10-24-2018, 02:32 PM
(10-24-2018, 02:27 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: It's not politics; it's tribalism. I forget where I heard this discussion or who proposed this hypothesis, but we are social creatures. We look for tribes of people that are like us in various ways. Religious organizations, clubs of various sorts, things like that have long provided us with this tribal effect. As time has gone on, we have seen a reduction in membership. People are not interacting in these more traditional tribes that have been existing for some time. The life people live is increasingly digital, and they are replacing these tribes with more virtual ones. Tribes that are less concrete. One of the easiest to involve ourselves in is based on political ideology. It's one of the only tribes many people actively participate in and so it has become insanely strong and has fomented the current climate.
Maybe, but it seems the "political" tribalism fosters a lot more openly negative rhetoric. You don't see many people ( I saw most because there are always Nazi's haha) going around and openly saying sweeping negative generalizations about religions, ethnic races, or other "tribes", however hearing people do the same about political affiliation is accepted almost everywhere. You can sit in a restaurant, or in your place of work, and hear people use terms like "Liberal" and "Conservative" in a way that almost sounds like a way a racial slur would have been used in the 50's or 60's.
I think we are seriously headed towards more politically motivated crimes against people. I'm not even saying simply politicians themselves, but more so supporters. Rallies will become war zones because they are being positioned as enemies to ways of life.
