Mark Shuttleworth on Tribalism
I wrote this post in 2010, more than 13 years ago.
It may be very out of date, partially or totally incorrect. I may even no longer agree
with this, or might approach things differently if I wrote this post today. I rarely edit
posts after writing them, but if I have there'll be a note at the bottom about what
I changed and why. If something in this post is actively harmful or dangerous please get in
touch and I'll fix it.
Tribalism is when one group of people start to think people from another group are “wrong by default”. It’s the great-granddaddy of racism and sexism. And the most dangerous kind of tribalism is completely invisible: it has nothing to do with someone’s “birth tribe” and everything to do with their affiliations: where they work, which sports team they support, which linux distribution they love.
[…]
Let’s be clear: tribalism makes you stupid.
[…]
The very uncool thing about being a fanboy (or fangirl) of a project is that you’re openly declaring both a tribal affiliation and a willingness to reject the work of others just because they belong to a different tribe.