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Backlash being strong public reaction against something, what exactly is cultural backlash? Googling it is not that helpful.

I was reading an article that contains the sentence:

The cultural backlash to America's financial system in the wake of the Great Recession brought the topic of widening inequality into the mainstream. Ten years after the crisis, income and wealth inequality between the top 1% and the rest of the country are both still rising.
—"US inequality sparked second Gilded Age and revealed defining struggle", Business Insider

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  • Do you have a particular sentence in witch you found this? There may be no more meaning beyond a 'backlash that is about culture'. – Mitch Sep 12 '18 at 19:20
  • Avoid using comments except to ask for more information or suggest improvements. Do not answer questions in comments -- post an answer. Do not clarify your question in comments -- edit the question. – MetaEd Sep 12 '18 at 22:11
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    A change in common ways of thinking in a whole culture in reaction to some major event. – Kate Bunting Sep 13 '18 at 8:23
  • Thank you, Kate. So in the case above, in the public's eyes, their view and their trust in the financial system have been degraded. – Lingua Noob Sep 14 '18 at 10:56
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I'll try a rough take - I think what is being referred to is the manner in which something is regarded or held. For this example, lets call it "the US Financial system" / "Wall Street". I can't really tell you first hand, but my impression is that for a long time (that is, up until the Financial Crisis / Great Recession), the companies and people working at those companies (ie "bankers") had a relatively well regarded, both by the majority of the US population, as well as by the majority of US media.

Now after the Financial Crisis, I think this changed to quite a considerable degree - as Wall Street was seen as responsible for the significant loss of income or property to a large section of the US population. This changed the view taken of "bankers", the bonuses they receive, etc. That I think, is the "cultural pushback".

Probably another good example to illustrate what's meant is what people have referred to as the cultural backlash (predominately by people not of colour, ie of caucasian ancestry) after Barack Obama was elected - to put it briefly, in the form of eg the view of "Political Correctness" as going too far, etc. (whereas this was more widely accepted before his election).

Again, this is absolutely not first hand knowledge, I'm just pointing out what I've seen written in newspapers and the like.

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  • Thank you. So, it is a strong reaction against something that is perceived as not culturally fit. It is a pushback to something the masses think as not culturally normal. – Lingua Noob Sep 14 '18 at 8:13
  • A strong reaction against something that is not traditionally accepted. – Lingua Noob Sep 14 '18 at 8:29
  • No, and no. Obviously I didn't do all too good a job at explaining. Look at Kate Buntings comment, it says it all in a nutshell really (shame she didn't make it an answer...). Regards, – Sean CJ Sep 14 '18 at 8:42
  • Okay, I'll try my best again. So it is a backlash to a certain culture. In the bankers example, what is being objected is the culture of giving big bonuses while the common people are sufferring. – Lingua Noob Sep 14 '18 at 10:35
  • That's pretty close to the mark, I think. One point (on which I'm not sure myself): you're description sees the backlash as against a (sub)culture, eg "Wall-Street culture", or "PC-Culture". My description (and Kate's comment - "change [..] in a whole culture" ) located the change as in the wider culture (ie "US culture"). So you have two different things that the "culture" in the term "cultural backlash") could be referring to. – Sean CJ Sep 15 '18 at 16:00

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