Most people want to join a tribe. With a tribe, you have a place to go – something like the bar in Cheers where everybody knows your name and they’re always glad you came. (Or is it “they’re always there to blame”?)
This tribal instinct is natural. For the first three million years of our existence, tribes served as cohesive institutions to defend themselves and their interests, to conquer the lands of competing tribes, to enslave the members of those competing tribes, to inseminate their women, and to hunt big game. Later they farmed cooperatively, built cities, undertook public works projects, sailed the seas and flew to the moon.
Some of the most effective tribes today are athletic teams and soldiers. Both rightly emphasize conformity to the tribe at the expense of individual expression. There’s no “I” in “team” or in “squadron.”
This sacrifice of individualism on the altar of tribal interests still wins games and wars, just as it historically exterminated competing tribes with orchestrated genocide and brought down mastodons with pointed sticks.
But most people today don’t have the opportunity to win wars or the motivation to even win at team sports. Instead, they find their tribe as keyboard warriors in so-called identity politics.
You might think “identity politics” has something to do with what an individual believes about the political issues of the day. Having decided upon his individual beliefs, the individual would then vote for politicians who hold similar beliefs.
But it’s actually somewhat the opposite. Identity politics is where a person decides not who he is, but what. The person decides whether his defining trait is a straight white guy, or a hip Black dude, or a soccer mom, or a gay person, or a church-going Christian, or a gun owner, or an environmentalist, or whatever.
A person can and usually does have many of these traits at once. But identity politics operates on the notion that just one or two of his traits define him.
Many people go along with that notion. That’s because once a person has decided upon a defining trait, he’s eligible to join the tribe of that defining trait. He gets to be a regular at the political equivalent of Cheers.
That’s a problem. Because the tribe does the thinking for its members, they vote as the tribe instructs them. Dissent is frowned upon. If you want to be a member of the tribe, you carry the tribe’s water and you drink their Kool-Aid.
These tribes thrive on the internet. The purpose of the internet tribes is social to some extent, but mostly it’s to preach the tribe’s political catechism.
And so if you decide that global warming is an extremely serious problem, then your global warming tribe will tell you to vote for not just the politician who similarly believes that, but who also believes in unrestricted abortion, restrictive gun control, and unrestricted vote-by-mail. It’s a package deal because the tribe members have surrendered their individualism.
The left has a name for this. They call it “intersectionality.” Their theory is that leftists naturally share the same beliefs on any number of distinct political issues.
They never explain the reason for that. Why would a person who wants to confiscate guns necessarily want to allow abortion during a childbirth?
The unspoken rationale for this intersectionality gambit is that each of these “identities” – the global warmers, the gun takers, the abortionists and so on – are all cool ‘60s rebels and so it’s only natural they would all vote the same, namely for Democrats and against The Man.
Forget that these self-proclaimed “rebels” control the schools, the colleges, the foundations, the media, the presidency, the Senate, Wall Street, the Federal Reserve, the mutual fund companies that choose the investments for your 401k, and most corporate board rooms. Exactly who is The Man that these self-proclaimed rebels pretend they’re unitedly and heroically rebelling against?
To be fair, the right is tribal too. If you decide that the problem of global warming has been overstated, then your globe-not-warming tribe will tell you not just that the problem has been overstated but that it’s a total hoax. And they’ll tell you that abortion should be outlawed at the moment of conception, if not before, and gun rights should include the right to possess a bazooka because if bazookas are outlawed, then only outlaws will have bazookas.
These tribal totems preclude real analysis, and even impede civil discussion. The tribe members have already been told what to believe about the issues of the day, so why waste time analyzing them? And they’ve already been told that competing tribes with differing viewpoints are not just wrong, but evil, so why engage in civil discussion with them? They don’t deserve discussion, they deserve extermination.
Sometimes the tribe will simply reflexively adopt a position that is in opposition to the other tribe’s position without even bothering to understand the issue. If the other tribe says yes then we should say no, and if they say no then we should say yes.
As mentioned, the internet makes all this worse. It happens in two ways. First, as an incredible communication device, it enables people who seek a tribe, and most people do, to find one. Once people find their tribe, and it’s not hard, they of course go tribal. That’s why they’re there.
Second, while the internet brings together likeminded people seeking a tribe, it drives apart un-likeminded people. You see this in big media. Fox News and CNN shamelessly publish misleading headlines to generate clicks from their respective tribes. To the delight of their clicking tribe, this clickbait usually makes the opposing tribe look bad. That brings their tribal viewers back for more, which drives the tribes still farther apart. It’s a vicious cycle.
I don’t know how to solve the problem of the internet – it’s cleverly designed to play very effectively on our instincts, after all – but I do know that identity politics is one of the worst manifestations of the problem.
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Very well said.
Glenn,
The term “tribal instincts” reminds me of a phrase that the media and much of culture buys, “just follow your heart”. Our Creator comments on this idea: “I (God) Hid My face and was angry and he (man) went on turning away, in the way of his heart. Isaiah 57:17 Through the writer of Proverbs God says: “There is a way which seems right to a man, but it’s end is the way of death.” Proverbs 14:12 And again, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7 All this to say, the wise “tribe” is to be a child of God and seek wisdom from Him which includes wisdom for forming political thoughts.
Good point. People who are “following their heart” are impliedly not following their mind. God gave us a heart to let us live, but gave us a mind to tell us how.
What a great description of identity politics! The Glenn Beaton of old. How can I give this 6 stars?
Wherever did you manage to get your hands on a Biden Family photo to illustrate your post? Joe’s looking absolutely dynamic shaking his green palm fronds while Jill–that paragon of femininity–is coyly keeping her distance over there on the right side of the frame. The sexual tension between that pair is simply electric! Meanwhile, Hunter and Naomi are keeping a discrete and respectful distance behind Joe, while daughter Ashley seems for some strange reason to be somewhat standoffish, as if she doesn’t want to be within her father’s reach. Go figure. The best part is how you managed to capture the spirit of the dearly departed Beau, standing guard in the rear with his military issue “big stick” personal defense weapon. Honestly, a more authentic portrait of the Biden Family in all of its virtuous glory (or should that be glorious virtue?) could not possibly be found.
Who steered you into law? You clearly have considerable aptitude for art criticism and cultural anthropology.
Thanks for the laughs.
Yeah … this red state vs. blue state tribalism feels a lot like M.A.D., i.e., Mutually Assured Destruction, from the Cold War Era. Paging Dr. Strangelove … paging Dr. Strangelove!
The tribes fight each other to virtual annihilation, winner take all, while everybody else loses.
Also speaking of MAD … does anyone remember the classic Mad Magazine’s famous Spy Vs. Spy cartoon series?!? Our American tribalism seems a lot like those two spies constantly at each other’s throat, each plotting and scheming to get one over on his arch enemy, damn the consequences.
See: https://archive.org/details/SpyVsSpyTheCompleteCasebook
Lastly … as far as standing up to “the man” goes, the leftists have in essence become “the man.” They have become the thing that they once so hated and reviled.
If you want to do something truly revolutionary these days, study and train to get a secure well paying job, work hard, get married, buy a home, have kids, support and raise your family, load up your SUV with lots of food from Costco, and have weekend BBQs eating steak and burgers.
Nowadays … that is called sticking it to the man.
That’s an enticing list of to-dos.
And/or, to-do-it-agains.
Another excellent expose Glenn. Since this subject has become the battering ram of industrial and economic manipulation, I would add that the ‘globe-not-warming tribe’ will tell you not just that the problem has been overstated and that it’s a total hoax, but they will offer hard, scientific, historical evidence why they believe this. Often the alternative response will involve provable lies and exaggerations, and as you mentioned, the internet makes all this worse.
Critical, rational, honest, moral thought; all victims of the modern liberal democrat platform.
As for the current election season upon us, you once wrote:
“…the more responsible DeSantis” will be demonized simply for being “the more responsible DeSantis”.
What my tribe is saying is that we wouldn’t wish that abuse on any good Americans, especially the DeSantis family. The left doesn’t care a bit that their accusations are false. The Trump family survived the gauntlet of 24/7/365/7-years of lies and exaggerations. For whatever reasons, they look forward to four more years of it (maybe the Trump family loves this country). In ways that we will likely never know about, Donald Trump’s second term was stolen from 74,223,975 members of my tribe. The other tribe’s tactics were successful, and they’ll work in the future…the other tribe knows this. As you mentioned, the internet makes all this worse.
Not sure how you define intersectionality comports with Peggy McIntosh’s, nor if you intended it to. McIntosh’s was all about white privilege–all the ways American culture favors the white skinned. Another angle on tribalism–yet another way to repolarize the masses…
The Pharisees said ‘change and then you can join us’.
Jesus said ‘join us and then you will change’.
[Batteries not included, but the Bible is.]
Also, “The San Francisco Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church filed for bankruptcy on Monday as the body grapples with more than 500 outstanding lawsuits arising from sex-abuse allegations.”
It’s not the message.
It’s the vessel.
Some of these lawsuits are spurious and will be thrown out. As for the rest, this is a fine example of tribal “intersectionality” between the liberalization of The Church post-1965 and homosexuality. It’s well established that at least 80% of all sex-abuse cases are homosexual in nature (far more altar boys than young girls and women among the victims), and that the number of same-sex attracted men (many of whom are chaste, like heterosexual priests) in the priesthood is roughly 50%, with the percentage most likely higher among the bishops.
So, yes, “the vessel” is in bad shape. Sex abuse is not unknown even among the traditional, conservative Latin Mass orders. To be sure, the general sexual revolution of the 60s is a root cause, but of course that also “liberated” weak homosexual men.
Excellent article as usual, Glenn! BUT, please, refer to the “bazooka” by its non-tribal name of 3.5″ rocket launcher, and YES, we ALL CAN HAVE ONE after the 1938 SCOTUS decision, where we all CAN have what the military has (my reading of it, since it was deemed that a sawed off shotgun was ILLEGAL to have, since the military does NOT issue them!). BUT, it’s the AMMO that one is going to be UNABLE to find or purchase! I was also told I could actually have a tank, BUT, unless it was fitted with rubber treads, I would be responsible for repairing the roads I drove it on. OK: Sorry to diverge from the core of your article!
Imprimis (a free publication of Hillsdale College) in the January 2023 issue – Volume 52, #1, published the adapted text from John Daniel Davidson’s talk to Hillsdale students. The title was “The Twitter Files Reveal an Existential Threat”. Mr. Davidson is a senior editor at The Federalist.
“In his talk, he discusses The Twitter Files by journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and others beginning in early December 2022, after Elon Musk’s October 2022 takeover of Twitter. The Twitter Files encompasses and connects every political scandal of the Trump-Biden era. The journalists reveal an unholy alliance between Big Tech and the deep state dedicated to throttle free speech and maintain an ‘official’ narrative through censorship and propaganda. “This should not just disturb us, it should also prod us to action in defense of the First Amendment, free and fair elections, and indeed our country.”
The following link takes you inside this unholy alliance:
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/the-twitter-files-reveal-an-existential-threat/
This volume from 2020 pertains to Glenn’s most recent subject, “Identity politics”.
The Roots of Our Partisan Divide
By Christopher Caldwell, Senior Fellow, The Claremont Institute
Author, The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties
Imprimis, FEBRUARY 2020 | VOLUME 49, ISSUE 2
“American society today is divided by party and by ideology in a way it has perhaps not been since the Civil War. I have just published a book that, among other things, suggests why this is. It is called The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties. It runs from the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the election of Donald J. Trump. You can get a good idea of the drift of the narrative from its chapter titles: 1963, Race, Sex, War, Debt, Diversity, Winners, and Losers.
I can end part of the suspense right now—Democrats are the winners. Their party won the 1960s—they gained money, power, and prestige. The GOP is the party of the people who lost those things…” (Oh, but read on.)
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/roots-partisan-divide/
The Caldwell piece was, as expected from such a distinguished thinker as he, a brilliant analysis of the roots of our current discontent. For my part, I have long held a belief that our troubles began with the so-called “Civil Rights Movement” ™, which undid so any of the theretofore bedrock Constitutional protections we held dear, particularly the right of free association. When I am compelled to “accept” people with whom I have no affinity, little in common and who are generally unlike me and mine, my reaction is the polar opposite of what is intended. I do NOT want to welcome the strangers into my affinity group. I do NOT want to support their social institutions, which are antithetical to the ones in which I was brought up. I do NOT want to become part of their culture, nor to lose the culture I grew up in. I loathe the so-called “civil rights” movement and all its proponents because they began the unraveling of my society, and that of all traditional Americans. These vermin set the stage and created the blueprint for all subsequent “civil rights” movements, including the abomination of “feminism” (really simple man-hating misandry) and the demon spawn of LGBT’ism, with phony “gay marriage” and most recently, transsexuality, which the Biden cabal has seen fit to elevate to protected status under the same legal rubric as its predecessors in the reviled “movement”.
I’m on Team Steve.
As Candace Owens said recently; “To survive the woke culture, you have to become a liar.”
I’m reminded of a simple meme picturing an adorable 6-ish year old girl having a talk with her mom in the kitchen:
“Mommy, I think I’m a boy.”
The girl’s mom, smiling, while preparing PB&J sandwiches, replied confidently:
“Well, you’re not.”
(This particular reply will save the life of someone you love.)