The original culture war, Germany’s Kulturkampf between the Kingdom of Prussia and the Catholic Church (in Germany), depicted here by Otto von Bismarck and Pope Pius IX in a cartoon from the German satirical magazine Kladderadatsch, 1875 (public domain image – Wikipedia “Culture War”)

(18) CULTURE WAR & MEMETIC WARFARE

Metaphorical war essentially along the lines of psychological warfare, but with cultural or social conflict substituted for military conflict – as such, it can be wide-ranging (as in virtually anything can be culture war) as well as the subject of controversy.

Typically, it is portrayed more in terms of civil warfare within nations, although often as occurring in a similar form across nations (such as the West in general), usually by design. Not coincidentally, culture war is often reported as involving or at least alleging disinformation by foreign agents or other nations, consistent with psychological warfare for other conflicts involving those agents or nations.

It has come to particular prominence with the internet, especially with memes – hence my term memetic warfare, in turn often adapted or used in memes, for example online declarations of being veterans of meme war.

However, culture war as a term has a surprisingly long history of usage – surprising to me at least, looking up the use of the term, which apparently dated back to the Kulturkampf or cultural struggle in 1871-1878 between the Prussian state and Catholic Church in Germany. The term has then been adapted from the twentieth century onwards, in the United States and elsewhere.