Culture War: An Unsightly Cleavage
What’s Culture? What’s War? And What’s That About Cleavage?
I used to enjoy discussions with other hip hop aficionados about whether or not the element of society in which we partook was a culture or a mere subculture. For context, the American Psychological Association (APA) thusly defines culture:
1. the values, beliefs, language, rituals, traditions, and other behaviors that are passed from one generation to another within any social group. Broad definitions include any socially definable group with its own set of values, behaviors, and beliefs.
Accordingly, cultural groups could include groups based on shared identities such as ethnicity (e.g., German American, Blackfoot, Algerian American), gender (e.g., women, men, transgender, gender-nonconforming), sexual orientation (e.g., gay, lesbian, bisexual), and socioeconomic class (e.g., poor, working class, middle class, wealthy).
2. the characteristic attitudes and behaviors of a particular group within society, such as a profession, social class, or age group.
Now, juxtapose that definition with subculture, which the APA defines as “a group that maintains a characteristic set of customs, behaviors, interests, or beliefs that serves to distinguish it from the larger culture in which the members live.” Given these descriptions, hip hop is both!
Discussions of this topic were fun for me when involving other United States (U.S.) Marine Corps members with whom I was stationed. I say this, because many of us came from differing cultures and subcultures, yet we were prepared for war, which one source thusly defines:
War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organized groups.
It is generally characterized by widespread violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular or irregular military forces. War aims typically involve the pursuit of political, economic, or territorial objectives.
Warfare refers to the common activities and characteristics of types of war, or of wars in general. Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets, and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant suffering and casualties.
For the record, the hip hop aficionados with whom I was stationed were never deployed to war with one another. Still, we were ready to fight! Now, because I maintain that the words we use matter, I don’t care much for terms such as “culture war,” which one source thusly defines:
A culture war is a form of cultural conflict (metaphorical war) between different social groups who struggle to politically impose their own ideology upon mainstream society, or upon the other.
In political usage, culture war is a metaphor for “hot-button” politics about values and ideologies, realized with intentionally adversarial social narratives meant to provoke political polarization among the mainstream of society over economic matters, such as those of public policy, as well as of consumption.
As practical politics, a culture war is about social policy wedge issues that are based on abstract arguments about values, morality, and lifestyle meant to provoke political cleavage in a multicultural society.
As the title of this post regards “culture war,” I’ll set aside my disagreement with the conflation of terms such as “war” and a so-called “culture war.” This is because irrespective of conflated terms, I’m noting herein the significant result of cleavage, about which one source states:
In political science and sociology, a cleavage is a historically determined social or cultural line which divides citizens within a society into groups with differing political interests, resulting in political conflict among these groups. Social or cultural cleavages thus become political cleavages once they get politicized as such.
Cleavage theory accordingly argues that political cleavages predominantly determine a country’s party system as well as the individual voting behavior of citizens, dividing them into voting blocs.
These blocs are distinguished by similar socio-economic characteristics, who vote and view the world in a similar way. It is distinct from other common political theories on voting behavior in the sense that it focuses on aggregate and structural patterns instead of individual voting behaviors.
When contemplating the unsightly cleavage of culture war, I’m reminded of the mixtape The Lock Sessions Vol. 2 (2021) by one of my top-five-dead-or-alive lyricists, Locksmith. It includes a track called “Black Holocaust” which was produced by Mike Blankenship and Matt Cody.
Notably, Locksmith addresses culture war cleavage by stating, “Newsflash! CNN is just as bad as FOX. They[’re] coaxing black emotion to coincide with a notion that swings in their direction, instead of true self-reflection, projecting a biased view to use you for the election!”
Concerning traditional or social media sources, an unsightly cleavage of culture war is promulgated with the nominal aim of keeping the masses alienated from one another. Regarding the U.S., one source states that we’re “more divided than at any time since the Civil War.”
As an example, I’ve observed people online bickering about black and white, and even transgender, issues within the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). One imagines that if it weren’t for publicity related to drama, the WNBA may cease to exist.
Yet, the WNBA hullabaloo distracts from class struggle, which one source defines as “economic antagonism and political tension that can arise between social classes due to clashing interests, competition for limited resources, and inequalities of power within a socioeconomic hierarchy.”
As U.S. citizens quarrel about WNBA players Angel Reese (black) and Sophie Cunningham (white), a classic hip hop song comes to mind. It’s by the group Boogie Down Productions (BDP; lyricists KRS-One and D-Nice, and the late DJ and music producer Scott La Rock).
On the album Edutainment (1990), which fundamentally changed my worldview in childhood, is the song “The Racist”. KRS-One ended the track by stating, “If black and white didn’t argue the most, they could clearly see the government’s screwin’ ‘em both!” Word is bond!
Does engaging in culture war drama about Reese and Cunningham do anything about the price you pay for gas? No. Do arguments about these WNBA players and their on- or off-court antics stop the U.S. from conducting genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and terrorism abroad? No.
Nonetheless, people actively participate in matters of an unsightly cleavage involving the citizens with whom they share a nation. Of course, it would be disingenuous to claim that I’ve never involved myself in culture war buffoonery. I’m a fallible human being, as are you.
Still, increasingly, I’m choosing healthy indifference (absence of compulsion to or toward one thing or another) over healthy distress and unhealthy disturbance. If you’d like to learn more about how I’ve accomplished this, then I invite you to continue reading this blogpost.
Personal Ownership
When practicing Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), I use personal responsibility and accountability (collectively “ownership”). For improved understanding, responsibility is defined as the quality or state of being responsible, such as a moral, legal, or mental accountability.
Here, “responsible” is defined as liable to be called to account as the primary cause, motive, or agent, and being able to answer for one’s conduct and obligations—something, such as the demands of conscience or custom, that obligates one to a course of action.
Also, “accountable” is defined as subject to giving an account—a statement explaining one’s conduct. Accountability is defined as the quality or state of being accountable, especially regarding an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.
When providing psychoeducational lessons on REBT, a psychotherapeutic modality which arguably requires that one preferably should take personal ownership in order to reduce self-distress or self-disturbance, I lean heavily on both responsibility and accountability.
This is because I maintain that people have personal agency (a person’s ability to control one’s own reactions to activating events which are beyond one’s own dominion, especially when one’s response is limited by someone or something else). This is a matter of self-empowerment.
To squabble over culture war issues while getting screwed by the U.S. government is a matter of disempowerment. That’s because griping, whining, bitching, moaning, complaining, whinging, venting, etc. doesn’t actually change anything. So, what can a person genuinely alter?
The ABC Model
REBT uses the ABC model to illustrate that when an undesirable Action occurs and you Believe an unhelpful narrative about the event, it’s your unfavorable assumption, not the occurrence itself, that causes an unpleasant Consequence. This is known as distress or disturbance.
Noteworthy, with virtually any undesirable Action that occurs, it’s your unfavorable Beliefs which cause unpleasant distress or disturbance (Consequence). Given this framing of self-distress and self-disturbance, it’s worth noting that one REBT source states (page 71):
REBT conceptualizes [distress] as healthy even though it is intense. Other approaches to therapy have as their goal the reduction of the intensity of negative emotions. They take this position because they do not keenly differentiate between healthy negative emotions (distress) and unhealthy negative emotions (disturbance).
Now, REBT keenly distinguishes between healthy distress and unhealthy disturbance. Healthy distress stems from your rational beliefs about a negative activating event [Action], whilst disturbance stems from your irrational beliefs about the same event.
Complete elimination of distress is highly unlikely in an impermanent and uncertain world, wherein people conceptually suffer, struggle, and battle with, or merely experience hardship. Still, individuals often make matters worse for themselves by disturbing about such instances.
In particular, there are four predominate irrational beliefs which people often use to distress or disturb themselves: global evaluations, low frustration tolerance, awfulizing, and demandingness. When contemplating these unproductive scripts, think of the acronym GLAD.
Additionally, from a psychological standpoint, people distress or disturb themselves using a Belief-Consequence (B-C) connection. Of course, this isn’t to suggest that in the context of the naturalistic or physical world there is no Action-Consequence (A-C) connection.
From an A-C view, an unsightly cleavage pertaining to the U.S. culture war occurs (Action), as this unproductive process ultimately divides our nation (Consequence). However, when person X observes this nationwide rift, it’s his B-C connection that causes an unpleasant outcome.
Person X sees a nationwide rift which is advocated by person Y (Action) and, instead of taking personal ownership for his reaction, he Believes, “Person Y is garbage [G], and I can’t stand her [L], because she’s the worst [A], and she shouldn’t even be allowed in this country [D]!”
As REBT distinguishes between negative healthy and unhealthy Consequences of Beliefs, it’s unlikely that person X’s irrational narrative would cause negative, though healthy distress (e.g., annoyance). Thus, his GLAD Belief would cause negative, but unhealthy anger (Consequence).
Addressing how people upset themselves with unhelpful attitudes, the ABC model incorporates Disputation of unproductive philosophies of life in order to explore Effective new beliefs. Whereas rigid beliefs cause self-disturbance, flexible beliefs result in an un-disturbed condition.
I’ve achieved healthy indifference by recognizing that my impact on the U.S. culture war is minuscule—it’s virtually undetectable. Therefore, I’m not annoyed, angered, or otherwise in regard to my self-narratives about an unsightly cleavage. I’m merely indifferent at the moment.
Unconditional Acceptance
Now, aside from the tool of the ABC model, REBT uses unconditional acceptance (UA) to relieve self-induced suffering. This is accomplished through use of unconditional self-acceptance (USA), unconditional other-acceptance (UOA), and unconditional life-acceptance (ULA).
With my approach to REBT, I incorporate author Stephen Covey’s concepts regarding the circles of control, influence, and concern, as well as an area of no concern. UA maps onto the circle of control (USA), circle of influence (UOA), and circle of concern and area of no concern (ULA).
The circle of control encompasses only oneself, the circle of influence encapsulates elements which may be subject to one’s sway, the circle of concern engrosses most matters one can imagine, and the area of no concern relates to all content which isn’t yet imagined.
Regarding his circle of control and USA, person X could acknowledge that he’s merely a flawed person who can take personal ownership for his reactions to a culture war and an unsightly cleavage. The alternative is self-disturbance, which doesn’t well-serve his interests and goals.
Concerning his circle of influence and UOA, person X could admit that other people are also fallible human beings over whom he likely has negligible impact. Ergo, involving oneself in culture war tomfoolery does little for the fact that the U.S. government is screwing us over.
Related to his circle of concern and ULA, especially pertaining to matters such as world governments and actual war, person X could recognize that his life is a limited resource. Who wants to waste time bickering about the WNBA when the U.S. is terrorizing the Middle East?
As for his area of no concern, an imaginary realm in which everyone gets along and there are no wars of any sort, person X could concede that earthly world religions generally concur that one has to die in order to achieve that result. Thus, person X can stop daydreaming, and start living.
Conclusion
I miss the days of discussing matters of hip hop with my Marine Corps friends. Deliberating on whether or not the music, dancing, fashion, and other elements represented a culture or mere subculture occupied many hours. Alas, I unconditionally accept that those days are no more.
I’ve remained focused on an apparent culture war with an unsightly cleavage that has resulted in one of the reportedly most divided times in U.S. history since the Civil War. As people argue with one another online, the government is screwin’ us all (e.g., titty-fuckin’ cleavage)!
Herein, I’ve detailed how to achieve healthy indifference in this regard, rather than healthy distress or unhealthy disturbance, through practice of the ABC model and UA. If you acknowledge personal ownership, then you, too, can attain a healthy outcome.
If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help you understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.
As the world’s foremost hip hop-influenced REBT psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.
At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!
Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW
Photo credit (edited), Designed by Magnific, fair use
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Hollings, D. (2026, July 7). Self-distress and distress tolerance. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/self-distress-and-distress-tolerance
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Hollings, D. (2026, April 21). Self-upset. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/self-upset
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