Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Fundamentally, Sebby is wrong when he says that the country is tribal, and that Democrats are tribal. Conservatives are. The mainstream is not. Conservatives are tribal because they define themselves in opposition and reaction to the mainstream. The mainstream is not because it is the mainstream, and doesn't care about conservatives in the way that conservatives care about the mainstream. (E.g., conservatives like to trigger libs, but libs don't really care about triggering conservatives.)
There is a fundamental asymmetry at work, but he sees everything twice.
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I agree, but he's not alone in seeing something that is labeled tribalism in America today. For most, it's the idea that people separate themselves from others.
This really isn't true. We have a high degree of mobility, and as a result few people live isolated lives never leaving the Shire. Almost everyone I know here in the heart of Bluedom has trumpish family members somewhere (mostly in southern retirement communities or other places where we came from, since we generally do screen them out at our border.) What is really happening is more of a move toward regionalism, something that we've cycled through before in this country.
