Why do people tend to put themselves into political boxes?

[AbyssGazer]

Party politics are about gaining votes and appealing to the masses by their lowest common denominator. Their set of viewpoints doesn't really have to be coherent to achieve this. Yet so many people seem to sheepishly follow along with all their favourite political groups talking points because they genuinely agree with a few. This is why controlled opposition is a great tactic. This is how derangement syndromes and NPC-mindsets occur.

Watching friends, even families get divided over rigged political boxes is as horrifying as it is ridiculous.

I don't wanna go into examples because I want to keep this thread as general and open as possible, but hopefully you get the idea.

How can we step above this?

 

[Joe Swanson]

Because it's a replacement for religion for the secular masses

 

[Meat Target]

Groupthink. People want to go along to get along, and tend to not voice their reservations if it deviates from the "team"

 

[PipTheAlchemist]

Because my corrupt political party full of child molesters is better than your political party full of child molesters. Fuck you. Go kill yourself, OP. You retarded faggot. Get fucked.

 

[Shidoen]

Everyone’s a square so that’s why there’s a box for everything.

 

[Freya]

classifying and labelling things saves people mental energy. we all do it.

 

[Geddy Lee's Fee and See]

Like @Joe Swanson said, it's basically a replacement for religion and a way for people to form tribes based on their personal politics. I don't think most people think through the implications of their thoughts deeply enough for it to truly be a well-thought out and intelligent worldview, but they have reasoned enough of it out to sort out their own personal values. And of course, politicians use this to their advantage to go through the cursus honorum and gain money, fame, power and "honor" by appealing to people's lower appetites and fancies.

classifying and labelling things saves people mental energy. we all do it.

You aren't wrong but it's also intelligent to realize that not everything fits perfectly into neat boxes because the real world is messy or at least very complex. I fell like no one wants to even expend the energy to admit that and do some digging into interesting shit that doesn't conform to our expectations (at least within the realm of reason depending on your state in life and the item in question)

 

[Little oak tree]

This is why controlled opposition is a great tactic. This is how derangement syndromes and NPC-mindsets occur.

Probably the biggest issue to tackle is retrieving the strong projections people have on whatever group or scapegoat they focus their hatred on, if it's too strong of a complex and their Ego's can't digest them then mass psychoses happen, and murder and death.
It's like bodies that haven't moved in a long time, it feels wrong to them to actually think.
It's easier to blame it all on something or someone else.
And acknowledging one's whole belief system is a complete lie can be difficult.

“It's Easier to Fool People Than It Is to Convince Them That They Have Been Fooled.” – Mark Twain.

 

[WitchfyndeGeneral]

Because it's a replacement for religion for the secular masses

This is 100% correct but there is more than what meets the eyes regarding this matter.

Because contemporary society itself is secular and because the Religious Right of the 1980s killed the reputation of not only Christianity, but all religions, so people have left religion in the western world en mass since the early 90s. However, the only issue with atheism is that people are born religious and that taking Christianity out of their lives means that they will worship another belief, be it a economic system, a music genre, a cinematic universe or for this thread, a political party’s platform .

Hence why wokism won many followers in 2010s. People converted to woke en mass because they spent the last 20 years (this was in 2013 btw) living without God in their picture. In addition, in 2016, many people started defining their identity with a political party similar to how religious people have religion define their identity.

If more of society started believing in God, maybe we wouldn’t have a society where people pledge alliance to one of the 2 major political parties.

 

[Piss Clam]

I grew up between DC and Baltimore.

My father was also a DC police officer, so that affects my sense of niggers

 

[Da Grim Reaper]

The problem I have with politics is that it's full of gatekeeping. For example, I have lost count of the amount times I have read: "You can't be X while also supporting Y".
I mean, who said that? Human society and our inner thoughts are complex, it's not that uncommon to have certain thoughts that might seem contradicting towards certain ideologies to some extent.
It's fucked up how so many people are so radicalized that you now see people pushing each other to support ideologies from A to Z without questioning what's between the A and Z.

Yeah, you can be a leftist and not support trans children, you can also be a right winger and support gun control and muh weed. You are not a bad person at all, it just means that you are plural, and you can think for yourself without attaching yourself to an ideology like someone would to a religion.

I just think that many of these hyperpolitical people would've been in monasteries a few centuries ago. But yeah, the crusades now happen on Twitter.

 

[skykiii]

 

[AbyssGazer]

Just saw this posted in Random pics and gifs. Relevant for the thread.

 

[Lemmingwiser]

You need groups and labels to achieve anything politically. Shifting and changing definitions is like 80% of the endeavor.

If you want to achieve things politically you have to harness people's direction and push, cajole, inspire action in a certain direction.

The most succesful at this learn to move people quite considerably in the direction they want.

If people are moved that strongly then this means they have changed who they were as a result of being politically involved with that movement.

When people change this can cause rifts. The polite way to say this is "growing apart".

Trying to solve this problem is like trying to solve the homelessness problem. You can help a person to not be homeless. You can not eradicate homelessness.

Focus on managable scale in your life.