I don't have a fancy big brain moral or philosophical framework for arguing this thought, but is there any philosophical thinkers who speak on this?
For context I'm in the tech-world and I hear a lot of my peers with kids making sure their kids are always locked-in with their "Gifted kids programs" or "Advance learning" or whatever to make sure they are ready to be the "leaders of the future". Which to me is not bad inherently, as I would expect any parent who gives a damn about their children to do everything in their power to give them everything they can for their future prosperity. I ain't mad at them for that.
However, I also hear these same parents blaming the "culture" on why "kids/students/young people/XYZ group" are bad or why "[insert current boogeyman here] is way ahead of 'us'". Somewhat tangentially I think about how a lot of suffering that black people in America have suffered has been blamed on their "culture", one that was born from marginalization and lack.
I don't think it's fair to say a "culture problem" exists in black America without really examining the structural problems that exists as well. Is that because some people "make it"? Both in the black example or the student example, do people blame "culture" when there are some instances of people that do well their their personal overcoming of bad conditions?
In both of these cases I think that it's really easy to blame "The Culture™©®" rather than look at why things are as they are. I do believe in personal autonomy and choice and stuff, but I feel like this transcends this. When an issues something that's faced by the majority of people in an instance, I feel like it's no longer an issue of personal choices. The general curve of outcomes for most people are getting worse, and I don't think that is a fair argument to say it’s a “personal choice” problem
Sorry for the rambling, I'm not very concise in my writing these days. So I guess my question is "are there leftie philosophical thinkers who have commented on "culture" as a buffer to avoid crtique of the powerful?"
Study by Fausey and Boroditsky: blame agentives
This was studied in 2010 and published by University of California San Diego. There's actual consequences from the language we use and how it results in blaming others. English speakers assign blame to people for things that happened on their own. For example, maybe a storm breaks a tree branch. English speakers will say "Someone broke the tree branch," as opposed to "The branch fell into the road." This creates conflicts as people will blame others naturally through the words they choose, instead of using passive statements.
Marxists frequently encounter this with liberals. Marxists will want to state something plainly because of material analysis. Liberals will want to assign blame/credit to people, causing them to believe in Great Men of History, rejecting systemic and material causes. A Marxist might say "The price of eggs has risen due to decreased supply and inflation." The liberal will retort "Trump is already worsening the economy, so eggs have gone up in price." They ignore the problem was also happening under Biden.