Memetic Mediation: The Hard Problem of the Culture War

During the build-up to the 2016 US presidential election, these terms were frequently highlighted in think pieces and hot takes—and for good reason. While presidential election cycles have always been acrimonious, this one was different. The tone was nastier, the strawmanning more egregious, and the appetite for genuine dialogue non-existent.

The so-called culture war was a defining feature of 2016, and rages on as we enter the 2020 election cycle. If your news intake comes from legacy media, such as CNN or Fox, you might see the culture war as a left vs. right affair, but, for close observers, a different picture is beginning to emerge: one of ideological fragmentation. It’s not just about left vs. right: there are a multitude of different ideologies—memetic tribes—competing amongst themselves.

You might be familiar with some of these tribes: Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, Extinction Rebellion, Antifa, Intellectual Dark Web, New Atheists, Alt-Right, Manosphere, Incels, and QAnon, to name but a few. These groups have different values, epistemologies, and worldviews, often coupled with an unshakable and unexamined knowingness: a cocksureness in their own perspectives and an eagerness to attack and destroy opposing views.