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Comment by Buttons840 | Hacker News Reader

> just say “it’s not important” and move on or actually I’m going to start just lying I mean it doesn’t really matter we gain nothing from having the exact answer

This reminds me of some relatives who like to bring up political topics, they bring it up so I participate. By the time I'm ready to Google search something factual (most recently it was how much the US spends on defense), they're shutting down. Their political interest is one of their main interests in life but doesn't extend to actual facts. You probably know the type. I find it frustrating.

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Well, for most people politics is about tribal affiliation, not about facts.

See https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9weLK2AJ9JEt2Tt8f/politics-i...

That's about knowing the conversation you're having. When I'm talking with my gooner friends there is a tenor to the conversation. In addition to the fun of the games, we're tribal bonding.

Often you'll find new fans on /r/soccer who don't know what conversation they're having.

"I'm an Arsenal fan, too, but I don't think Henry was better than Ronaldo."

You moron. What are you doing. False chenzeme. We're bannering our colours here you idiot. Out with you.

Anyway, it's not about whether the police have been defunded or not or whether The Handmaid's Tale has come to America or not. It's about waving the appropriate flag and feeling the tribe strength wash over you and the energy of pure unity lift you skyward.

lol I'm English and have lived amongst football fans my whole life. Yet I have always felt that even if I spent a year studying football, learning the history, the techniques of the players, I would never be able to hold a convincing conversation with a football fan and be accepted.

It's almost as if the football is merely a vehicle for a kind of unspoken, shared mindset that is never articulated, but always keenly enforced. My whole life I've never felt like I had a way in with the football fans I know.

Thanks for helping me understand the mindset better.

> It's about waving the appropriate flag and feeling the tribe strength wash over you and the energy of pure unity lift you skyward.

Like opiates. And, also like opiates, once you get hooked, it's very difficult to get off even when you realize that it's not actually good for you.

Google is just as capable of providing misinformation as it is of providing facts. Maybe some people shut down when confronted with political opinion being stated as fact. Even something as seemingly objective as the percentage of the federal government's budget spending on the military becomes tribal when one side wants the percentage to be based on the budget that includes entitlements and other side insists that's not allowed because those are non-discretionary funds.

And if that was a point someone wanted to make, then they're free to be specific about what they think should be included - which is also widely and publicly available information because the US budget is in fact not secret in it's volume of spending by category, it's annually published information by law.

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