I’ve actually been trying to figure out now for a while what causes people to pick a specific “side” to begin with and I’ve pretty much got nothing, other than some inherent personality differences
I really don’t think it’s a complex issue. We all begin with our core values, and everything follows from that. It kind of reminds me of an excel spreadsheet; change one number and the entire page recalculates, often to a point where you don’t even recognize any of it.
What fascinates me is when someone refuses to acknowledge why they believe what they do to the point where they won’t even admit it to themselves. Either that or when someone takes a position that they themselves won’t even defend so they twist themselves in pretzels to defend the indefensible.
If you ask me about the summer protests I have no problem saying the looters and rioters should all be in jail, and that these protests went way too far. Why? Because I actually care about reality, and that’s reality.
But ask a few of our Trump defending friends here about January 6th and “but the summer riots!” are all you will get from them. When one finally admits it they say it wasnt too bad. “what hostile force?”
I just can’t figure out whether they’re lying to me or to themselves. But when it comes to picking sides, I guess that’s more about pride than anything else. The problem occurs when we allow our political affiliation to become intertwined with our sense of self identity. Because then anything that confronts our position feels like an attack in oneself personally. At that point principals and logic go out the window.
For me, my sense of self identity comes from being grounded in logic and reason and holding to my principals. That doesn’t mean I’ll always get it right, but it means if I care about anything I espouse I must be willing to admit when I’m wrong and change my mind.