"Check Your Tribalism"

The individual is what matters. I say this time and time again, and I write it time and time again. Our consciousnesses are individual, our thoughts are individual, and our actions are individual, so we should view and judge others as individuals.

Unfortunately, we are wired toward group behavior, because that's how our ancestors survived the wilds of nature tens of thousands of years ago. We have a tribalism gene, and it prompts us to bias our view and judgment of others based on outside markers.

Here are two videos discussing a cop who slammed an 18 year old girl to the ground during a traffic stop, then lied about it.

VIDEO 1

VIDEO 2

Read the story here.

Because of video, the cop got promptly fired and all charges against the teen were dropped.

Unfortunately, stuff like this happens from time to time. More unfortunately, incidents like this are used to feed broad-brush narratives like "defund the police" or "all cops are pigs."

On the flip side, when stories of criminal behavior go viral, people broad-brush a "respect the police" narrative.

In both cases, people forget that the individual is what matters. There are about 700,000 police officers in the US. In that population, there are bound to be some sociopaths, no matter how careful the hirers are to exclude the latter. There are also certainly some saints, people who do the job with the highest level of propriety and wisdom.

The existence of saintly cops does not mean we should broadly beatify police.

The existence of sociopathic or asshole cops does not mean we should broadly hold police in contempt.

The individual is what matters, and the bad eggs should be treated as individuals.

In the wake of George Floyd I offered a handful of reforms that would improve police-community relations (more saints) and make it easier to sort the bad eggs (fewer sociopaths). I knew full well that none of them would be implemented, because a - tribalism, and b - Other People's Money.

Among them was the "first clean your own house" notion that the blue wall of silence should be replaced by cops wanting the bad eggs within their ranks gone. Unfortunately, policing is among the most tribal of professions, and the more that cops encounter broad anti-cop sentiments, the more apt they are to close ranks.

Still, bad cops do get fired (though, thanks to the judicial torturing of legislation that birthed qualified immunity, not often enough), and faith in the system gets helped when cops that forget or ignore their "protect and serve" mandate, and let their "I must be obeyed" egos take over get properly disciplined or axed.

Today, I use the example of a cop who went bad, but the message isn't about cops. It's a springboard to talk individualism. The individualism lesson applies to everybody and every identity group. Under every label, there is a spectrum from saint to sinner, with individuals across its breadth. The label may be useful, but it is also perilous in lumping the good and the bad together, with the good being unfairly tarnished and the bad being unfairly exonerated.

The phrase "check your privilege" was created as a means of shutting down debate by alleging a biased perspective. Because it is rooted in identity markers, it is itself a racist/bigoted thing to say. I offer in its stead, or as a rebuttal, "check your tribalism." Ideas, assumptions, conclusions, and the like should be able to withstand the "individual" test. Is what we say or believe or conclude influenced by "what" the person is rather than who he or she is?

Since we are sacks of chemicals rather than logic machines, it is inevitable that tribalism will exert influence on our thoughts. However, it is when we push tribalism aside in favor of looking at everyone as individuals first that we improve both our own outlooks and society's harmony. And make life better.