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40 sats \ 8 replies \ @kr OP 20 Mar \ parent \ on: Is This Time Different? AskSN
I think the “political identity” phase is still unfolding.
I don’t have any ideas for what comes next, but the common theme is that each phase represents an institution larger than oneself that a community can rally behind.
Essentially, something to believe in.
With the rising political polarization, you could argue that people have stronger ties to their political party than their country or religion, and I think it’s plausible that these “tribes” who identify with the political left or the right eventually migrate to occupy their own corners of the world.
But looking backwards, re-organizing the world around religious or national identities was a long, painful process.
After giving it almost no thought, I'm going to guess that the next phase is identifying with a particular influencer: basically, echo chamber identity.
After years of that, do we get months of something else?
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I had the same question as @k00b. What is the next shift? If I had to guess it isn't influencer but the self-identity. And as with the other shifts I suspect we will be well into it before we notice it.
With that in mind I think we are actually shifting away from politics and have been for a while. There are no new ideas and ideas don't win elections. Feelings do. On both sides really. Our culture is absolutely obsessed with the self and finding "your true self". There are the obvious points on this like gender and sexuality but it is more than that. Everyone needs to have their thoughts heard (pot calling the kettle back here). And I think memetics play a role. Finding some influencer that you identify with is a part of this.
Maybe I'm off but this could be the next phase.
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This is actually in line with why I thought of influencers. Most people aren’t confident enough to draw attention to how different they are.
Latching onto an influencer gives them an in between point, where they can be super special snowflakes together.
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Underneath it all maybe the shift is from "political identity" to "self identity" (proxied though a million influencer-religions).
It reminds me of this naval tweet:
Boomers: There are only 21 million coins.Gen X: But there are many coins.Millennials: Everything is a coin. My monkey jpeg is a coin.Gen Z: …?
To which I responded:
I am a coin
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One imagines they would...if my completely unbaked idea has any merit.
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