Fear, Tribalism, and the Right
Ever wonder why people on the right can push the biggest lies, promote ideas that are clearly untrue (or even corrosive) and still find a cheering squad waiting?
How does someone like Donald Trump manage to rally millions who treat his words and actions as if they’re fit for the highest office in the land? It feels absurd, yet here we are.
It’s the same phenomenon that lets a comedian like Sacha Baron Cohen stroll into a rally of ultra-nationalists, spout hateful nonsense in disguise, and have the crowd applauding without the slightest clue they’re being pranked.
The pattern is tribalism. Once you’re in that mode, what’s true or false, healthy or destructive, barely matters. The tribal mind is the mind of war. When survival feels threatened, the brain defaults to quick, fear-based thinking. And while most people only slip into that mode under pressure, some live there permanently.
Conservatism and tribalism often overlap because both spring from fear: fear of the outsider, fear of rejection, fear of change. When authority in the home or politics is rooted in fear, people learn to obey not because it’s right, but because it keeps them safe within the tribe. And when leaders themselves are driven by fear, or worse, cynically manipulate it, integrity and virtue get tossed aside. What matters is belonging, not truth.
I remember being a kid, losing a schoolyard fight, and hearing my mate insist I’d “won.” At the time it made no sense, but looking back I see it: he wasn’t describing reality, he was defending his team. That’s tribal thinking in its purest form; facts bent to fit loyalty.
This is why the right today is so vulnerable to corruption. If the leader is corrupt, the tribe will bend reality to suit the leader. Winning the war matters more than honesty, more than decency, more than peace.
And yes, those on the right have real grievances. Many have been left behind, ignored, or excluded by systems that doesn’t put people first. They deserve inclusion, dignity, and change. But instead of leadership that lifts them, they get leaders who exploit desperation while gorging at the trough.
That’s why the right can’t truly win. You can’t build peace from fear, or integrity from lies. A politics fueled by tribal war will always collapse under its own weight.