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Read this article on how to “end” COVID in the context of what Denmark just did, and this part stood out:
For two years people have debated the value of masks, vaccine passports and more, to the point that they are no longer opinions but identities. And when opinions become identities, they warp our understanding and make it harder to change one’s mind as the situation changes. The truth is that we are all biased. For example, research shows that in the United States, Republicans tend to overrate the risks of getting vaccinated, and Democrats tend to overrate the risks from the disease.
The part I want you to focus on is “when opinions become identities.” That’s a huge chunk of the “digital age,” to be honest — and definitely a huge chunk of the past five years, and massively a huge chunk of the last 24 months. I’m actually re-reading the Junger book Tribe for a F3 Nation Book Club next week, and he talks a lot about really tough situations unifying people, as opposed to dividing them. The most tangible example is that after 9/11 we had a degree of unity and Bush’s approval rating was in the high 80s. On the 20-year anniversary of 9/11, we were in COVID and literally it felt like six different Americas and everyone screaming at each other. Now, Bin Laden was a direct enemy, with a face, and people respond to that more than a virus with changing science. Plus, Trump as a leader was a whole different mold, etc, etc. But definitely opinions became identities.
You’re seeing a world — or, at the very least, an America — where change has to be rooted in identity shifts, as opposed to habit formation. That’s a relatively big psychological shift, because for years we rooted all notions of change in repeatable habit adjustments, and now identity seems to be the card we all play first. You see that massively in terms of race — when in fact it’s easier to argue that the true division in society is class — but you see it elsewhere too. Easy to blame all this on Instagram and everyone’s desire for personal brand, and that’s part of it, but it’s not the entire thing, no. We’ve always been like this in many ways; just now our actions and their repercussions reach our tribes (and people outside our tribes) much faster than they did back when.
