Thread by @Yascha_Mounk

I’ve just had a mini-epiphany about a question I’ve been thinking about for many years.

Why are some people so much more willing—in some cases, desperate—to criticize their nation for its historical sins than others?

[Thread.]

You see this split in Germany. Why are some people not only willing to talk about the immensity of the Holocaust, but actually make the fact that they do this a big part of their identity?

And of course the same split exists in the U.S. about slavery, Jim Crow, and so on.

2/n

One possible answer is that some people are much more individualistic or cosmopolitan than others.

On this view, the people who like to face up to past injustices don’t self-define with reference to a collectivity. Those who don't, strongly define as German or American.

3/n

Another possible answer, suggested by @JonHaidt’s work, is that the groups differ in their moral categories:

People who don’t like to be reminded of past injustices are more likely to be invested in “sanctity”: They see critics as befouling the sanctity of their nation.

4/n

There’s probably something to both of these explanations.

But I just thought of a third, and my hunch is that it may be at least as powerful.

5/n

People who are most likely to focus on their nation's past sins aren’t necessarily more individualist or cosmopolitan. Nor are they less invested in sanctity.

Rather, their collective instincts are directed towards a different object: not the nation—but rather the left.

6/n

In fact, there is a striking similarity between how many nationalists and many leftists respond when somebody criticizes their holy objects:

1) You must be lying, for X can do no wrong.

2) If you are right that Y did wrong, then Y can't be a true instance of X.

Nationalists treat anyone who points out that their nation has wronged, grievously, in the past as foul enemies—especially if the claim is that these crimes aren't obne-time aberrations, but rather help to define what the nation truly represents.

8/n

But some leftists react very similarly:

Did Chavez (etc) do wrong? Not despite being a left-winger, but rather because his specific brand of left-wing ideology led him to wrong-doing?

If you suggest this, you are an apostate, a charlatan, a saboteur.

You must be punished.

9/n

I tried to think through some of these issues in my first book, about growing up Jewish in Germany.

It’s… a first book. And I’ve changed my mind on lots of things since.

But in case you’re interested:

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amazon.com/Stranger-My-Ow…