Interesting, I can understand what you're saying and I certainly wouldn't dream of speaking for WP, but speaking for myself, the thoughts I've connected and taken away from that, and it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with this situation. However, what strikes me about America is our desire to attach ourselves to number one, a winner, the best. I guess when I think of your tribalism analogy, you sort of live and die with your tribe in a human sense. Most recently this has been through nationalism when identifying with tribal tendencies. And yes, this goes for community and sports identifiers with respect to divisions inside of our own borders, be they the listed cases of religious choice, sports team, what part of the country you're in, what sort of social group you're in. Those lines exist, but what strikes me more is the desire for people to align themselves with a leader in a given field. I'm speaking in generalities, but why is it people will make their voting choice based who is leading at the polls. They will then refuse to vote for a losing candidate because they don't want to "waste" their vote. I work in media, and in the past decade or 15 years, there is now a pronounced, active sport in show BUSINESS. Why in the hell would the public care about the box office of a film? Its mind boggling, truly. But its almost as if to say, they want to be proud and part of a "winner" in going to the number one movie and no one wants to be alone seeing a bomb. Ditto television ratings. And this goes on and on in nearly all elements of society from bandwagons sports fans to where to buy your clothes so that you can be an "individual". The only place this seems to be an exception would seem to be in relgion, but I submit to the under 35 set, amongst blue staters at least, there is almost a stigma in faith, where people feel the need to align and be vocal in atheism, talking about it like an outsider choice when its really not a difficult choice based on peer group. Maybe it is via isolation and evolving socialization that are redefining our tribalism from a physical one to a digital one, and it being an avatar, me, Smack Tripper can be, say or project any way I want on here. I may be earnest as hell, I may be fishing, but the point is, there is little to keep me in one tribe versus joining another, outside of a middling socialization pressure. I'm a face in the crowd here, and a face in the crowd in real life, and unlike perhaps certain posters here who have defined and established a persona. A projection of what they have stood for, and I hate to define and delineate in this manner, but since so many people are relatively comfortable self identifying as liberal or conservative, and I suppose they are limited to their tribe, such that they risk being called a hypocrite. But if someone wants to be a whole other person, join a whole other tribe, they can do as simply as clicking "create new profile". It used to be harder work changing your tribe, and it was a choice with greater stakes. Now there is less connection, less stakes, and less value to interactions. How this relates to what we're talking about, I'm not sure, but it doesn't seem wholly disconnected either.