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Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 2, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Is not vaccinated and opinions of the covid response run along the spectrum from 'hysterical, neurotic, and possibly psychotic in the clinical sense' to 'actually evil'.

I agree with most of this, but statistics get in the way of the not-vaccinated: better than 80% of American adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine. A large number of the remainder aren't doing so for red tribe political reasons, ranging from "woo woo crap" (my old yoga teacher Fawn), to simple irresponsibility and failure to schedule it. If the entire Red Tribe didn't get vaccinated, it's way smaller than I think.

Rather, a huge number of Red Tribe Americans, got the vaccine initially, and vaguely regret it.

Indeed, I think regret is a good way to identify tribal affiliation in general. What one regrets not doing, and what one is proud of and billboards having done, is a good dividing line.

Red Tribers who served in the military never shut the fuck up about it. See eg, our dear departed Hlynka, subject to the joke from multiple users: "How do you know Hlynka served in the military? Don't worry, he'll tell you." Red Tribers who didn't serve in the military vaguely regret that they didn't, consider it a hole in their life story, and as a result would find that joke vaguely offensive. Blue Tribe PMC who served in the military only mention it if sat down and quizzed about their life story, and skate over it. Blue Tribe normies who didn't serve in the military are just kinda uncomfortable when anyone talks about it, in the same way that one is uncomfortable when somebody voices political or religious opinions that you disagree with.

Red Tribers who hunt never shut the fuck up about it, they build their whole year around hunting for months. Red Tribers who don't hunt vaguely wish they did, and think killing one's own meat is a good thing even if they never get around to it. Blue Tribers who hunt just treat it as a vacation, go somewhere for a week, and eat venison. They never mention it, for fear of getting PETA'd in their friend group.

Living in the same suburban subdivision, Red Tribers will regret not living further out in the country, and claim that the suburb they live in is a "real American small town" or cosplay that their 1.5 acre plot is their "land" like they live in the country. Blue Tribe neighbors across the street will pretend they live in the city, emphasizing that it's only an hour (and a half) to [city] where there's good theater or whatever, and we go there ALL THE TIME it's practically like we live in the city, or that it's getting more diverse, or that there's a lot of great ethnic restaurants if you really look, or...

Red Tribers drive, or wish they drove, a pickup truck. If they drive a Crew Cab 1500, or worse a compact like a Maverick or a Ridgeline, they wish it was a 2500 and make it up to look like one. If they don't drive a pickup, they tart up their SUV to pretend it is a truck. See eg my buddy that bought a Ford Escape and instantly went out and bought a Harbor Freight winch for it, "in case I need to pull people out of a ditch in the winter, I just think if your truck can have a winch it should have a winch..." A Blue Triber who drives that same SUV will pretend it's just the most practical efficient car for them, but they vaguely wish it wasn't so inefficient. A Blue Triber driving a Crew Cab Pickup will constantly try to justify it with vague allusions to outdoor hobbies.

On the same vacation to a resort in Mexico, a blue triber will trip over himself to talk about how authentic it was and the culture and how much he learned and how much he interacted with the natives (waiters). A red triber will talk about how nice the place was and how he drank a lot and it was great because the waiters would bring you tons of drinks right to the pool. Nevertheless, the red triber is more likely to actually have made friends with the staff.

I was writing that description for, specifically, a younger crowd, because that seemed like what the normie blue tribe description was aiming at. And IME for male red tribers likelihood of getting the Covid vaccine is straightforwardly correlated with age(although keeping up with boosters is just not a red tribe thing- or seemingly a mainstream blue thing).

I do think you’re understating the differences in behavior a bit. Hlynka did marry the girl he knocked up; most motteizeans would have settled for uneven custody and child support payments. Suburban subdivisions generally do literally get more red the farther out you go, functionally every white person in a church on an average Sunday is red tribe, and the core red tribe has a substantial fertility advantage.

This might be the geographical variation you referred to, or it might be a difference in definition or emphasis on the tribal concept.

In my mind, the Blue Tribe/Red Tribe split is meant to encompass the vast majority of white Americans (non-Whites have different dynamics, though may be in alliance with Red/Blue whites in different cases). Of course there are geographies and professions where one side has a vast preponderance and the other is rare as hen's teeth. But a huge percentage of the white American population lives in between, neither in Manhattan nor the Yellowstone ranch, in suburbs and small cities. Their attitude toward that liminal location, whether they want it to be more like Manhattan or more like Yellowstone, tells you more about the attitudes of tribesmen than their actions, which are mostly pretty similar. The core red triber isn't a quiverfull oilfield welder who goes to church every Sunday, and the core Blue Triber doesn't have a masters in Gender Studies they use at their email job. Those are extremes, the tiny outer percentages of the population. Rather, distinguishing Red/Blue is about how two sets of suburban parents conceptualize how to teach morality to their 2.5 kids, how they go about lying to their parents about whether they're going to church every Sunday, etc.

This might be geographically personal. I live at the rural exurb edge of the I-95 megalopolis, the last highway exit on the East Coast. Drive west from my house for ten minutes and you see nothing but farms, red tribe country, until you hit Pittsburgh. Drive east or south from my house and in two to three hours you can be in the middle of any of four major cities. I live in that liminal space, where every house on the block might vote differently, and I conceptualize its importance. The keystone, the swing vote, the tipping point. Lose the suburbs, electorally and culturally, and Red Tribe is dead. Win them, and as Hunter S. Thompson said about the 60s, the great wave from the coast will break and roll back from that high water mark.

This might be the geographical variation you referred to, or it might be a difference in definition or emphasis on the tribal concept.

I think the main division in the red tribe is degree of religiosity(committed versus casual Christian) and then region(southern versus midwestern versus southwestern versus west) and geography(suburban/exurban versus actually rural). My description was pretty southern casual-religious suburban. Midwesterners are probably just a little different.

The last exit on I-95 is in Houlton Maine. It is wayyyyy more than 2 hours to Boston. But if you want to drink half frozen Molson beer while ice fishing, there is no better place to be.

Sorry, wasn't clear there, I'm the last Exit going West once you exit 95 not the last exit on I95 itself.