This was some kind of interesting update for me, but feels incomplete for the post to not at least mentioning the followup theory, which is “there may be forces that nudge the two most obvious sides to be equal, such that if you join one side another person is likely to join the opposing side to cancel you out, but, those forces don’t apply as much to the side”
(I realize this is a vague metaphor in the first place, but, as long as you’re overthinking a metaphor, do it thoroughly!)
I thought there was explicit discussion of this in the relevant slack-channel but may be misremembering.
I’m not sure how to describe this differently than I just did, but to restate completely:
“Pull the rope sideways” is relevant to the domain of politics. A reason it actually is relevant to the domain of politics (regardless of how the tug-of-war metaphor plays out) is that people tend to form 2 opposing coalitions. Naively you might think you could show up to help one of the coalitions win, but when Team A see that Team B is “getting out the vote”, that also motivates Team A to work harder to get out the vote. You’re not a solitary actor, people respond to your actions.
And part of the point of the pull-sideways metaphor in politics is that there won’t be social patterns (or social explicitly-built-infrastructure) to notice and respond to when someone shows up to pull the rope sideways.
This was some kind of interesting update for me, but feels incomplete for the post to not at least mentioning the followup theory, which is “there may be forces that nudge the two most obvious sides to be equal, such that if you join one side another person is likely to join the opposing side to cancel you out, but, those forces don’t apply as much to the side”
(I realize this is a vague metaphor in the first place, but, as long as you’re overthinking a metaphor, do it thoroughly!)
I don’t understand, could you elaborate? What followup theory?
I thought there was explicit discussion of this in the relevant slack-channel but may be misremembering.
I’m not sure how to describe this differently than I just did, but to restate completely:
“Pull the rope sideways” is relevant to the domain of politics. A reason it actually is relevant to the domain of politics (regardless of how the tug-of-war metaphor plays out) is that people tend to form 2 opposing coalitions. Naively you might think you could show up to help one of the coalitions win, but when Team A see that Team B is “getting out the vote”, that also motivates Team A to work harder to get out the vote. You’re not a solitary actor, people respond to your actions.
And part of the point of the pull-sideways metaphor in politics is that there won’t be social patterns (or social explicitly-built-infrastructure) to notice and respond to when someone shows up to pull the rope sideways.
OK, thanks. I think it’s a plausible theory but I don’t think it’s the whole story or even the most plausible theory.