While President-elect Donald Trump’s landslide victory shocked many Americans on Tuesday, a seemingly unfazed Christian author says the culture has changed in recent years for those who have been paying attention.

Paul Anleitner, a pastor and author of “Dis-Ordered: A Christian Journey Through the Problem of Evil & Suffering,” admits he’s no political expert, but argued in a lengthy thread on X that recent cultural events can explain how America voted last week.

“I don’t study politics, but I study culture, and here are some of the signs that there has been a cultural shift in America for years that most professional political analysts have completely missed,” Anleitner began.

First, he recalled the massive success of “Top Gun: Maverick,” the sequel to Tom Cruise’s 1986 film about a group of excited fighter pilots. Fans applauded that the 2022 sequel was just as patriotic and epic as the original.

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“Top Gun: Maverick,” Anleitner wrote, “leaned heavily on classic themes of modernist heroism embodied by a white male protagonist (Tom Cruise as Maverick) who is a traditional, rule-breaking figure dedicated to honor, duty, and meritocracy”.

“Maverick represented the more traditional American values ​​of meritocracy over aristocracy in the midst of what was supposed to be a cultural revolution designed to establish a new inverted aristocracy,” he added.

In fact, the film was so pro-US military that it drew the ire of some commentators. MSNBC opinion editor Zeeshan Aleem called the film equal parts entertaining and “insidious.” The film, which was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, “signals a return to acceptance of the American war machine as a beacon of virtue and enthusiasm,” he wrote.

Tom Cruise attends the Royal Film Performance screening of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ in Leicester Square on May 19, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/WireImage) (Getty Images)

“It’s a poisonous kind of nostalgia, one that turns the love of endless war into a celebration of live action,” added Aleem.

Still, the film brought millions of moviegoers back to theaters, eager for some entertainment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The blockbuster earned $124 million at the box office in its opening weekend.

Anleitner said the growing popularity of unorthodox comedians was also an indicator of today’s culture. Tony Hinchcliffe has stirred up controversy after joking that Puerto Rico was a “floating pile of trash” at a Trump rally last month, but Anleitner noted that he has one of the most popular podcasts in the country. He, along with Joe RoganShane Gillis, Ari Shaffir and others, he argued, have tapped into the middle-class market and each has a sense of humor that isn’t “woke.”

“Hinchcliffe, Joe Rogan, Theo Von and others have far more influence on ordinary Americans (especially men) than the old comedic vanguard of Saturday Night Live,” the author said. “None of these guys would get along with Franklin Graham or any of the older cultural bastions of the Republican Party, but their utter contempt for what has become known as ‘wokism’ and their utter contempt for any sense of language politically correct appeal to many workers. – classy men.”

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In fact, political observers on both sides of the aisle argued that Vice President Kamala Harris made a grave mistake when she refused to appear on Rogan’s podcast. Trump sat down with Rogan for a discussion that lasted more than three hours.

“For people on the left, Joe Rogan is reaching millions of low-probability male voters — the exact kind of population you should be trying to match,” 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang said when criticizing the Harris campaign’s decision. “He’s not a hostile interviewer – he’s curious and interested in why people believe what they do.”

Anleitner also saw hints of a cultural change in education. Enrollment in Christian schools, he noted, has increased in the US

“If you talk to almost anyone who works in a private, Christian school, the post-COVID enrollment growth has been unprecedented,” he wrote. “But it’s not just that many Christian schools have found ways to provide more personal education during the COVID years, it’s also that many families who don’t even explicitly call themselves Christian are looking for educational environments that simply don’t teach experientially. , progressive ideologies about gender and sexuality”.

Cornerstone Christian Academy was a prime example in northern Virginia. Hundreds of parents concerned about the progressive curriculum flocked to the school when it opened in 2022. The K-8 Christian school serves as an alternative for parents who want something other than a public school for their children.

Students, parents and others hold signs outside the Loudoun County School Board meeting on October 26, 2021 in Ashburn, VA. (Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

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“There’s so much going on in … public schools that seems to be an agenda,” said Head of Schools Dr. Sam Botta. Fox News Digital. “Things like boys and girls using other people’s bathrooms that they choose, the gender issue, where they can choose who they are. Parents, not just Christian families, most families and most parents frankly recognize this nonsense. It is almost incomprehensible. that we can tell a boy who was a boy from birth, ordained by God as a boy, that we can tell them that they can choose to be a girl And so when that happened, these parents didn’t go, they ran. “

Homeschooling rates it also seemed to be increasing across the country as a result of COVID.

Anleitner went on to note the trend by large corporations to scale back DEI programs that were introduced in the wake of the 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. But critics said the programs went too far, emphasizing racial preferences and racial quotas.

By 2023, companies like Google and Meta have cut employees and scaled back DEI programs. In addition, DEI job postings in 2023 fell by 44%. In November 2023, the last full month for which data was available, DEI jobs fell 23% year over year, according to the data provided by the job site Indeed.

The author also suggests that Star Wars indicated a larger trend.

“Star Wars has become an important myth in our culture, and challenges to the myth are challenges to cultural power and influence,” he wrote. So, he noted, when recent Star Wars shows like “The Acolyte” tried to focus on more progressive or “woke” storytelling, fans flipped.

“Star Wars: The Sidekick,” on Disney+, was a critical success — earning an 85% Rotten Tomatoes score — but only a 14% audience score, the lowest rating in that category among all “Star Wars” content.

“The Acolyte” was criticized by fans after being called the “gayest” offering in the Star Wars universe. Creator Leslye Headland weighed in on a controversial plot in episode three, which involved two powerful witches belonging to an all-female society using force magic to spawn their female offspring.

The show was canceled after one season.

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Leslye Headland attends Disney+ and Cinema Society hosts a screening of “The Acolyte” at The Whitby Hotel on June 3, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

Anleitner, who admitted that some of his suggestions may seem a little “absurd,” wondered if the revival rock band Creed it had something to do with the changing times. Creed, popular in the early 2000s for hits like “Arms Wide Open” and “Higher,” reunited and found new life in 2024 with a viral revival of their most popular songs.

“Creed is back because people are tired of the constant cynicism and irony,” he said. “Creed’s wry pleasure turned into Creed’s genuine pleasure, embracing the cringe and simply allowing himself to enjoy the wholesome.”

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“If you can learn to read culture as a student of cultural texts, you won’t need political polls,” Anleitner concluded.

Fox News Digital’s Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.