Culture war
Etymology
A loan-translation of the German “Kulturkampf” (“culture struggle”), Bismarck’s 1870s conflict with the Catholic Church. Sociologist James Davison Hunter popularized the English “culture war” with his 1991 book of that name, describing American polarization over moral worldviews.
noun phrase · /KUL-cher wor/
A sustained public conflict over values, identity, and morality rather than over economics or policy detail.
What it names
The battles — over religion, sexuality, education, symbols — in which the real stakes are which values a society will honor.
Example
Fights over what books belong in school libraries are a familiar front in the culture war.
Related idea
A culture war is fought over values and identity; ordinary partisanship divides over policy and party, and a moral panic is a shorter, sharper spasm of alarm over a single perceived threat.