it’s actually a worthwhile episode to unpack, because it highlights a disturbing, worsening tendency in social media in which tribal allegiances are replacing shared empirical understandings of the world. Or maybe “subtribal” is the more precise, fitting term to use here. It’s one thing to say that left and right disagree on simple facts about the world — this sort of informational Balkanization has been going on for a while and long predates Twitter. What social media is doing is slicing the salami thinner and thinner, as it were, making it harder even for people who are otherwise in general ideological agreement to agree on basic facts about news events.If you're the least bit familiar with Steven Pinker, you know that he's nothing close to being a right-winger. I mean, if Steven Pinker is "alt-right" then so is 80% of the population.
But Steven Pinker has also been known to stray from the left-wing script. But I guess if you're not a perfect liberal, you are no liberal at all.
Yeah, sure, why would you want this guy on your side?
