“CRUSHING OUR BETTER ANGELS:” See, though, the thing about tribalism is that it often works. The reason why people are hardwired for tribalism is that our predecessors who didn’t have those instincts were wiped out by the people who did. That doesn’t mean that tribalism is necessarily good of course, any more than other hardwired instincts are necessarily good. But it’s not just an example of stupidity. It’s there for a reason.

Note, too, that people who purport to decry tribalism are often just engaging in propaganda on behalf of their own tribe. “This we-all-have-a-problem sermonizing when liberal incontinence blows up on them would be quite humorous, if not so annoying and self-righteous. Yes, we do all have a problem, and we have it while the libs are piling on people for expressing an opinion they don’t like and playing guilt-by-association with a trace of signs as well as when chaos reigns on the street from radical liberals run amuck. I mean this whole the-left-should-sermonize-for-everbody is part and parcel to the character of liberal ‘tribalism’. They ignore, ignore, trivialize, slant, warp, trivialize, put-down, ignore, then something blows up and we all need to come to Jesus.”

UPDATE: Reader Kenny Hill recommends Bill Whittle’s essay on Tribes.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More from Dan Collins.