Blame evolution. It's human nature to label. From a few quick surface details of an animal in front of us we make a snap judgment: friend or for? Naturally we extended this tendency into the world of ideas. Given a few concepts we want to make a snap judgment about you. Marxist? Antifa? Proud Boy? Ska or skinhead? Nothing personal. It's just most people are in a hurry and they don't want to take an hour to analyze and categorize your highly nuanced position on issues. That's what tee shirts and bumper stickers are for! You telegraph short messages to let people know your tribe. Your box. Eventually when you get to be my age you just become amused at the whole useless exercise, stop trying to make people understand your politics, and instead go on to more important topics like fly fishing, good books, and stargazing.
Blame evolution. It's human nature to label. From a few quick surface details of an animal in front of us we make a snap judgment: friend or for? Naturally we extended this tendency into the world of ideas. Given a few concepts we want to make a snap judgment about you. Marxist? Antifa? Proud Boy? Ska or skinhead? Nothing personal. It's just most people are in a hurry and they don't want to take an hour to analyze and categorize your highly nuanced position on issues. That's what tee shirts and bumper stickers are for! You telegraph short messages to let people know your tribe. Your box. Eventually when you get to be my age you just become amused at the whole useless exercise, stop trying to make people understand your politics, and instead go on to more important topics like fly fishing, good books, and stargazing.