There s nothing phony about the culture war – The Spectator World
That s how the battles of the culture wars almost always proceed. The left makes outrageous claims. Conservatives then have to demolish those claims before they can present better approaches. The left, however, attempts to freeze the debate at the first step. Either you are for black history, i.e. their peculiar version of it, or you are in league with the racists. It is frustrating for conservatives who are eager to get to the underlying questions of fact and emphasis, but that s how the game is played.
Culture wars are not characterized by two approximately equal sides who play by the same rules. They are, at this moment in our history, stand-offs between an entrenched leftist establishment that has nothing to gain from real debate, and an upstart movement of skeptics (usually parents) who have nothing to lose by challenging the left s premises. Conservatives win if they succeed in pressing their questions. They lose when they are silenced, excluded, or encouraged to accept a compromise, which is just defeat by another name.