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Manfredo's avatar

It's odd why the section "Conservative Backlash" was titled as such, when the data shared in that section showed that the median public opinion, and the Republican opinons on social issues remained static. The only group that saw drastic change was Democrats veering far to the left. So, the median and Repubican opinions remaining static is somehow a "conservative backlash"?

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Richard's avatar

Look at graphs of young men, not the entire public or even all Republicans. Young men have indeed shifted sharply rightward across the world. TBF, young women have shifted leftward.

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Manfredo's avatar

Even the graphs of young men don't show a sharp rightward trend, except for in South Korea. In the US, young men are no more conservative then they were in 1990. In the UK, young men have shifted leftward - just not as much as young women.

It's the same case: people are talking about the conservative backlash or the rightward shift among young men. But the data shows that conservatives and young men have remained mostly static in their views. The shifts are all happening on the left.

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Jon's avatar

The point Alice is making is that "when advocacy appears to privilege certain groups while challenging others' core values, it often generates resistance." The chart isn't showing the conservative backlash it's showing a cause of the backlash - i.e. the shift of Democrats to the left on positive discrimination and immigration.

I actually think she's letting Republicans off lightly. After all, it was Republicans who tore down barriers to trade in the 1980's that allowed manufacturing jobs in the US to hemorrhage abroad so that only people who had gone to college had a chance of getting a decent-paying, secure job. The inequality which that led to is at least as likely to have caused the conservative reaction as the Democrats shifting to socially progressive policies because their economic policy options had been shutdown by the neoliberal consensus of the 1990s.

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Manfredo's avatar

Whats's the difference between "backlash" and unpopular positions faring poorly in elections? If the majority of the electorate doesn't support a position and one party makes it a central part of its platform, is loss of support a "backlash" or just unpopular positions.... being unpopular?

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Jon's avatar

There's nothing wrong with a backlash. It's a perfectly healthy thing to be involved in. There's no shame in it. Own it.

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Sober Christian Gentleman's avatar

Intetesting.

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Sober Christian Gentleman's avatar

On point.

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Scott Gibb's avatar

Not done reading this piece yet, but so far it's fantastic. Thank you. Love this bit: "Desire for social approval combined with anticipated policing motivates conformity. This remains true in societies with low internet connectivity and strong dependence on kin." One suggestion that might increase reach is to chop this post up into short pieces. Post one short piece per day, everyday, until you're done.

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Sober Christian Gentleman's avatar

The sexual revolution was a war against nature to destroy the individual, find out how here in my podcast:

https://soberchristiangentlemanpodcast.substack.com/p/s2-ep-9-the-sexual-revolution-deception-cb8

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Gortin Shyver's avatar

Just reading the name of your podcast tired me out.

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Sober Christian Gentleman's avatar

Thats ruff.

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stephanieb's avatar

These ‘timeline’ contributions are very helpful for perspective 🩵

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