Team, not tribe

I’ve heard several commentators discuss the current political climate as tribalism: we’re more loyal to our tribe (R or D) than our country. Award-winning author Alexandra Erin tweets that they’ve been using the wrong word. Not tribes, but teams. Specifically sport teams. In high school, perhaps earlier, we’re required to attend rallies for our teams. We learn to identify with our teams. We buy their jerseys and pennants.

Yeah, the Super Bowl is this evening. I’m busy ignoring it. A big reason I ignore sports is the emphasis on winning and losing, which is ranking. Spectators like sports for the bragging rights – my team is better than yours. And, as Erin points, out we’re taught this form of ranking through an emphasis on school spirit.

But back to Erin:

When I see people sitting out a general election or worse because they're mad their guy in the primary was "robbed", this behavior doesn't strike me as "tribal".

It reminds me of team spectator sports.
…
I'll say "vote for the Democrat" in a general election 99 cases out of 100, but that's not because rah rah rah go team, it's because on a pragmatic level that's the best move available. (And part of how we get to a world where we have better moves available.)

We don't need teams. We don't need to decide we're on someone's team to support them when it's right or make the mistake of thinking they're on our team because they are pushing in the same direction as us for a spell.

Imagine if we didn't have that defensive reaction when we find out someone on our "team" did something terrible. Conversely, imagine if we could process that someone we pull together with did something disappointing and not have to cancel their membership.

I mean, the biggest piece of evidence that the FBI wasn't involved in a partisan push to stop Trump from winning the election is that *they actively shielded him and helped torpedo his opponent*.

So no, I don't stand with them.

I stand for what's right.

A resounding call to end ranking.