We talk a lot about human nature. It’s one of our favorite explanations for people’s behavior. Why do right-wingers hate immigrants? Because it’s human nature to “fear the other.” What explains cancel culture? The human instinct to “support the tribe” and punish heresy. How could anyone believe the earth is flat? “Confirmation bias” is a part of human nature.
A few years ago, amid peak progressive panic, I had social media friends of mine explain to me that the "deep red" folks were not good people because of the way they stereotype, dehumanize, and exhibit intolerance in general. Fair enough, legit criticism.. those are bad things. Except that some of those same friends went further. I asked questions about my friends' attitudes and beliefs. They did not hesitate to explain to me that that group of people were not merely misguided or incorrect on facts, but that their core motivations were abjectly malicious and selfish. They lacked humanity, lacked empathy. Some even suggested the whole self-identified group of them did not necessarily deserve basic rights like speech or voting, that pre-emptive use of force and violence against them was justified because they were, by virtue of their group membership alone, incorrigibly harmful.
My friends sensed my questions must be leading somewhere, but they never grasped the irony that was right in front of them, articulated with their own mouths.
Very Interesting. I think that when I try to understand human behavior by invoking human nature, I typically include my own behavior in the puzzle. But perhaps I do what you say too without realizing it. I’ll pay more attention to this from now on.
No doubt what you describe is quite prevalent, but I wonder whether in some cases it may be valid to attribute to human nature some common behavior that we’re not particularly prone to, simply because all aspects of human nature are not equally prevalent in all individuals, and perhaps not even in all populations. The risk of uncritically adopting that view, though, might be that we’d be tempted to say something like “those people’s nature makes them subject to such and such failings”, which could well be nothing but self-deluded presumptuousness, and we’d be back to essentially what you described…
A few years ago, amid peak progressive panic, I had social media friends of mine explain to me that the "deep red" folks were not good people because of the way they stereotype, dehumanize, and exhibit intolerance in general. Fair enough, legit criticism.. those are bad things. Except that some of those same friends went further. I asked questions about my friends' attitudes and beliefs. They did not hesitate to explain to me that that group of people were not merely misguided or incorrect on facts, but that their core motivations were abjectly malicious and selfish. They lacked humanity, lacked empathy. Some even suggested the whole self-identified group of them did not necessarily deserve basic rights like speech or voting, that pre-emptive use of force and violence against them was justified because they were, by virtue of their group membership alone, incorrigibly harmful.
My friends sensed my questions must be leading somewhere, but they never grasped the irony that was right in front of them, articulated with their own mouths.
Very Interesting. I think that when I try to understand human behavior by invoking human nature, I typically include my own behavior in the puzzle. But perhaps I do what you say too without realizing it. I’ll pay more attention to this from now on.
No doubt what you describe is quite prevalent, but I wonder whether in some cases it may be valid to attribute to human nature some common behavior that we’re not particularly prone to, simply because all aspects of human nature are not equally prevalent in all individuals, and perhaps not even in all populations. The risk of uncritically adopting that view, though, might be that we’d be tempted to say something like “those people’s nature makes them subject to such and such failings”, which could well be nothing but self-deluded presumptuousness, and we’d be back to essentially what you described…
Found this article the other day and have re-read it again and again. Especially the last 3 paragraphs. Great stuff
People have their "tribes" and some people find their tribe in race. Others in some other bullshit.