world where the political is clearly marked as such, and the rest is silent on political issues.

How do we do that? Well, that’s the interesting part. While these industries are dominated by leftists (who don’t tolerate dissent), they are all public corporations with shareholders (who don’t tolerate poor economic performance). That gives us a range of options:

1. Stop spending money on product with leftist messages. If a movie or television show includes leftist messages, don’t pay to see it, don’t buy it, and don’t buy any associated merchandise. It if becomes unprofitable to include these messages, the moneymen who run these companies will put an end to them.

2. Attack the sponsors. Let every single sponsor of these shows or movies or magazines know that this is unacceptable. Be vocal. But be clear in your complaint. Explain to them exactly what you object to. Make it clear that you will hold that view against the sponsor’s product and will extend your boycott to that sponsor. And band together for maximum effect.

3. Support products that don’t include these offending messages. I’m not talking about products that also include conservative ideas (or what someone claims is a conservative idea), I’m talking about supporting only products that entirely disclaim leftist propaganda.

4. Start looking at the idea of minority shareholder suits. The left has been attacking corporations for years over anything they haven’t liked. If a company uses animal testing, supported South Africa, or didn’t do enough leftist charity, the left organized minority shareholder suits to attack those policies. Do the same.

In this regard, it might even be smart to set up a conservative boycott network where conservatives can identify which products to support and to boycott, and the reasons for that. This could help average conservatives know what products to avoid -- just as the left passed the word to avoid things like dolphinated-tuna. This could also help people refine their complaints. Many people simply don’t know how to construct a criticism that will make sense and be effective, and if you can’t tell a sponsor exactly what you didn’t like, they won’t know how to correct their behavior in the future. This network (particularly if it's on line) could also serve as a warning (guidance) to potential sponsors.

However, I would give two words of caution in the creation of such a network. First, it needs to avoid the confrontational boycott style pursued by many church groups. That only boosts the public’s interest and can be exploited by producers to improve the marketing of their products. I would suggest specifically declining all interviews intended to address individual products. Secondly, whoever runs such a network must really understand when something truly deserves to be criticized. Too much criticism these days is reflexive (aimed at undeserving targets) or heavy handed (turning molehills into mountains) or scattershot (hitting so many targets that it comes to appear paranoid). Some people mistake conservative messages for liberal ones (and vice versa) and others confuse their own tastes with conservative principle (see my article on conservative films to see what I’m talking about). That needs to be carefully controlled to keep the message from being muddied. Less is more in this instance.

Finally, I would also say that conservatives as a group need to change their thinking about culture. Infiltrate my friends, infiltrate:

1. Conservative creative types need to learn to network and to help each other out. That’s the oldest recipe for success. Follow it. And work to change the industry from the inside, even if you have to pretend to be a liberal to do it.

2. Hone your craft. Too many “open” conservatives rely on the public’s thirst for conservative material to get away with producing crap. Shape up or shut up.

3. Conservative moneymen need to start investing in conservative creative types, even when they aren't working on overtly conservative projects. Remember, networking is about long term gain.

4. The rest of us need to drop the idea that somehow the culture is insignificant or unworthy of pursuing as a profession. We need to encourage conservative kids to go into culture just as much as we encourage them to go into business or science.

5. Finally, reject the people who offer criticism after proudly proclaiming their ignorance. "I ain't never seen a movie, but here's what I think. . ." only discredits our cause.

Thoughts?