A useful concept for the US right now: identity rules vs. general rules. Identity rules place individuals in different categories and treat them differently on the basis of that category (wealth, ethnicity/race, religion), while general rules subject everyone to the same set of laws and regulations. - ThreadSky

patrickwyman.bsky.social • 75 days ago

A useful concept for the US right now: identity rules vs. general rules. Identity rules place individuals in different categories and treat them differently on the basis of that category (wealth, ethnicity/race, religion), while general rules subject everyone to the same set of laws and regulations.

Comments

mattbellviolinist.bsky.social•75 days ago

Can we admit that we’ve been functioning under identity rules since 1776?

mattbellviolinist.bsky.social•75 days ago

We’ve been pretending that we’re using general rules, but we haven’t.

patrickwyman.bsky.social•75 days ago

In a system of identity rules, for example, someone who murders a member of the most favored group would be subject to exemplary punishment, while someone who murders a member of a lesser group would be celebrated for maintaining the social order.

antigogglin.bsky.social•75 days ago

Just as a random hypothetical example!!!

patrickwyman.bsky.social•75 days ago

In practice, the US has usually operated according to identity rules; in theory, the Reconstruction amendments and civil rights laws make the US a shining exemplar of general rules. The tension between them is going to get stronger, I think.

davidlanteigne.bsky.social•75 days ago

Kurt Vonnegut's analysis of Christianity: We take the lesson that the crucifixion is bad because Jesus was God's son, not because it's wrong to crucify people in general.

alexanderbasek.bsky.social•75 days ago

Tough to enforce the general rules when the judiciary gets hijacked by the identity-rules-wanters (who have the wealth and power to get around general rules most of the time but are sour about the hassle nonetheless)

wisco-disco.bsky.social•75 days ago

The US is a boat with wings that we're trying to fly like a jet with people arguing over what kind of gps to put in it when the real problem is that all of the problems are coming from the fact that no matter what you put on it it's still a boat

wisco-disco.bsky.social•75 days ago

The landlord country for landlords is never going to grant favor to people who aren't landlords

alxlndomountain.bsky.social•75 days ago

works perfectly with the now classic "Wilhoit's Law" that “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”

patrickwyman.bsky.social•75 days ago

Yep, it's a nice encapsulation of the general idea, but the weakness to the Wilhoit proposition is that there are multiple strains of conservatism, some of which are more invested in identity rules than the others

alxlndomountain.bsky.social•75 days ago

say more. what i get with conservatism is the hierarchical precept that justifies whatever those higher on the scale do is acceptable.

rootrot1519.bsky.social•75 days ago

it is a useful concept but feels like a clunkier version of "protect not bind ingroups bind not protect outgroups"

patrickwyman.bsky.social•75 days ago

The latter is a pithy encapsulation of the concept, which has decades of supporting research in a variety of social science fields

rootrot1519.bsky.social•75 days ago

i get that, im just saying that the pithy version is easier to communicate and extend to other contexts - murder people will accept the premise but once you give other examples they tend to shut down

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