Tribalism comes for pandemic science
Not to sound alarmist, but recent events have felt like the early warning of a pending collapse of our country. When I saw healthcare workers and officials abandon logic, reason, and evidence to put their weight behind justifying recent mass protests, I really lost a lot of faith. These protests obviously will result in thousands more deaths (much larger in number than unjust police-involved deaths). This is no longer about losing faith in institutions alone, but really about losing faith in fellow citizens who are willfully burying their heads in the sand and willfully acting in bad faith nearly all the time. Of course, there is plenty of blame to hand out for all sides, going back well before recent events and well before COVID-19 itself.<p>My question for HN: what has happened to past societies when they reach this point, where emotions and tribalism cause all sides to hate each other, to talk past each other, to hold each other to unequal standards, to use every last loophole&#x2F;technicality to win through bad faith means, etc.? Have any such societies de-escalated from there to a point of stability again?