[FRIAM] party/identity tectonics

[glen]

For whatever reason, The Algorythm told me I'd like this video during my morning workout:

Politics are Polarized, But Not for the Reason You Think | Robert Reich
https://youtu.be/x_Q9ynm2Rfg

But it's a terrible gloss that's no better than fiction, and maybe worse. Yglesias (and Singh) did a much better job:

Republicans have changed a lot since 2008
https://www.slowboring.com/p/republicans-have-changed-a-lot-since?s=r

Democrats have changed a lot since 2012
https://www.slowboring.com/p/shifting-left?s=r

Along the same lines as Dave and EricS' lament re: partisanry, I found this article entertaining:

Wait, Wasn't Peter Thiel a Libertarian?
https://reason.com/2020/08/02/wait-wasnt-peter-thiel-a-libertarian/

I've been transparent about my shift from libertarianism to something like a methodological "social democrat" (albeit a noncommittal ideological anarchist). I've never joined a party and I never will. ("Any club that would have me as a member ...") The idea that people can't/don't wander in their views over time/experience is poison. It's even more poisonous than the division fallacy Dave and EricS identify (where individuals are painted with the brush of some tribe of which they're *temporarily* members). Strawson's "Against Narrativity" may help, there, too. But more recently, we have this contribution:

Identity
https://julianstodd.wordpress.com/2022/06/30/identity/

Stodd seems to line up with Frank on extolling the value of narrativity and an "integrated personality". Of course, I'm skeptical. I see no significant reason to assume strict end- or ex- ogenous constraints on an animal's ontogeny. Thiel's ascent into fascism is just as expected as any other of the many paths he could have taken. And some of us are capable of keeping our work lives disintegrated from our hobbies. Foundationalism can be found everywhere; and it's always suspect. Many of us seem trapped by, convicts of, our self-narrative.

-- 
ꙮ Mɥǝu ǝlǝdɥɐuʇs ɟᴉƃɥʇ' ʇɥǝ ƃɹɐss snɟɟǝɹs˙ ꙮ