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the actions of Axel Springer do not reflect a popular movement

Neither Dutschke's assassin nor the local CDU campaigners were Axel Springer :-) In the sixties, there was definitely a culture war all over the West, in West Germany, Axel Springer and his papers were propagandists in it, not lone players.

I disagree with your narrow definition of the American cultural war as Christian fundies vs. everyone else. The a broader and long-time conflict trhat involved the civil rights movement, Roe vs. Wade, gun control, economics, entertainment etc., and roughly maps to liberal vs. conservative, is often called culture war. If you check Wikipedia, they describe different interpretations of a wider culture war. As it happens, Pat Buchanan himself features prominently in the article as a cultural warrior.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Mon Jan 22nd, 2007 at 03:47:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The CDU/CSU was still playing culture wars to the hilt in the nineties - abortion, homosexuality, stem cells, Kinder statt Inder... I remember how surprised I was at just how similar much of the FAZ editorial stuff was to the American right when I began reading it a decade ago. It gave me a bit of sympathy for conservatives in the US who have to deal with the fact that the best foreign coverage comes from the socially liberal NYT.
by MarekNYC on Mon Jan 22nd, 2007 at 03:58:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Your first point is well taken. Evidently, Axel Springer is still invested in that old culture war.

As for your second point, I guess you again correct an oversimplification of mine. There are indeed different fronts in the culture war in America, or different culture wars. What I was trying to say is that the nature of one of the American culture wars is different from anything that is likely to arise in Europe, since the essence of fundamentalism is the rejection of rationality. That is something that simply cannot be accomodated.

A bomb, H bomb, Minuteman / The names get more attractive / The decisions are made by NATO / The press call it British opinion -- The Three Johns

by Alexander on Mon Jan 22nd, 2007 at 04:20:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
OK, we agree on that. I spent most of the first few years of my active internet life 'debating' (almost only US) creationists, I know what you mean.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Mon Jan 22nd, 2007 at 04:55:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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