Opposition Is The Stronges,…

Today in white people: https://t.co/KBtUTmELBw

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) October 6, 2021

...most direct way to form an identity.

Remember when I wrote that thing about how people will resist all factual information if it threatens their narcissistic, tribal priors, and will stovepipe their own info sources rather than ever change their mind? https://t.co/G454NHMzEG

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) October 7, 2021

It really doesn’t have that much to do with narcissism or tribes (“tribalism” is a favorite internet meme, which means it isn’t clever, just a narrative shortcut that easily replaces thinking. It’s a placeholder for a lot of unexamined complexity.). Threaten the identity, you threaten the core of being. Hard to attack anything more fundamental than that. Also rather easy to do, it turns out.

All pleasant Twitter subcultures are alike, but each unpleasant Twitter subculture is unpleasant in its own way. Also frequently unhygienic.

— AntifaHat (@Popehat) October 7, 2021

Or (pace Tolstoy), all “unpleasant cultures/families,” are sufficiently unlike ours as to be interesting. Different is more interesting than familiar, after all. Push that far enough, different becomes threatening. That’s where the reaction perceives a threat to identity.

We all resist factual information and “stovepipe” our own “info sources.” We do it all the time. That’s not a weakness or a failure of logical analysis, that’s how we preserve individual identity. It’s also how we see the splinter in our brother’s eye.

Preserving identity is all about self-protection.  Just because "they" do it, doesn't mean "we" aren't doing it, too.  Well, you are; my motives are absolutely objective and pure.

It's you I'm not too sure about.