I was thinking about this a while back, my mind wanders when I am cleaning the house, and while is probably tl;dr...
I think that the social isolation part makes this easier ….
An Increase in the Perception of Scarcity Leads to a Need to Increase the Perception of Others as Different.
It’s does not require a basis in rational thought. You just need someone to ‘Feels’ that they are getting less. Of course it is exacerbated by actually getting less eg. rising wealth gap, shortages of goods, etc.
Hominidae, Humans and the Great Apes are Social Animals. So part of the survival strategy that we are basically ‘wired with’ is sharing resources among the group members. Corollary to that is the ‘ability to share’ confers increased status on a group members. Status within the social group is important, because it spins back on itself as part of the individual level of survival strategy. It makes it easier to acquire more stuff in the intra-group redistribution.
Now sharing might not actually be the best word to use, it implies that it is a rather egalitarian situation. Instead look at is as ‘ability to trade’. So now things like ability to trade for stuff (buy) that is actually needed to live, or just things that are perceived to confer Social Status, both are important to survival strategy.
But! The crap people do! It makes no sense!!!
It doesn’t have to make any damn sense at all. For most if it, it is rooted in ‘feels’, specifically ‘fear feels’. They have food, shelter, heat, and no one is actively trying to kill them, but … some switch has been triggered in their mind, that they are getting less. The trigger point is different is all.
Is just that once the ‘Feels of Security and Status’ are threatened, is time to Redefine Criteria for Resource Allocation.
So… To Redefine the Criteria for Resource Allocation, move more people into the ‘They are Different and Strange and Not Like Us (Me) Category’.
Is pretty easy to do to. Example: <insert here: invisible magical sky or ground person> says that <insert here: assorted ethnic / sexual orientation / gender identity / sports team fan base group > are EVIL and should < Insert here: Bad things >.
Now per the article in The Atlantic, their summary is that the Pandemic has lead to Social Isolation that has made people turn on each other.
Yup! Because… If you are not around others, it is just easier to put them in the Category of DaSaNLU(M). Hmmm? Yup! That acronym is just Stupid, lets go with just saying the Different Group. Can even call it the Out-Group. Of course it helps that individuals are under more stress, too. Makes it easier to slide in to modes that are based on ‘Fear Feels’ and put even more in the Out-Group.
I just think that the causative agent is generalized fear of Scarcity and Loss. Loss of things needed or perceived to be needed to survive, make it much much easier to define a someone as an other.
And manipulating that Fear, makes it so much easier to grab and maintain power. After all... They are just gonna fix it. Right? Um... Right? They are gonna fix it all and make it better? Right?
www.theatlantic.com
) but now, everyone is on edge and tired of it all, especially when we found out about those who couldn’t care less about others (convoy, anti maskers/science).
