Our illustrious, observant MSM points out a lot these days how TRIBAL we’ve all become (and how ‘it’s both sides’ fault that we HAVE become so tribal).
As I’m fond of saying on these pages here, if you start from a place of BULLSHIT, you will only ever see BULLSHIT in front of you. And THAT is top shelf, Grade AAA BULLSHIT.
No, both sides don’t do it. Both sides are tribal and experience tribalism but not all tribalism is created equal.
Allow me to throw down a metaphor to illustrate: In my time I have been an ardent Lakers Fan. During the Kobe Bryant Championship Years, my friends loved to watch the playoff games with me at my house because regardless of how entertaining (or not entertaining) the game itself might be — I was going to put on one hell of a show. I’m passionate. At the time, I lived and breathed Lakers. There were Angelenos who shared my passion and Angelenos who didn’t give a shit and even Angelenos who supported that ‘other’ LA team — the Clippers (and this was during the Donald Sterling ownership days so the Clippers were easy to hate though they were perennial underdogs).
If a tragedy had befallen Los Angeles back then — an earthquake, say (we get those here) — my intense Lakers Tribalism would have been subsumed into Being An Angeleno. My larger tribe would have taken precedence over my smaller, more local ‘allegiance’. Logic (and survival instinct) would have dictated it.
Tribalism is natural to any sentient being who sees companionship in another sentient being. What happens when you add a THIRD sentient being to the mix — that’s what determines how the future tribes in that grouping will play out. Unless, of course, both sentient beings — and then their third — are all EXACTLY ALIKE. If THAT’S the case then we’re talking less ‘a tribe’ and more ‘automatons’. Or maybe just a ‘Tribe’ of ‘Automatons’
Republicans.
Because we live in a ‘Both Sides Do It’ media culture, the assumption is that BOTH KINDS OF ‘TRIBALISM’ ARE EXACTLY ALIKE. But are they? Let’s compare —
REPUBLICAN TRIBALISM: Makeup of Tribe: White, Christian Men principally. The tribe’s rules & regs are designed to keep White, Christian Male Culture front and center — to keep it as THE DOMINANT CULTURE regardless of the fact that it no longer represents THE MAJORITY of the people in the culture. In other words, Republican Tribalism seems bent on imposing ITS dying, no longer relevant, completely EXCLUSIVE culture onto the LARGER Culture.
DEMOCRATIC TRIBALISM: Makeup of Tribe: Everyone Else. White, black, brown, Asian, Native American, male, female, LGBTQ, rich, poor, American or willing-to-risk-your-life-to-BECOME-an-American.
When your ‘TRIBE’ is everyone who ISN’T WHITE, CHRISTIAN, MALE? It means YOUR ‘tribalism’ isn’t quite the same as THE WHITE GUY’S ‘tribalism’.
If DIVERSITY is a ‘tribe’? Include me in its numbers. More importantly, where do I send my check so I can get my ‘Membership Card’?