America’s Cultural Revolution

Review

Sasha Ivanov, outlines the strategic dilemma of the right based on the contrasting theses of Christopher Rufo and Richard Hanania:

"At this moment of leftist hegemony, where should the right focus its efforts? In science there is a distinction between ultimate and proximate causes; if politics is downstream of culture, as the late Andrew Breitbart used to say, then efforts should be concentrated on the ultimate cause, culture. But if civil rights law is the ultimate cause of woke culture, then just changing legislation will be enough.

My own position can be summarized as follows: Rufo beats Hanania. Politics is downstream of culture, and not the other way round. Of course, the two books are more complementary than they are antagonistic, and neither claims that wokeness is singularly caused by politics or culture. However, Rufo clearly emphasizes the causal role of culture on politics, while Hanania clearly states that political decisions ultimately shape culture.

If Hanania is right, then abolishing wokeness is simply a matter of taking over the government (either Antonio Tejero-style or, as Hanania suggests, by influencing the Republican party) and passing the right laws. Effects will then trickle down to the culture in the space of a few decades. But if Rufo is right, then what’s required is a painstakingly long process of intellectual and political activism: the anti-woke crowd need to actually start caring enough to sacrifice their barbecues and become committed activists."

(https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/how-to-defeat-woke-rufo-vs-hanania)