Tribalism used to not be so bad because it was mostly done in the sports world. People being fans of a team no matter what the situation. That is what it was. Just the ‘I am rooting for this team and you root for the other team so today as our teams play we are enemies, in fact, the worst of enemies.’ But after a few hours, the game is over and after a few minutes, you’re friends again. It is fun in a way and it is fun having that beer afterwards as you talk about the events. It went wrong though. We let it seep into other things in our lives like politics and even now our entertainment.
It was okay when it was for a few hours at a time while watching your favorite sports team and then you relaxed and let it go because you knew it really did not mean anything. Your family and your friends was what really mattered because it is only sports, by the way, and you’re only a fan. But it started to creep into our entertainment like a slow poison, destroying our time to relax and recoup from our lives. It started taking away the things for us to escape to. I am getting older and I remember when if you liked a film or show, you just talked about it, and you did the same if you did not like it. But you did not attack people or get hateful for the opinion on it one way or the other. If you disagreed on a movie or show, you would attack the product and not the person. You would call the show dumb, but you would not say that to the person with whom you disagreed.
Now it is attacks on the person along with the attacks on the entertainment. And because we make everything political you can not escape it. Everyone gets into the tribe they claim and the worst part is to them, the tribe they chose is never wrong even when it is obvious that it is. Ideals are made by us, humans, and humans are not perfect. We are all so very flawed in many different ways. No one wants to see that. We all want to hide it and step inside our bubble no matter the cost. Everywhere you turn, you hear people yelling “You’re wrong, I’m right.” Guess what? Sometimes you are wrong and sometimes they are right.
I know me saying this will not do a lot. It won’t even make a dent, but for the first post I make for this newsletter, I wanted you guys to know that I know sometimes you are right and I am wrong. I know that we want to escape because life sucks and it scares us all. I watch Star Wars, at least the good shows or movies that have been made, to become innocent again for a short period of time. I will not yell at you no matter your opinion on entertainment, I will not yell at you because you like or dislike something. Because I know you lived a life different from mine and I lived one different from you. So when I cover a topic on here going forward, I want you to know that. Tell me how you feel even if we disagree on something. We should not be afraid of our opinions, especially when it comes to entertainment. Sometimes you are right and I am wrong, and it is okay.
Hambone’s Words of Wisdom is a feature of LGRN All Access, the official LGRN newsletter. Click here to subscribe!