Win-Win

Slate’s Timothy Noah thinks conservatives have won the culture wars:

Conservatives chortle over their seizure of the youth culture. A longer version of Anderson’s Sun piece (published before the Reagan flap) appears in the autumn issue of City Journal, under the headline, “We’re Not Losing the Culture Wars Anymore.” In it, Anderson, sounding a bit like lefty media critic Eric Alterman, plays up the success of Fox News, which he freely admits is “conservative.” (Now that the right is winning the culture wars, there’s no longer any need to pretend that Fox lacks an ideology.) But he also dwells at great length on South Park, which he portrays as refreshingly conservative. The evidence includes one episode titled “Cripple Fight,” and another in which a choir is heard to sing, “There’s a place called the rain forest that truly sucks ass.” Chatterbox has no difficulty agreeing with Anderson (and Andrew Sullivan, whom Anderson quotes at length) that these sentiments reflect conservative influence, particularly in their tone. But he doesn’t find that particularly flattering to conservatism. In a similar vein, Danny Goldberg, former manager to Led Zeppelin and Nirvana, recently published a book titled Culture Wars: How the Left Lost Teen Spirit. Among its targets is Tipper Gore, whom Goldberg calls “snobbish” and “arrogant” simply because she thought record companies ought to label music with adult content.

It’s a little more complicated than that, kids.

Strange, isn’t it, that Noah should mention Andrew Sullivan, without mentioning that Sullivan is a gay conservative? Or that thanks in part to efforts by Sullivan, gay marriage is gaining support in mainstream America? I’d hardly call the Supreme Court’s knockdown of the Texas sodomy law, or Vermont’s civil unions, or polls showing a sometimes majority in favor of gay marriage, or even the popularity of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy evidence that conservatives have won the culture wars.

Noah also fails to mention America’s increasing tolerance for medical marijuana, and the fact that each year, more American politicians openly question the goals and methods of the War on Drugs.

Our music and television are increasingly risqu