I think people cluster into left and right because those are the tribes. However, it can be oversimplistic and I agree that there are many potential directions left and right progress can take—indeed, if a few more Islamic terrorists shoot up gay bars there could be a lot of LBGTs defecting to right-nationalism.
I think people cluster into left and right because those are the tribes.
Some people join the tribes because they are connected with the causes they support, but I think most people are there simply because of the other people who are there. When all your friends are X, there is a strong pressure on you to become X, too. And when people who enjoy hurting you are X, you are likely to become Y, if Y seems like the only force able to oppose X. It’s like having a monkey tribe split into two subgroups; of course it makes sense to join the subgroup with your friends rather than the subgroup with your enemies. And the next step is making up the story why all good people are in your team, and all bad people are in the other team—this signals that you have no significant conflicts in your team, and no significant friends in the other team, so you are a loyal member.
But then also words have consequences, so if your team’s banner says e.g. that you should burn the witches, then sooner or later some witches are likely to get burned. Even if most people in the team are actually not happy about burning the witches, and joined merely because their friends are there. Sometimes people agree that those words about “burning witches” were meant metaphorically, not literally; but there is a certain fragility about that, because someone is likely to decide that literally burning a witch will make even stronger signal of their loyalty to the tribe.
if a few more Islamic terrorists shoot up gay bars there could be a lot of LBGTs defecting to right-nationalism
It makes me sad that the popular political positions seem to be either nationalism or cultural relativism. Is there these days even a significant pro-”Western civilization” side? I mean a side that would say that as long as you follow the rules of civilized life, your language and color of skin don’t matter, but if you as much as publicly talk positively about genital mutilation or “honor” killing, no one is going to give a fuck about your cultural or religious sensitivity, you are going to be called evil.
I think people cluster into left and right because those are the tribes. However, it can be oversimplistic and I agree that there are many potential directions left and right progress can take—indeed, if a few more Islamic terrorists shoot up gay bars there could be a lot of LBGTs defecting to right-nationalism.
Some people join the tribes because they are connected with the causes they support, but I think most people are there simply because of the other people who are there. When all your friends are X, there is a strong pressure on you to become X, too. And when people who enjoy hurting you are X, you are likely to become Y, if Y seems like the only force able to oppose X. It’s like having a monkey tribe split into two subgroups; of course it makes sense to join the subgroup with your friends rather than the subgroup with your enemies. And the next step is making up the story why all good people are in your team, and all bad people are in the other team—this signals that you have no significant conflicts in your team, and no significant friends in the other team, so you are a loyal member.
But then also words have consequences, so if your team’s banner says e.g. that you should burn the witches, then sooner or later some witches are likely to get burned. Even if most people in the team are actually not happy about burning the witches, and joined merely because their friends are there. Sometimes people agree that those words about “burning witches” were meant metaphorically, not literally; but there is a certain fragility about that, because someone is likely to decide that literally burning a witch will make even stronger signal of their loyalty to the tribe.
It makes me sad that the popular political positions seem to be either nationalism or cultural relativism. Is there these days even a significant pro-”Western civilization” side? I mean a side that would say that as long as you follow the rules of civilized life, your language and color of skin don’t matter, but if you as much as publicly talk positively about genital mutilation or “honor” killing, no one is going to give a fuck about your cultural or religious sensitivity, you are going to be called evil.