Why Conservatives Can’t (And Shouldn’t) Just Ignore Pop Culture

This year, I decided for the first time in a long time that I would watch the Super Bowl – and not just the ads. Me! A gal who admits she knows next to nothing about football! I also decided I would watch the Academy Awards. Yeah, yeah, I know – Jimmy Kimmel is incredibly unfunny, the Academy’s DEI standards are comical, and most nominated movies are either Marvel-ified and beyond dumbed down or they’ve become predictable, pretentious Oscar-bait.

But I had an epiphany. I don’t do enough “normal” things. I wasn’t listening to enough “normal” music or watching enough “normal” shows and movies. Because I’ve been deeply ingrained into the world of conservative politics and culture for several years now, I grew used to bucking the latest trends and remaining blissfully ignorant.

So I had a bit of a normie renaissance recently, and I’m not even mad at it. Conservatives can and should stay in the know about the hottest songs, singers, shows, styles, and everything in between because otherwise, we’ll never lose our stuffy reputation. 

Why So Serious?

You know what’s great about pop culture? It’s fun. It’s frivolous. And it’s usually a nice mental break from all the world's ills. It’s not meant to take up the space in our mind that we need to focus on important, real-life tasks and duties, but let’s face the facts. Modern culture feeds on toxicity and shock content, while our brains can only handle chronic negativity up to a certain threshold.

No one should “idolize” celebrities, but is it really such a terrible vice if a woman wants to keep up with the Kardashians here and there while she’s getting some steps in on the treadmill at the gym or to listen to the latest Ariana Grande album while she’s dolling up for a night out? 

Think of mindless, frivolous pop culture content as a palate cleanser to stay sane in a 24/7 negative news cycle. Indulging here or there gives you something to participate in and have in common with your friends, which also means you’re a more dynamic person to be around. 

While I’d never tell someone to dumb themselves down, it’s worth taking yourself less seriously every now and then. Many adults in general get into this task-master mode where we can’t tap into playful, childlike energy without feeling as though we’re sacrificing precious time that could be spent making money or doing chores – but this problem is especially pertinent among conservative circles.

The Met Gala takes place. A new rom-com is released. Taylor Swift starts dating Travis Kelce. We at Evie then cover some celebrity content because we’re active participants in the world around us and we like to have fun…but then we receive endless waves of backlash from right-of-center readers (and simply reactors) who question our motives. “Why are you idolizing these people?” “We don’t care!” “Stop showing us celebrities and influencers!” “These people are trash!”

Sorry, not sorry, but I’m not turning my nose up at pop culture when it has such an unparalleled influence on the masses. Ignoring pop culture or trying to fully reinvent the wheel and siphoning your content into an echo chamber is a surefire way for your values to never spread. If you want to see your values reflected in the next generation, then you need to be a participant at the table.

Your average American probably can’t name their own senator or congressional representative, but they sure can name all of the Kardashians.

Congratulations if you don’t watch any reality TV. Want me to pop a bottle of champagne for you going on your 10th year not listening to anything on the Billboard Top 100 charts? Turn your nose up at an entire segment of the population, and, sadly, you’ll never reach them. 

I get it. There’s some pretty degenerate stuff out there. A lot of songs are explicit; what was once written in innuendo is now a melody outright describing having kinky sex all night long. But, if conservatives who want to stick to their morals use that reasoning to opt out of pop culture, they’re losing the game. Moral perfection doesn’t exist among humans, so it won’t exist in art either. To pretend otherwise is an impossible task!

Furthermore, if we’re bugged by how raunchy pop culture can be, does it somehow become less raunchy if all the more moral individuals among us voluntarily opt out and let the depravity fester? Throughout all human civilizations, hubs of people have hunted for the hottest new ideas. They’ve sought out spicy arguments, avant-garde aesthetics, and innovative trends because newness has unmatched allure.

Are Conservatives Not Really That Creative?

Some may say that, no matter what a conservative tries to do in the art world, it comes off as clunky and forced. Why? Well, when you’re overly and vocally political, you’re less focused on artistry and creativity and more focused on how politics and policy affect the real world. 

For that reason, I’d say that overtly liberal art is just as uncomfortable. The left may claim ownership over creative industries, but let’s be honest, most of what they’re “creating” nowadays is duplicative or low-quality content. Often, they’re both, as is the case with many remakes of existing IPs, from Ghostbusters to Charlie’s Angels to the live-action Disney remakes and more.

Politics have a pesky way of infecting content, and, boy, can it be terminal. Whether it’s on the right or the left, if a film or album gets too extreme, it appears sycophantic, like it’s an agent of indoctrination rather than a piece of art. 

This is why I personally find it hard to engage with overly conservative content or make hard swaps to conservative brands. While it’s wonderful that the DailyWire has the bandwidth and capital to produce entertainment shows, those shows are still blemished in the eyes of a moderate or liberal as being DailyWire content. 

Much of this is the fault of the left for gatekeeping the entertainment industry. If you’re conservative or even casually moderate, you’re far less likely to be given a mainstream platform. Film, television, video games, music, and more – if you’re not a part of the hivemind, you can’t sit with them. 

Ever tried to pick up a newly released novel that’s topping the charts? Most new authors’ works reek of cultural Marxism, and even legacy staples like Stephen King explicitly call out MAGA Republicans and people skeptical of vaccines in his recent work.

But people on the right also need to learn how to chill a bit on politics and try to set aside differences. No, we don’t have to accept offensive identity politics from liberals, but we also don’t have to totally ice people out. Right-of-center creative types are out there, but where’s their cultural institution to support them beyond red-white-and-blue MAGA iconography?

Conservatives Need To Keep Up with the Times

When you think about the hottest celebrities that have staying power, they don’t remain stars with a fixed, stagnating image. They’re still the same person but look for new angles to maintain popularity on a highly competitive global stage. That might be through new haircuts, hair colors, fashions, or anything in between.

What am I getting at here? Well, if the conservative brand can’t evolve beyond its stereotypes, it won’t have the same allure as the liberal brand, which, as we know, continues to capture the hearts of young people. And that’s not to say that conservatives need to sacrifice their grounding principles and act like liberals, but that they need to know when it’s time to enter into a new “era.”

Conservatives have a reputation for preferring predictability, whereas liberals are more open to novelty. That novelty might sometimes mean expressing their sexuality in strange ways, but that novelty also means things as banal as food or entertainment. Liberals used to create content that could appeal to a moderate audience, but ever since the industry became captured by ideological hegemony, it’s been a hot minute since something somehow appealed to both sides of the political spectrum.

Remember Top Gun: Maverick? That 2022 film drew major success since it harkened back to those days of yore when filmmakers wanted to make something fun for a broad American audience instead of preaching new, subversive identity politics. But Top Gun can’t be the only piece of content that will get conservative butts in seats.

I watched Madame Web, despite barely ever historically watching any superhero content. And guess what? It sucked just as hard as I thought it would! But, I’m glad I saw it to be able to pass that judgment firsthand. 

Could I have spent that time on just about anything else more productive? Yeah. But if we totally opt out of pop culture, we’re relinquishing all institutional power to people who hate us.

Stories and metaphors hold herculean levels of power over our hearts and minds; stories are 22 times more easily remembered than mere facts alone. For most of human history, our ancestors shared stories via oral tradition to instill values, morals, and a sense of history and identity in the next generation. So, if we want our way of thinking to stand the test of time, we need to make our content appealing in a way that people desire to emulate those characteristics.

Think about a film like Braveheart. The score is hauntingly beautiful, the cinematography is gripping, and the acting brings people to tears. But, beneath the pretty packaging, the film carries “conservative” messages, like how freedom is worth defending – even to the death. Or, The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In my opinion, they’re among cinema’s most perfect pieces of art, and among the many conservative values they espouse, they portray one of the most compelling, healthy ideals for a masculine hero through the character Aragorn. He’s an alpha male for sure, but he doesn’t shy away from tenderness. He doesn’t seek glory but earns it through his charitability, selflessness, faith, and fortitude.

Pop culture is how we wrestle with the questions of humanity through art forms, as well as follow the artists who are telling the stories we read, watch, or listen to. Pop culture helps us maintain a constant level of curiosity about the world around us and gives us consistent opportunities to react to these ever-changing times.

Ironically, Evie receives some of the highest web traffic when we publish our takes on pop culture and celebrity news. And, when we do cover celebrity content, we’re doing so through a more rational lens than the tabloids. Clearly, people do care to read what’s going on in the world, and they find Evie’s take on those matters valuable because we’re assessing the world realistically but with morals.

Closing Thoughts

If I had it my way, Hollywood and the entertainment industry would see some sweeping reforms so that apolitical (or at least just slightly more wholesome) projects could receive funding and widespread distribution. Conservatism doesn’t have to look one particular way, and I bet more people are exhausted by the messages they’re being force-fed in media nowadays than care to admit it. 

The answer doesn’t solely lie in funding reactionary, parallel economy projects that will never be accepted by the other side. We need to keep poking holes in the culture that the left created and lead by example – fostering beauty through attractive alternatives.

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