Tribal versus Conceptual Thought

 Back in April, Vox Day posted the following to Gab:

Mark Levin is not your friend. He never was.

"I am not a nationalist. People who push America First are schizophrenic."
- Mark Levin

He's also not an American. He never was.

'Schizophrenic' is an interesting term. Whatever its exact definition, it surely is not a good thing. So why is Levin criticizing America First? It makes perfect sense for Americans. At first, it befuddled yours truly why Levin was against America First. Yes, it is true that he is not an American. But neither am I, and I have no objection to Americans putting America First. Ukranians push 'Slava Ukraina' and Milanese pushing 'Forza Milan' too, and it's fine.

So why does Levin dunk on America First?

Levin is, for lack of a better term, a tribal thinker. He has a tribe, and that dictates how he looks at things. It does not matter what his tribe is called or who else is in it or what they do, at least not for this post. What matters is, as Day points out, that Levin's tribe is not Americans.

Uncle John's Band on SG expressed a similar idea:

Morality in the House of Lies is strategically fluid. Consistency is a category error. Only alignment with/against the beast in a war that never ends.

The reason that morality is 'strategically fluid' is that it is a concept. When the moral high ground benefits their tribe, a tribal thinker will be holier than Saint Benedict and tell you all about it too. When the tribe suffers from morality, such as morality imposed by another tribe, then those stuck-up, bible-thumping Christian Fundamentalists need to stop controlling womens' bodies, et cetera.

Some examples of concepts are Christianity and nationalism. If you happen to subscribe to nationalism in the conceptual sense, then you can agree with the armed forces of both Ukraine and Russian Federation, even while they are at war with one another. You agree with the nationalism of both nations. Circling back, Levin is being truthful here. He is not a nationalist in the conceptual sense. If he was, he would not object to Americans pushing America First.

Similarly, Uncle Johns Band is absolutely right. If you are tribally 'with the beast in the war that never ends', then conceptual consistency is in fact a category error.

Finally, it is perfectly logical for tribal thinkers to ignore the Nazi imagery of some members of the anti-Russian forces in places like Mariupol'. They don't care about Nazism as a concept. They care about the tribe of Russians, which is currently opposed to their own tribe, whichever tribe that is.

Perhaps it is easy to think of tribes as sports teams, for the conceptual thinker. A fan of a particular sports team does not care for concepts and playstyles of the sport. Sure, they will talk about them, but always subordinate to whether or not it benefits their team. When the referee goes easy on the opposite team, he's a pig. When he goes easy on the preferred team, he's fine. This is despite the referee doing the exact same conceptual thing with both teams. The concept/object/thing does not matter, the team/tribe matters.