Posted on 10/27/2025 4:00:55 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Trump danced with cheering Malaysians to the ‘Hawaii Five-0’ theme song. No recent Hollywood production could have resonated like that.
For the past couple of weeks, the hilarious yet insightful Daily Wire podcast host Matt Walsh has challenged his audience to answer one question. What caused the radical decline of American culture post 2008? That the culture nosedived is undeniable to everyone except Democrats. It inspired my first article here an astonishing seven years ago, positing why a solid action thriller like Taken (2008) was beyond the capability of Hollywood just 10 years later. Walsh gives two correct reasons for the cultural collapse, but he’s only half right on one of them and has reversed their order of importance.
For one thing, all the works Walsh elevates have one factor in common which has pervaded the entire 21st Century screen craft. They’re dark.
This is not criticism of Walsh, who is one of the most effective cultural warriors of the decade. His campaign against the transgender butchery of children, including his hit documentary What Is a Woman?, led directly to the anti-medical practice getting banned in Tennessee in 2023. Rising to his own latest challenge, Walsh suggests that the cultural collapse is primarily due to the breakup of the monoculture, driven by the explosion of mobile devices, and, to a lesser extent, the woke infestation of the arts. He’s right but has it exactly backward and is imprecise on the second cause.
Yes, the proliferation of portable computer screens totally fragmented the once uniform society. For 30 years, one third of TV viewers from all parts of America and all political stripes tuned in to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, around 70-million people. Currently, less than two million — and few conservatives or independents — watch The Tonight Show....
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Good essay. I think we hit peak culture about 1965-69.
Might have been a little later or earlier.
For a long time, love was a common theme is much of our popular music. Not so anymore. Seems to be a reflection of our cultural decline. JMHO
.
I’d definitely say that’s when the decline began. My dad blamed it on the Beatles and long hair. In hindsight, can’t really disagree with dad.
This ill-conceived, myopic observation says much more about the current state of American culture (and the poor state of the Spectator) than the author realizes.
That's about the same time American cars hit their styling peak, especially at GM.
Might have been a little later or earlier.
1965-1969, my high school years, I agree.
Not Malaysian but close enough....
Hawaii Five-0 - The Ventures || Drum cover by KALONICA NICX
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b0JF8N7Phs
When O’Hair won her court case to get God out of the public square, that’s when the decline hit the gas.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.