I have a friend who's a bit conspiracy minded. He thinks the powers that be responded to Occupy by simultaneously pushing far-left and far-right identity politics to split everyone into tiny warring factions.

I'm skeptical but regardless of whether it was intentional or just happened that does in fact seem to be what happened.

The culture war must die. Then after it's dead it must be burned, ground into fine powder, mixed with concrete, and dropped into a deep region of the ocean near a subduction zone.

Unfortunately that means everyone and I mean everyone who is culture-warring must give up and walk away. That means no more social justice warrior-ing and no more Pepe memes and alt-right tiki torch bullshit either. That means ignoring Jordan Peterson and Sam Seder. That means screw religion and atheism. That means screw the left and the right. That means... well... it kind of means everyone simultaneously loses whatever culture war they're fighting... or simultaneously wins... but you have to not care so much you don't even care about that.

I don't know. Maybe it can happen. Try this. Every time you're tempted to get mad about the "alt-right" or alternately "cultural Marxism" just stare at this graph and ask "who benefits from me worrying about this crap?"

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-imlQvrT-aFM/Ve9yY1CAV9I/AAAAAAAAM...

I will say this. As long as we are split over issues like race, gender, religion, and cultural totems the longer that graph will diverge.