It’s true that I didn’t draw a distinction between tribalism and group identity. My reason for doing so was that I thought both terms applied to my three examples. I thought a bit about the distinction between the two in my mind but didn’t get very far. So I’m not sure whether the pattern I pointed out in my post is true of tribalism, or of group identity, or both. But since you pressed me, let me try to draw a distinction.
(This is an exercise for me in figuring out what I mean by these two notions; I’m not imposing these definitions on anyone.)
The word “tribalism” has a negative connotation. Why? I’d say because it draws out tendencies of tribe members to lose subjectivity and defend their tribe. (I was going to call this “irrational” behavior, but I’m not sure that’s right; it’s probably epistemically irrational but not necessarily instrumentally irrational.) So, maybe tribalism can be defined as a mindset of membership in a group that causes the member to react defensively to external challenges, rather than treating those challenges objectively.
(I know that I feel tribalism toward the rationalist community because of how I felt on the day that Scott Alexander took down Slate Star Codex, and when the New York Times article was published. I expect to feel similarly about EA, but haven’t had anything trigger that emotional state in me about it yet. I feel a smaller amount of tribalism toward neoliberalism.)
(Note that I’m avoiding defining tribes, just tribalism, because what’s relevant to my post is how I feel about the groups I mentioned, not any property of the groups themselves. If you wanted to, you could define a tribe as a group where the average member feels tribalism toward the group, or something.)
Identity is probably easier to define—I identify with a group if I consider myself a member of it. I’m not sure which of these two notions is most relevant for the sort of pattern I point out, though.
It’s true that I didn’t draw a distinction between tribalism and group identity. My reason for doing so was that I thought both terms applied to my three examples. I thought a bit about the distinction between the two in my mind but didn’t get very far. So I’m not sure whether the pattern I pointed out in my post is true of tribalism, or of group identity, or both. But since you pressed me, let me try to draw a distinction.
(This is an exercise for me in figuring out what I mean by these two notions; I’m not imposing these definitions on anyone.)
The word “tribalism” has a negative connotation. Why? I’d say because it draws out tendencies of tribe members to lose subjectivity and defend their tribe. (I was going to call this “irrational” behavior, but I’m not sure that’s right; it’s probably epistemically irrational but not necessarily instrumentally irrational.) So, maybe tribalism can be defined as a mindset of membership in a group that causes the member to react defensively to external challenges, rather than treating those challenges objectively.
(I know that I feel tribalism toward the rationalist community because of how I felt on the day that Scott Alexander took down Slate Star Codex, and when the New York Times article was published. I expect to feel similarly about EA, but haven’t had anything trigger that emotional state in me about it yet. I feel a smaller amount of tribalism toward neoliberalism.)
(Note that I’m avoiding defining tribes, just tribalism, because what’s relevant to my post is how I feel about the groups I mentioned, not any property of the groups themselves. If you wanted to, you could define a tribe as a group where the average member feels tribalism toward the group, or something.)
Identity is probably easier to define—I identify with a group if I consider myself a member of it. I’m not sure which of these two notions is most relevant for the sort of pattern I point out, though.