What Haidt never quite gets across is that conservatives typically define their groups concentrically, moving from their families outward to their communities, classes, religions, nations, and so forth. If Mars attacked, conservatives would be reflexively Earthist. As Ronald Reagan pointed out to the UN in 1987, “I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world.” (Libertarians would wait to see if the Martian invaders were free marketeers.)
In contrast, modern liberals’ defining trait is making a public spectacle of how their loyalties leapfrog over some unworthy folks relatively close to them in favor of other people they barely know (or in the case of profoundly liberal sci-fi movies such as Avatar, other 10-foot-tall blue space creatures they barely know).
As a down-to-Earth example, to root for Manchester United’s soccer team is conservative…if you are a Mancunian. If you live in Portland, Oregon, it’s liberal.
This urge toward leapfrogging loyalties has less to do with sympathy for the poor underdog (white liberals’ traditional favorites, such as soccer and the federal government, are hardly underdogs) as it is a desire to get one up in status on people they know and don’t like.
This urge toward leapfrogging loyalties has less to do with sympathy for the poor underdog (white liberals’ traditional favorites, such as soccer and the federal government, are hardly underdogs) as it is a desire to get one up in status on people they know and don’t like.
Thank you for the link! However it just seems a different take on the expanding circles theme I often here invoked and more importantly It dosen’t seem to explain the leapfrog of loyalties that Sailer points out.
If both Ahmed and Billy are part of the tribe and considered subject to the same norms… why are Billy’s fundamentalist and cousin marrying ways so much more offensive than Ahmeds? Especially since Billy’s family hasn’t been marrying cousins for 50 years and he dosen’t think apostasy should be punished by death. Why is he held to standards so much higher that Billy ends up having less warm fuzzies than Ahmed despite actually doing better by explicitly stated standards? Especially since these same explicitly stated norms assure us they would never really hold them to different standards.
I think the simplest explanation is that hight status Richard could easily be mistaken for a mere rich Billy, but almost never for a rich Ahmed. By putting Billies conspicuously outside the circle of his sympathies he proves he isn’t a Billy. If he is a son of a Billy the need is that much more urgent since being a Billy has real economics and social costs.
Billy is pissed off at what seems like Richard’s betrayal of the since he is treating him poorly. Ahmed is also rightly pissed off because he can’t tell Billies and Richards apart but he does know Billies sometimes treat him badly and Richards get all the breaks and privileges in life. Richard now also gets the high of moral superiority by crumbs from Billy to Ahmed and has all other sorts of neat opportunities to gain status points by signalling how much he dislikes Billy and likes Ahmed. Also while publicly vigorously opposing them and even perhaps voting against them gets he still gets to enjoy the tax brakes brought about by all the Billy voters who suddenly feel a strange urge to resist wealth redistribution.
The Self-Righteous Hive Mind
On the other hand, being in favor of independence for Quebec is liberal if you’re in Quebec, and conservative if you’re in France.
David Brin tells another story about tribalism and expanding horizons.
Thank you for the link! However it just seems a different take on the expanding circles theme I often here invoked and more importantly It dosen’t seem to explain the leapfrog of loyalties that Sailer points out.
If both Ahmed and Billy are part of the tribe and considered subject to the same norms… why are Billy’s fundamentalist and cousin marrying ways so much more offensive than Ahmeds? Especially since Billy’s family hasn’t been marrying cousins for 50 years and he dosen’t think apostasy should be punished by death. Why is he held to standards so much higher that Billy ends up having less warm fuzzies than Ahmed despite actually doing better by explicitly stated standards? Especially since these same explicitly stated norms assure us they would never really hold them to different standards.
I think the simplest explanation is that hight status Richard could easily be mistaken for a mere rich Billy, but almost never for a rich Ahmed. By putting Billies conspicuously outside the circle of his sympathies he proves he isn’t a Billy. If he is a son of a Billy the need is that much more urgent since being a Billy has real economics and social costs.
Billy is pissed off at what seems like Richard’s betrayal of the since he is treating him poorly. Ahmed is also rightly pissed off because he can’t tell Billies and Richards apart but he does know Billies sometimes treat him badly and Richards get all the breaks and privileges in life. Richard now also gets the high of moral superiority by crumbs from Billy to Ahmed and has all other sorts of neat opportunities to gain status points by signalling how much he dislikes Billy and likes Ahmed. Also while publicly vigorously opposing them and even perhaps voting against them gets he still gets to enjoy the tax brakes brought about by all the Billy voters who suddenly feel a strange urge to resist wealth redistribution.
Yay Richard!