Tribalism vs. Truth

Right-wing media and their allies in the Republican party have consciously and deliberately created the current extreme polarization in our society by completely rejecting the core institutions and norms of American democracy. They have managed to convince millions that our traditional institutions tell only lies and that reality resides only in the rhetorical universe they have created.

The people they have deceived have a tribal mentality. They only accept as truth information that comes from within their tribe. They distrust, even despise, all of the traditional mainstream sources of information. They live in an alternate reality that was created to trap them, but they inhabit it insistently, even ferociously. Any attempt to give them outside information is resisted.

Tribalism replaces truth with loyalty

Tribal Epistemology: Information is evaluated based not on conformity to common standards of evidence or correspondence to a common understanding of the world, but on whether it supports the tribe’s values and goals and is vouchsafed by tribal leaders. “Good for our side” and “true” begin to blur into one.

David Roberts

This situation has a number of problems, but the greatest problem is its distortion and redefinition of truth. Truth is a function of reality. Anything that is less than the truth, is false, misleading, deceptive, and wrong. Truth is NOT limited to one’s political tribe.

If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

Articles of Faith:13

The consequences of having a large portion of our society behaving irrationally and denying reality are severe. Making choices based upon false information always results in failure or dysfunction. Any type of invention, any solution to a problem, any progress toward a better future, must be based upon actual, objective facts or it will simply not work.

Living the truth takes effort

And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come;
And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning.

Doctrine and Covenants 93:24-25

Anything less than the full truth falls into Satan’s realm as the Father of Lies. Each of us has a personal responsibility to actively seek out, study, compare, test, pray about, and confirm the truth of what we choose to believe. And we must always be ready to allow new information or insight to change our minds toward a better understanding.

When we take the lazy way out of allowing others to define what is true for us, we are voluntarily exposing ourselves to lies and deception. This is true no matter what person or organization or tribe we defer to. Even within the Church there are evil and designing men who are only too happy to supply us with comfortable lies in exchange for our vote.

The USA used to champion all people

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Declaration of Independence

The United States of America once stood for the “self-evident” truth that everyone was created equal by God. Our Declaration of Independence and Constitution used to serve as beacons of hope to the world. Now racism and immigrant bashing can be heard in the highest levels of our government.

The loss of one of our major political parties to myopic, propaganda-based, hyper-partisan, tribalism is a major blow to the Constitutional processes and institutions set up by our Founders. It could well signal the end of our democratic republic.

Sources: David Roberts, “Donald Trump and the rise of tribal epistemology,”Vox, May 19, 2017.
Amanda Taub, “The Rise of American Authoritarianism,” Vox, March 1, 2016.
“The Declaration of Independence,” July 4, 1776.