Reply #18: Yes. [View All]

[Igel]

It's what happens when groups privilege members of their groups over others, and assume that some political or economic power is theirs by right, by membership in a group.

Liberals are dissed as irrational, impractical, over-sentimental appeasers. Conservatives are dissed as neandertal knuckle-draggers. Lines are clearly drawn.

The poor are dissed as losers, lazy, stupid. The rich are dissed as greedy, corrupt, immoral. Boundaries are unmistakably marked.

Same goes for race- and ethnic-thinking.

Thinking outside the lines strictly disapproved of, the crossing of boundaries is punished in the usual tribal manner: dishonor and expulsion.

It's an improvement that the groups in the West are usually those that one can join and leave with little hardship as a consequence, and are often self-assigned; 'expulsion' is just that, expulsion, with little additional penalty. Groups don't feel that it's appropriate to kill members of the other group, by and large. It's much worse when you have group membership by birth, or joining a group is irreversible, or when the code of honor licenses violence.