…the Us-vs.-Them dynamic created by Christian identity politics…..becomes exacerbated by an ever-increasing level of dysfunctional competitiveness….that is driven by American individualism……which is fueled by “American Exceptionalism”. 28/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1145670536376139777

I’ve recently touched on “dysfunctional competitiveness” (a trait presented in Narcissism) in a thread about America’s “Gated Community Mentality”, which not only influences and fuels our domestic political culture, but also our foreign policy. 29/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1157435510622572544

Compounding the “binary conditioning” problem is the prevalence of inherent personality traits/types that have a binary orientation. To oversimplify, people often have either a predisposition to see the world in binary, concrete, black/white, absolute terms…30/

…or they see the world with nuance, abstraction, & an understanding (and more importantly, the acceptance) of life’s non-absolute shades of gray. Research shows about 75% of the U.S. population is predisposed to absolute, concrete, binary, black/white thinking & world views. 31/

People who possess a “binary orientation” often struggle or are uncomfortable w/abstraction, & will steam roll over nuance…if they recognize it at all. This is an important point in a global political climate that is trending towards fascism/tyranny. 32/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1153620050382741506

Binary predispositions also draw or anchor people to tradition/convention/orthodox, which not only creates a gravitational pull towards certain careers (military/law enforcement/etc), but they can also be determinative of an attraction towards a certain political ideology. 33/

As a result, we have somewhat of a perfect storm where an overwhelming majority of society has a specific orientation that is fed by “institutional binary conditioning”, and religious and political demagoguery…all of which feed the us-vs-them culture. 34/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1137342794609987586