The last couple years, especially, but there always seems to be some stupid fucking pop culture “thing” that American conservatives just universally latch onto. I’m not talking about them complaining about BLM or CRT, which I at least understand why they’re complaining about, but it seems that every few months there’s some IMMENSE outrage over something stupid like the plastic potato’s implied gender or stopping the print of some Dr. Seuss books no one was buying or Aunt Jemima or now a fictional character claiming to receive a COVID vaccine. There always seems to be some cultural lightning rod for conservative outrage that NEEDS to exist, no matter how frivolous or stupid the concerns are. Why is this? Why do American (though I could imagine conservatives elsewhere do the same, I’m just speaking from experience) conservatives feel the need to latch onto and be offended by SOMETHING?
and liberal politicians who inevitably played their role.
okay but liberal politicians have institutional power and the plastic potato doesn’t
Eh… this is a bit incorrect. Yes you are right that they are completely captured by capital and have no independent decision making, but large swaths of the American public still invest legitimacy in these forms. Like yeah, getting mad at pols is a waste of time, though it can be funny, but it is frustrating to see people investing their political energy into these captured institutions.