Tribalism As Idelogical Conformism

2/9/18

In his long conversation with Joe Rogan, 2 hours, 13 minutes, Steven Pinker says he changed his mind about this-political views flowing from ideological premises. 

He now thinks that tribalism counts more heavily than ideology for our positions on political, and for that matter public, issues generally, that our “group,” whatever that consists in, presses in on us to conform to it at the risk of social sanction, (say) ridicule or even ostracism. Pinker and Rogan note that almost to a man or woman, positions held on discrete issues are as eyes into fixed political souls, into leftward or rightward. 

This view makes sense to me though I wouldn’t cleave so sharply between ideology and tribal pressure. They probably overlap and are a piece of each other.

I’d like to think I don’t fall into the web of that human disposition, that within a general creedal framework, sort of Third Wayish really, I try to call em as I independently as possible see em, wanting to be moved by logic, evidence and the best argument.