Tribal Politics is Killing Democracy


This applies to both Democrats and Republicans.

Tribalistic, neo-barbarian politics demands each of the following:

1. You must take a side immediately.
2. You must believe what your side says on the flimsiest of evidence.
3. You must not question what your side says, lest you be cast out into the flames.
4. You must prove your loyalty by taking ever more extreme versions of your side's view.
5. You must never notice hypocrisy on your side, but must find it everywhere on the other side.
6. If the other side tries to reason with you in good faith, presume their explicit arguments are mere propaganda covering their dark beliefs and evil motives. 
7. All evidence for your side is to be believed; all evidence against it is to be dismissed.
8. You must denounce apostates, skeptics, and heretics to your side.
9. People and cases are not to be judged on their individual merits, but on their membership in our tribe or theirs, and on the usefulness to our tribe of taking a stance one way or another.
10. Nuanced analysis is forbidden.

These were not my creation, but I like them a lot so I copied and pasted them.  The credit goes to Jason Brennan.

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