No Longer Right vs Left - Memetic Tribes

David Trammel's picture

Its a long read but here is a good paper on how we have further fragmented from the old school divider of "the Right (aka Red) and the Left (aka Blue)"

https://medium.com/intellectual-explorers-club/memetic-tribes-and-culture-war-2-0-14705c43f6bb

"Until the last few years, it made sense to talk in terms of a red tribe and a blue tribe when describing political affiliation. The red tribe was right-wing, populist, nationalist, religious, concerned by terrorism, and valued sexual purity. The blue tribe was left-wing, globalist, internationalist, secular, concerned by global warming, and valued sexual freedom. They had fundamental disagreements about what America (or the West) was, what it needed to become, and how to get there. They even had a culture war. However, this dichotomy no longer provides a sufficient map of the political territory we find ourselves in."

"Enter memetic tribes. We define memetic tribes as a group of agents with a memeplex that directly or indirectly seeks to impose its distinct map of reality, along with its moral imperatives, upon other minds. These tribes are the active players in the new culture war. They possess a multiplicity of competing claims, interests, goals, and organizations. While the red and blue tribes were certainly far from monolithic, in the current decade any claim to unity is laughable. An establishment leftist who squabbles with the right must contend with mockery from the Dirtbag Left. Meanwhile, the Dirtbag Left endures critiques from Social Justice Activists (SJA), who in turn are criticized by the Intellectual Dark Web (IDW). The trench warfare of the old culture war has become an all-out brawl."

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I've always thought that when someone says the are of the Right or Left, that when you dig a bit deeper their identity is much more than simple divisions.

While the paper seems to look at the ways we fight, I believe that learning to see where you are in agreement with someone is a better way to interact.

Yum! A great big pile of compost for Christmas. Anybody pretentious to throw out a word like "memeplex" should probably be boiled in his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.

David Trammel's picture

I hope you took time to read the full article and not just dismiss it out of hand Sophie.

I always take scholarly reports language with a grain of vinegar. I realize that their target audience isn't the common person, like you and I, but academic publications with the hope of grant money. Still I wouldn't dismiss the study out of hand over some high brow language. And as Greer has taught us, sometimes you need to use a specific work (with definition) to deferentiate just what you are speaking about

The author's examples of the six crises that have shaoped the current discussion, and later the history of the culture war seemed very good.

I especially liked his later discussion of the "grey pill". I mentioned to Greer that I thought the ADR was a good real world example of what the author said is the process of “relearning the value of questioning and doubt after you’ve been seduced by answers and certainties; it’s leaving comforting “secret” societies for continued intellectual growth.”

What exactly is the Intellectual Explorers Club? Who exactly are Peter Limberg and Conor Barnes? Where exactly has "Memetic Tribes and Culture Wars 2.0" been published--other than their website. If this is an academic paper, where are the citations? And what are we to make of these pen and ink cartoons?

"The "Intellectual Dark Web", coined by Eric Weinstein, consists of a group of thinkers who have experienced what they view as thought-policing by political correct elements of the left."

"Jordan Peterson is the common denominator with these two tribes. One of the most important figures in Culture War 2.0, his central message in the war is an emphasis of free speech and the importance of truth-speaking. His followers, which we dub the Sorters, mostly comprised of young men, are attracted to Peterson’s style and his message of personal responsibility".

These frat boy philosophers are the equivalents of the sad puppies who haunt the chans and harass women on the Internet. "Addicts of insight porn"? "[R]ebels full of view quakes"? Don't make me call Baubo!

"[The Intellectual Explorers Club] is a club;for lovers of Sophia, cartographers of the noosphere, anthropologists of memeplexes, addicts of insight porn, and rebels full of view quakes. WE ARE NOT ... idealists or realists, theists or atheists, modernists or postmodernists, liberals or conservatives,progressivists or reactionaries. We may be a mix of all of these things, but first and foremost we are intellectual explorers!" Please!

I utterly reject these smug, unending attempts to label people and break them into warring factions, and I will not waste time and energy on people who promote this shit.

David Trammel's picture

I ran across this thread and I believe this is the last comment Sophie made here. I had wondered why she had stopped posting.

I hope her last paragraph was not meant for me, but if so, let me be clear to everyone reading the threads, the articles and the tutorials that I write. I will post a lot of stuff that I may not personally agree with, but makes points and brings up ideas that I feel we need to think about.

I'm not sure if it was Greer who said it, or another person I have read recently, but it basically said, "Empathy is the ability to understand what someone else is feeling or thinking WITHOUT necessarily having to agree with them."

I do not view Green Wizardry as being the sole providence of any certain political side, social group or any of the other ways we self divide. Green Wizardry is solely about giving people the skills and knowledge to survive in what is going to be "A World Made Harsh". You may not agree with someone's views on a subject but if it's not about that purpose then it is irreverent to our discussions here.

If I was asked to give a presentation on Green Wizardry and found out I was to be speaking before our local chapter of a Neonazi Skinhead White Supremacist group, I wouldn't walk out in disgust with their attitudes and prejudice. I'd sit down and see where we had common interests, like gardening, sustainable living and helping your family. Its easy to hate when the Other is someone you never talked to one on one.

Listening to someone's views, even when you disagree is the first step in understanding them.

I welcome everyone here and say, feel free to participate as much, or as little as you wish.

(now, back to moving posts from the old forum...)

Well, I'm back for now. Let me tell you, I'm going to be sixty-eight in about two weeks. I could have lived the rest of my life without ever encountering the term "dirtbag liberal." But I know it now. From time to time I have to remind people on the forum that I am a Feminist, Boomer, Social Justice Warrior; and when they throw shade on "those people," they are throwing shade on me. Now I have to make that Dirtbag, Feminist, Boomer, Social Justice Warrior. And I am not grateful to the Memeplexer "Intellectuals" of the Dark Web.

I've mentioned before how JMG seems to get off on the French Revolution and the notion of people hanging from the lamp posts. "À la lanterne" as the French said. The French were very hard on their aristocrats and their intellectuals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/À_la_lanterne

We have not made a habit of lynching white people in the United States. Oh, the occaisonal Jew or Mormon... And horse rustlers, of course. But, given the unrest on college campuses these days, young folks might make exceptions for the denizens of the Dark Web. Or Elon Musk might send them off with the phone sanitizers. I would vote for SpaceX and wish them bon voyage!

Blueberry's picture

Well you are going to be 68 and I will be 71. In Aug it will be 50 years since Woodstock! We see the world from different points of view. Please hang in, don't go away if every person I talked with had the same ideas as me I would be very concern. Getting old ROTS!!

Thanks! I have great hope for the younger generations coming on. The kids know they are fighting for their futures. They are smart and more politically savvy than I was at their age. And I realize realistically that I have probably 10 good years ahead of me yet and possibly 5 or so bad ones after that if I'm unlucky, so my priorities have altered. I still have I have stuff I want to get done, and I am cutting back on distractions.

David Trammel's picture

Welcome back Sophie.

Thanks! I have been saving stuff. Will be sorting out my links.