Tribal Thinking

I was listening to a radio show about Latino voters, and one line about appealing to Latinos really stuck with me. On how second and third generation immigrants tend to lean conservative, but find many of the priorities of the party are not necessarily that important to them, the guest said something to the extent of, "A reduction of the capital gains tax is not why immigrants come here." Very simple, but it made me think.

That simple statement suggests that if you want to appeal to immigrants, or anybody else for that matter, your agenda should prioritize that which they love about America. I believe immigrants come here to escape corruption, to find opportunity, to earn a living, and for a safe place to raise their families. Furthermore, their conviction on these matters has caused them to leave behind everything they once knew, and take a chance on the idea that it exists here. That is powerful. The speaker made a good point, that those values should be within the wheel house of a conservative party, but they get bogged down in special interests, or more dangerously, in the nationalistic alt right agenda. If the Republican party could stick to the values that really make America great, that would be a huge step forward.

The corollary to the statement, "politicians should appeal to the reasons why we love America," would be that citizens should champion the causes that they love about America. Again, an obvious statement, but it brings me back to another prominent idea -- that of tribal thinking, where you believe everything your particular tribe believes. For example, if your tribe happens to be the Christian tribe, maybe you are against abortion, in favor of public prayer and references to God, and resistant to the LGBT movement. The natural party alignment might be to Republicans, and you might "tribe think"  your way into believing in trickle down economics, that global warming is a hoax, that Mexicans are stealing your jobs, etc.

Being a liberal, I have my own set of tribal beliefs -- an unbiased justice system, defense of the constitution, rehabilitation over punishment, quality education, getting money out of politics, protecting the environment, pushing back against corporate pseudo monopolies, and playing a less aggressive role in global politics, etc. But what are the things that I "tribe think"? It's a little harder to identify, because I have to ask myself, "of the things I really do believe, which are the ones that come from the inside out, and which come from the outside in." It's tough, and maybe a little scary.

I believe in having social safety nets, but do I really believe they are too weak right now? Probably not. The LGBT agenda seems completely foreign to me upon inspection. I believe people have the right to live the lifestyle they choose, but I do think it's a choice, or at least a learned behavior, and the science seems to back up that position. Sure, I have friends that I would say I knew were going to be gay, who had the same upbringing as a straight kid, but we are not computers which you can plug in a program and expect a particular outcome. Same inputs do get different outputs, which is not to say the output is in some way not a function of the input. Then the co-existence of transgender and gender equality beliefs makes no sense to me at all. If two things are equal, and you are one, why insist that you are really the other? Transgender to me is an interpretation of gender roles in society making the distinction, and deciding you are the other, rather than accepting that those attributes can belong to either gender. What's wrong with just being a feminine man or a masculine woman? Isn't deciding to be the other gender an act of reinforcing social stereotypes about a gender? I have these thoughts,  yet would gladly vote to support their rights, I think because that's what my tribe does.

There are other examples, but in the off chance someone actually reads this, I'll spare myself the further shame of putting all my private thoughts on the internet for the sake of illustrating this one point. It is an interesting exercise I'd encourage everyone to try. A good place to start is to ask yourself which of your beliefs come directly from meaningful personal experience. I would argue that if you agree with everything your political party believes in, and don't think any of it is tribe think, you're not thinking hard enough. Be aware of the causes people are really championing, not just tagging along on, and align yourself accordingly. And if these causes are truly important to you, you owe it to yourself to ask whether the person you vote for is genuinely pursuing policies that reflect your innate beliefs.

Quote of the Day: My CTO, Shuming, said something to the extent of, "Everything is a gift, your whole existence is a gift. Believing this will make you more patient and happier"