The Problem With Modern Tribalism

2 years ago, I had written a few articles defending Senator Bernie Sanders and Director Zack Snyder for all the vitriol rhetoric people have spouted for all these years. While I stand by what I said, there is also an irony I openly acknowledge. I was following my idealistic tribal intentions. I’ve had an epiphany that made me realize that there is most certainly an underlying issue that is causing a lot of problems in today’s society: Tribalism. 

Now I have explained there are toxic supporters of Sanders and Snyder but that the toxicity was ignited by those who hated them but in some cases that hate was ignited by an average daily routine of seeing someone they don’t like over praised. It’s a pattern where tribalism creates tribalism. Where outrage culture continues to grow & grow and rationality becomes lost in our own individualism. 

As a Political Survey caller I spend hours and hours talking to Democrats, Republicans, Independents on who they want to vote for & why. It’s the same thing that can be said for people in my circles “they would never go against their team.” This is one reason I don’t follow sports as much as I do. While there are exceptions, the home team will root for their team no matter how much criticism they get because they want validation for where they live. I understand that. I understand wanting validation. 

One of the reasons I get angsty whenever I see anyone firebomb Man Of Steel or Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice Ultimate Edition is because sometimes having the unpopular opinion feels like standing on a soap box. But I stop defending it and just enjoy it sparingly & I know there are people who do like it as much as people who don’t. I do wonder how much the idea of the visitor team winning affects them. It’s all fun to watch but if your favorite team loses life goes on & go on to the next game. That’s why Comic Book movies and Politics have become as “you gotta root for your team.” “Come root for Marvel cause they’re team” “No DC are the underdog we should root for them.” It’s all the same team it’s Hollywood.

Superheroes are viewed as one big genre. As long as Marvel continues to do well there will always be at least 1 out of 4 DC movies that will do well too because what’s good for one company is good for the other. If DC stopped making these movies the market would become stagnant same if Spider-Man characters left Sony for Marvel. I don’t care how much you didn’t like Morbius, the thing that keeps this market oversaturated is we get different genres out of them. While I don’t consider myself a fan of Morbius I recognize the attempt at emulating what modern horror movies do.

New Mutants did that too. But because fans are so tribalistic they want these films to be uniform. There are groups that want Marvel Studios to not have any competition & just keep their own superhero market share. Disney already has over 60% of the market share. At the Academy Awards 4 or 5 out of 6 are Animated films owned by Disney. They bought & scrapped Blue Sky Studios. 

It’s the same problem with Democrats & Republicans having a stranglehold in American politics or Labour Party & Conservative having a stranglehold in British politics. The thing about the “Vote Blue No Matter Who” ideology contradicts itself if say Donald Trump had a Clone that acted just like him but thay Clone ran as a Democrat. The liberal mainstream media anchors will find any means to justify this just as Conservative media anchors will justify theirs. If a Democratic Voter was granted a wish & they wished all the Republicans would magically disappear then it becomes a problem when it’s only one choice. It’s no longer a Democracy so something has to replace it. Whichever party replaces it either of them will be viewed in a form of good cops or bad cops and the tribalism continues.

I could understand the tribalism if it were a swing state where the election could go either way but it doesn’t make sense to me with a state like California New York or Massachusetts where Democrats have a stranglehold or Kentucky, Kansas, or Alabama where Republicans have a stranglehold. But I have friends who live in California that tell you if you’re not with them you’re against them even if you don’t support the Republicans.

I live in Florida now where it’s considered lean red. Close to safe but not quite. 
Now some of you are thinking this type of loyalty is a first-world problem and we can’t let it affect all of our lives and to that, I say you’re wrong. With entertainment, it’s not an issue affecting people that much but party politics in countries with only 2 major parties have led to dividing people more and more. A happily married couple of 25 years got divorced since each person was voting for a different candidate in the 2020 Presidential election.

There are ways to abolish this kind of tribalism. I encourage the implementation of Ranked Choice Voting in as many states as possible were running as a candidate outside the major parties is no longer viewed as a novelty or stealing votes away. In each Election, Independent & later Reform Party candidate Ross Perot was accused of stealing Republican votes away costing them their election. In 2000, Ralph Nader was accused of stealing votes away from Al Gore costing him the election as was Jill Stein when Hillary Clinton lost and both Democratic candidates won the popular vote. This form of tribalism is called Vote Shaming. 

With Ranked Choice Voting it will be difficult to accuse 3rd parties and Independents of stealing votes or “spoiling” elections & oh my lord some have tried. I came across 2 individuals. One Democrat and One Republican. They both said RCV would only help their opposing parties which was false. In the state of Maine which has RCV, Democratic Governor Janet Mills won in 2018 and Republican Senator Susan Collins won her re-election in 2020. All these 2 people did was display their desperate validity for how far their devotion to their tribe will go.

There will always be circumstances for how people feel the way they feel and how people in their positions of power got to where they’re at. The human condition will always make us indoctrinated into what we end up becoming. Stepping out of our element is never easy and not everyone will do it. If you are someone that feels obligated to be a part of any tribe in any world view I suggest stepping out of their box. When I concluded that I can’t always agree with everything Zack Snyder, Bernie Sanders, Joe Rogan, or whoever says I knew right then and there that I became an Independent in every meaningful sense of the word. 
There will always be exceptions and I’m by no means impervious to falling into a tribalist label, but at the very least I can be self-aware of when I do it. Sometimes the best way to know when cults are not ok is to first become part of one.