{"id":4294,"date":"2025-05-02T08:26:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T12:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=4294"},"modified":"2025-05-02T08:28:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T12:28:49","slug":"the-white-stripes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=4294","title":{"rendered":"The White Stripes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Poltical<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You may not be familiar with The White Stripes<\/a>. But if you’ve been to a large sporting event in the last decade, you know some of their work. The guitar riff from their hit, “Seven Nation Army” has become a go-to for firing up the home fans. It’s super catchy and connects instantly with our monkey brains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is kind of how sports and rooting for a team works. We have an inherent proclivity toward tribalism. That is, people generally want to associate with a group, and a football\/basketball\/whatever-ball team can fill that need nicely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, tribalism can easily grow into something toxic and disastrous: nationalism. By way of example, I offer to you the whole of human history. (It’s more than alarming that President Trump seems intent on heading down the well-worn path.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was talking with my son about this the other day, and he suggested that \u2014 while sports can also be toxic (by way of example, I offer to you the whole of sports radio) \u2014 associating with a team generally fills the need to be part of tribe in a positive way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Game 6 of the Detroit Pistons series with the New York Knicks takes place after my deadline for this, so by the time you read it, future me will either be a bit happier or a bit sadder than current me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, let’s go Deee-troit basketball:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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