Fragmented cultural symbols now hold diametrically opposed meanings simultaneously

Evidence

Springsteen is a phenomenon that can be read, with equal conviction, in at least two diametrically opposed ways. His audiences seem to be made up of people from five to fifty, busily reading him in different ways. The symbols are deeply American—populist in their ambiguity; he’s both in the White House and On The Road. In the 1960s you had to be one or the other. Springsteen is somehow both at the same time. That’s what I mean by fragmentation. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 727

Categorization

• CANDY: The Springsteen-both-in-the-White-House-and-On-The-Road example is a light, tweetable illustration of cultural fragmentation.
• XREF: Concrete exemplar of multi-accentuality, connecting to the reader’s interest in how cultural codes carry ideology. — connects to: In fifteen years the dominant cultural metaphor shifted from resisting face-as-barcode to accepting it. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 466; Ambiguity in a symbol’s meaning weakens its status signal. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 228; The same Latin phrase flipped meaning across eras due to cultural change — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 243 (+1 more)