People are marginalized in our society because of race, class, gender, disability, geography, and inherited disadvantage, not because they’re on the “wrong side” of a political binary. Those structures are real, and they produce real harm.

But our collective narratives about that harm are shaped by social incentives that have almost nothing to do with truth-testing.

Modern tribal identities, whether progressive, conservative, nationalist, feminist, socialist, libertarian , define themselves by who they protect and who they blame. And every coalition contains both:

  • accurate descriptions of injustice, and
  • distorted narratives that comfort members

The failures aren’t distributed Left vs. Right.

They’re distributed wherever emotion replaces evidence.

Social media intensifies this by rewarding the most dramatic, simplified, and identity-binding messages. Complexity is punished. Nuance is invisible. Updating your view costs belonging.

Politicians and influencers don’t create this dynamic – they exploit it. They convert collective emotion into votes, attention, and money. Structural injustice continues, partly because outrage is profitable and solving problems is not.

So the problem isn’t that one “side” is wrong and the other is right.

The problem is every group thinks they’re the exception.

Every movement believes:

  • We are the reality-based ones
  • They are captured by narrative
  • Our certainty is evidence
  • Our intentions prove correctness

But epistemology doesn’t work that way.

Reality isn’t a loyalty test.

Every coalition (especially the ones most confident in their righteousness) drifts toward conformity, suppresses internal dissidents, and accumulates epistemic debt that eventually comes due.

The mechanism is universal:

  • Internal coordination > external accuracy
  • Belonging > error-correction
  • Certainty > evidence
  • Narrative > complexity

No one gets to opt out.

The only stable protection any society has ever invented is to defend reality-testing even when it threatens the group’s self-image.

That is the message worth fighting for.