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People have such a poor understanding of themselves, & such a poorly defined self-concept, that they often define themselves by their enemies. This is why we often declare "war" on "evil" societal scourges (war/poverty/drugs/crime/terror) because it signifies virtue in...1/ https://twitter.com/Allegradancer/status/1245584720030601217
.....ourselves or our country.......and it allows us to define ourselves as the "good guys". Here's a thread that analyzes this dynamic from a national perspective through the lens of the country becoming the sole super power: 2/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1157435522488254464
Similarly, we also see this on a personal, or tribal level.......particularly with religion and other tribalized institutions that feed of the "Us versus Them", "In-group/Out-group" dynamic.....4/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1161042539043942400
.....which partly explains the need to "demonize" people who disagree with us.....because if those who disagree with us are "evil"....then we must hold the virtuous position in the debate....5/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1166305213919059971
As a society.....especially as a highly "individualistic" society (in contrast to a "collective" society), we have conditioned to see everything in binary competitive terms (including sports/politics). I call this "binary institutional conditioning": 6/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1161046178529607680
This is especially true of our two party political system, which I contrast against Canada's multi-party system in this thread: 7/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1161966072355966977
