Much has been made of the so-called “vibe shift” that followed Donald Trump’s reelection. To the extent that it is a measurable phenomenon, it is gauged by the degree to which the formerly permissive center-left institutions and individuals who grudgingly tolerated the progressive cultural revolution have withdrawn that indulgence and sloughed off their chains. Of course, the underlying conditions that created a seismic social upheaval to which those individuals and institutions are responding did not materialize overnight. They were, however, poorly understood because they were insufficiently studied.
The earthquake some recent studies of evolving American cultural attitudes have produced is illustrative of that general blindness. Taken together, those surveys suggest traditional conservative prescriptions for a functioning society experiencing a revival. Indeed, that revival has been underway for a while, and all under the noses of America’s elite cultural arbiters.
Comments