Politics is like chess. Being in the center of the board, with mainstream positions, is a strong strategic position.

People, politicians, factions, and movements whose pieces are out on the corner of the board have three options:

1/4

1) Stand firm on your positions, and try to change enough minds that the chess board moves towards you, until your pieces are in the center

2) Compromise on your positions and move your pieces closer to the center of the board

2/4

3) Start moving your pawns like knights and your bishops like queens and see if you can get away with it

When a person or group is doing #3, the particulars of their stances are irrelevant. Everyone abiding by basic liberal rules should unite against the cheater.

3/4

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Tim Urban

@waitbutwhy

29 Apr

Which arm of the yearning octopus do you most yearn for these days?

(If you’d rather answer anonymously, there’s a poll in the replies.)

Which arm of the yearning octopus do you most yearn for these days? (Only four options max so combined lifestyle and practical.)

Full discussion: waitbutwhy.com/2018/04/pickin…

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Tim Urban

@waitbutwhy

20 Feb

The human psyche has weather. When we feel bad about the present and future, it’s cloudy in our psyche. When our psyche is cloudy, it colors everything. Things feel gloomier, angrier, scarier, and more depressing. This of course has all kinds of negative effects on behavior.

/1

Likewise, gratitude and optimism open up a bright blue sky in the psyche. This feels blissful and energizing and fosters kindness.

These behaviors generate more of the weather that produced them. So psyche weather is contagious, and it can spread like an epidemic.

/2

People know something is wrong in society right now but it can be hard to articulate.

I think what sucks right now is that a massive epidemic, maybe pandemic, of dark cloudy psyche skies has spread.

(Covid doesn’t help, but this has been going on a lot longer than Covid.)

/3

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Tim Urban

@waitbutwhy

11 Feb

We think of the 1950s as a time of relative political unity. But that’s not quite right. The 50s were a time of what I think of as “scattered tribalism.” There were Us vs Them battles taking place on multiple “tiers” simultaneously.

/1

@JonHaidt

.@JonHaidt often quotes the proverb “Me against my brothers; my brothers and me against my cousins; my cousins, my brothers, and me against strangers.”

In the 50s all 3 tribalism tiers were hot:

Intra-party warfare (brothers)
Reps v Dems (cousins)
US v Sov Union (strangers)

/2

Over the decades since, the threat of an external enemy has waned, and ideological purification of the parties has diminished infra-party warfare. American tribal instincts are no longer scattered—they’re heavily concentrated on the “cousins” battle: US right vs US left.

/3

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