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A.'s avatar

It is not just tribalism. Many tribal groups are normal.

The Left/WOKE/Democrats are a totalitarian group. THAT is the big distinction. And being totalitarian means they will automatically behave within certain behaviour patterns and types of thinking. Often very bizarre, which normal people just cannot grasp.

They do not operate on sense or logic. Something far deeper and more sinister takes them over.

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DaveL's avatar

Hayek had an interesting take on those sorts. As people who already know everything and what the “solutions” are, they are naturally attracted to central planning. Unfortunately, the universe is too random to accommodate planning that way, so they are always wrong. Unable to accept being wrong, they gravitate to more and more ruthless measures to cover that fact up, which includes persecution, murder, and genocide. Totalitarianism, in other words.

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A.'s avatar

The Communists are one of the largest and most well-known variants of totalitarianism. And as you say, they just cannot fathom being wrong.

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DaveL's avatar

Never wrong!

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Sandra Pinches's avatar

I completely agree that totalitarianism is the main problem with the woke left. The word "total" captures the quality of total immersion in a cult to the point of having no separate sense of self.

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A.'s avatar

I commend you on your being gracious here Sandra, even though you know I do not support feminism, and you do. I can respect someone like that.

As for totalitarianism, someone once commented that this state is possible because human beings have hackable brains. We have mental/emotional loopholes left over from evolution, which opportunistic manipulators and power-mongers will use. They seek opportune moments and vulnerabilities. Or they create them. And then given our herd-affinity, the damaged perspectives spread.

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Sandra Pinches's avatar

I believe that most problems with human behavior on a large scale are due to evolutionary flaws. On a general level, the fact that we are animals and so much of our feelings and behavior are guided more by our animal nature than the supposedly more advanced human cortex. And on the level of detail, random natural selection obviously leaves a lot of dysfunctional traits in a species over very long periods of time.

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A.'s avatar

I am grappling just now with the ideas put forth by Anthropologist Francisco Gil-White on his Substack, concerning a shift in mental evolution in ancient Mesopotamia under leader Sargon of Akkad, and what this may have meant for humanity. Even today.

I am also convinced of a few of the ideas of Julian Jaynes, author of the 1970s book on the Bicameral Mind/Consciousness.

It's a tricky, complex puzzle, all of this. And we must live life while we are working it out.

Nice talking to you, Sandra. Good evening.

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Sandra Pinches's avatar

I read the Jaynes book back when it was first published, and was very impressed by some of his ideas.

I enjoyed our conversation as well, and will look forward to more opportunities to chat with you.

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A.'s avatar

I have met some very interesting and inspiring people on Substack.

Thank you for the conversation.

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A.'s avatar

There are loopholes left in us from evolution, which are normally not a real issue. In a relatively reasonable stable society, where we have social support and working institutions.

If masses of us come to be in a vulnerable situation though, or it is created, the vultures descend and look for the loopholes.

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Sandra Pinches's avatar

Vultures and opportunistic infections. The failure to defend national borders and the refusal by elites to support individuals who defend themselves are essentially the breakdown of the national and social immune system.

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A.'s avatar

I agree with that analogy.

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