Bad Bunny, The Odyssey and the Culture War The Right Can't Win

A short take

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” Sun Tsu

The Left owns most of the mainstream culture. I know, because I helped build part of it. In 2008, as Obama rose and the iPhone reshaped everything, I was a film blogger writing from the perspective of race and gender. I was “woke” before the term existed, and I took plenty of heat for it.

By Obama’s second term, around 2012, a deliberate “hearts and minds” campaign took hold. Critical Race and Gender Theory spread rapidly on campuses amid what I now see as the Great Feminization of institutions.

I had no idea what all of it would become just a few short years later when Donald Trump — the ultimate alpha male, a white man who said anything he wanted, manspread at every opportunity, laughed in the face of the Left, and launched a war against all things woke — defeated Hillary Clinton, the heir to the Obama empire.

His rise triggered mass hysteria on the Left and a mobilization that continues today. What followed feels like a virtual Civil War. The Left fights to defend its vision of Woketopia, framing itself as the resistance against Nazis and the Confederacy. The Right sees the war as a fight for representation, tradition, and the freedom to think and speak without penalty. The battlefield is social media, the Super Bowl, and the movie theater.

It’s hard to know how any of this would have played out if Trump hadn’t won, but since he did, that kicked up the “resistance” cosplay all over again. To the Left, any time they are invited to a culture war battle, it’s like this scene in Casablanca, where they have to sing louder to drown out the song by the Nazis.

Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl

When the NFL announced Bad Bunny — known for his anti-ICE activism, gender-fluid style, and Spanish-language music — would headline the 2026 halftime show, many on the Right erupted. Turning Point USA even launched counter-programming. The complaints framed him as anti-American and “woke.”

All it did was hand the Left free publicity. The outrage mobilized fans, drove massive pre-event buzz, and turned the performance into a cultural referendum — emboldening and uniting the Left more than a No Kings protest ever could. You are either all the way in, or you’re all the way out.

When the show delivered spectacle and celebration (leaning into marriage and tradition, even if still too vulgar for many viewers), the Left acted as if it were the greatest performance of all time. It gave them an outlet to express virtue and unite in fury against the Right.

If you turn it into a contest, the Left will win — because they have a larger share of voice and they rule with fear. Who would dare criticize Bad Bunny after that?

The Odyssey

The same pattern repeated with Nolan’s The Odyssey. After a meh trailer dropped, buzz around the movie was tepid. That changed the moment news leaked that Lupita Nyong’o would play Helen of Troy and Elliot Page would play a male soldier. The Right took the bait.

The reaction on the Left was swift: their massive cultural machine roared into action. The film was soon discussed on The View and across the internet. If no one had heard about The Odyssey, they certainly did now. Those who probably would never have bought a ticket now knew they had to do their part and support this movie.

My mother (in a wheelchair) and my sister (disabled)--both progressives who hate Trump--made the effort to drive an hour to the theater with me. About 45 minutes in, my mother leaned over and said, “This couldn’t be a worse movie.” Some in the audience applauded at the end, but it was clear this wasn’t a movie for everyone. It felt more like a religious ceremony than entertainment.

After release, many critics and audiences (including some prominent conservatives like Ben Shapiro) praised the film’s ambition and craft. The controversial roles proved minor on screen. The controversy didn’t sink the movie--it boosted it.

With both Bad Bunny and The Odyssey, the Right was reacting before they knew what they should be reacting to. Both Nyong’o and Page have such small parts that they are barely noticeable in the film. Nyongo’s in particular is given almost nothing to do. The whole film is multi-racial, so it’s not that big of a deal that Helen of Troy is a black woman.

Everyone who saw the movie now could see that the Right over-reacted, clutched pearls, and looked like the fragile, triggered side.

The Left took another victory lap, while segments of the Right looked reactive. Had the film been left alone, without the culture-war infusion, it might have succeeded or failed on its own merits. Not everyone loves this movie.

But now, the Right has handed back to the Left a newly emboldened fighting spirit. This will last for months: teary standing ovations at awards shows and career boosts for Lupita Nyong’o and Elliot Page. It probably sweeps the Oscars.

So if wanting the movie to fail was the goal, the Right now has to take the L.

The Strategic Mistake

In both cases, the Right knew the enemy but not itself. Loud preemptive outrage signals weakness and hands the opposition a simple narrative: “They hate trans representation/Spanish/black people.”

It transformed a moment when the film might have succeeded or failed on its own merits, or even a subtle win for the Right, into a decisive victory for the Left. Sun Tzu would not approve.

Learn the lesson.

The Left dominates legacy institutions — Hollywood, awards shows, Big Tech platforms, major sports entertainment — for now. Complaining louder rarely changes that. These battles show the limits of pure opposition, especially when the Left wins so decisively, as they have here.

The smarter path is to apply Sun Tzu’s wisdom: Know yourself. Know the terrain. Stop feeding the machine. Build parallel culture — institutions, artists, platforms, and stories that people actually want to engage with. Create rather than just react. That is how lasting ground is won.

If nothing else, give them enough rope…

The best film I’ve seen this year is the magnificent Project Hail Mary, a movie for everyone because it is the real Hero’s Journey. It’s not trying to instruct or correct you, but rather, to sweep you up in an adventure story with characters you care about.

The virtual Civil War will continue. The question is whether the Right keeps charging into predictable ambushes or starts fighting on its own chosen ground. Make the movies. Write the books. Build.