Collateral Damage in the Culture Wars

Conservatives must have relaxed the drug laws slightly to come to this conclusion, that penguins somehow represent conservative values. Earlier in the Fall, the New York Times also mused on the rise of conservative movies, wondering whether a few recent movies viewed as having conservative values should be “interpreted as peace offerings in the culture wars, or as canny attempts to open a new front in the endless battle for the soul of the American public?” Since most American media members see the world as liberal and everything-not-liberal-as-conservative, lumping The Incredibles as a “conservative” movie demonstrates a Procrustian worldview. And yet, there is a conservative movement out there, far-reaching and ambitious, that could co-opt or take down libertarian ideas entirely in the public’s mind. Witness Libertas, which throws around the word “liberty,” yet also advertises itself as a “forum for conservative though on film.” No wonder the modern left sees libertarians as part of the conservative movement: no one talks liberty as much and loudly as the conservatives, while trampling gleefully on individual freedom at the same time.