Wow, is this the Word of the Year in America! It seems as though anyone who doesn't align with my way of thinking is instantly "the other."
I blame this on our country's obsession with sports. Combined with the idea of American exceptionalism, we have become do-or-die defenders of our team. As they were growing up, my sons became so fixated on our local university football team that they actually had to take to their beds at every loss. My younger son was so deliriously happy at the team's first national championship win that he had to remind himself upon awakening the day after the game that it wasn't all just a fabulous dream.
It's just a short hop from that mindset to the tribalism that we suffer from today. No matter the issue, my group is right and your group is wrong; and not only am I right, but I am superior and you, by definition, are inferior. Carrying that reasoning out to its logical conclusion, your group is actually dangerous. And if my group isn't "winning," our country is in imminent danger of collapse.
This is oversimplified, of course, but it's close enough to the truth to be pretty depressing. Given the fact that we are a nation of 330 million individuals, each with his/her own opinion (and don't think the children are immune), we are probably in need of an intervention.
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