Across the divide: Culture wars in the US and UK

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At the Republican National Convention in 1992, Pat Buchanan spoke about a “cultural war” equating to a “struggle for the soul of America”. James Davison Hunter’s 1991 book, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America, explained ‘culture wars’ as a struggle to define American public life between progressives and the orthodox, while in the UK, many in the media have tried to import this definition from the US wholesale.

‘Culture wars’ today can be broadly seen as referring to the battles between left and right wings of politics and society – Democrats vs Republicans in the US or, increasingly, remain vs leave in the UK, according to the 2018 NatCen report, The Emotional Legacy of Brexit.

Recent use of the term has surged. In 2015, there were 21 articles in mainstream UK newspapers that mentioned a UK culture war, while, by 2020, there were 534, according to King’s College London research.

Businesses are often caught in the middle. Last year, Coca-Cola condemned a voting law in the US state of Georgia, which followed pressure from activists concerned that the law would unfairly affect the state’s black population, but led to a backlash from Republicans.

Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at King’s, says the notion of a culture war is not as widespread in the UK as it is in the US, with its two-party political system.

“It is important to realise what the Americans understand by culture wars – it is not disagreement, or even fractious disagreement, but it is about two entirely different world views that are really difficult to reconcile and compromise around,” Duffy says. “In the UK, there is a much more nuanced picture of fragmented groups rather than two, big, warring monoliths.”

Other research has questioned whether the US population is actually split between two warring tribes. The 2018 Hidden Tribes report, by pluralist campaign group More in Common, suggested that 8% of US citizens are ‘progressive activists’, with 19% and 6% as ‘traditional conservatives’ and ‘devoted conservatives’ respectively. The remaining 67% – separated into four groups – is classed as the ‘exhausted majority’ who avoid cultural battles.

However, the report does show the depth of antipathy between the two extremes, based on a representative survey of 8,000 people. For example, 99% of progressive activists included in the sample thought immigration was a positive, while 90% of devoted conservatives stated immigration had a negative impact.

Duffy’s research, published in June 2021, suggests there are four broad UK groups: ‘traditionalists’ and ‘progressives’, which comprise a quarter of the population each and represent the two wings of the ‘culture wars’, as well as the ‘disengaged’, and ‘moderates’, representing the other half of the population. Duffy says his research suggests a large proportion of the population is not heavily engaged in cultural warfare covered in the media, such as on racial inequality or LGBT+ rights, but there is more disagreement on recent political and social movements such as trans rights or Black Lives Matter.

“We hear a lot about the extremes,” says Duffy. “People are not as fired up as you would think from the rhetoric – they are just getting on with their lives and these cultural issues are not their day-to-day concerns. It is not entirely media made or politics driven – there are some actual issues, so we need to take it seriously, but there are not as strong feelings either side of the divide.”

People on the extreme left and right are very vocal, however, meaning that brands need to tread carefully when navigating any potentially controversial issues that arise. Hollie Jones, head of agency at Crowd DNA’s New York office, argues companies need to demonstrate they follow principles they espouse, and avoid “tokenistic displays of support and advocacy”, adding: “Consumers see through things and do their research now. You can’t just claim a value – you have to live and breathe it.”

Duffy adds that half-hearted actions can also damage corporate reputations. “It is not just about communication and what debates you get into – your own behaviour needs to be really aligned with that or you get picked up very quickly for hypocrisy.”

• In the US, 59% of Generation Z (born after 1996 ) are in favour of additional gender options on forms, compared with 32% of the Silent Generation ( 1928-1945 ) (Pew Research Center, 2018 )
• 50% of British people have not heard of the term ‘woke’ (King’s, 2021 )
• 29% of remain supporters say it’s hard to be friends with people who voted leave, compared with 7% of leavers (King’s, 2021 ).

THIS ARTiCLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE OCTOBER 2021 ISSUE OF IMPACT.