Studies Reveal How Mentally Sick Identity Politics Have Become

There have been countless studies conducted in the past decade that show that Americans are becoming more tribal than ever with their political affiliations. We’re no longer willing to even be friends with people outside our political bubbles studies show. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

There have been countless studies conducted in the past decade that show that Americans are becoming more tribal than ever with their political affiliations. We're no longer willing to even be friends with people outside our political bubble. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins joins me to talk about this problem that is a huge problem. Farron, first of all, it's group identity is the whole catch phrase right here. This need for kind of a collective belonging. I have to be on this baseball team. I need to be on this football team. I need to wear the colors all the time. If my team loses, things are really bad. They internalize all that and make it a personal kind of way that they live their lives. And it's the weirdest thing that I've seen. You're seeing the change, aren't you?

Yeah, absolutely.

I'm certainly seeing the change. I can't even put my, I mean, it makes my head spin. What's your take on this?

It's interesting because we've talked about this a lot and we set out, let's find what's really going on. And there have been multiple studies over the last few years that have all proven the same thing. There's been self polling. People personally reporting like, yeah, I will not go and have lunch with a Republican. I won't date a Democrat. I won't be in their social circles because it's me and my team. And one, you have this Johns Hopkins political scientist, Lilliana Mason.

I was so fascinated by that study.

It's such a great quote. They say, instead of going into the voting booth and asking, what do I want my elected representatives to do for me, they're thinking, if my party loses, it's not just that my policy preferences aren't going to get done, it's who I think I am, my place in the world, my religion, my race, the many parts of my identity are all wrapped up in that one vote.

How sick is that? I mean, how sick is that really? Doesn't it remind you of these numb nuts that show up at a football game and get into fights over what's happening on the field? That's how crazy this has become. It's become, like, rather than raising the intellectual discussion at all, they move into this area to where they are losers if their party loses. They're somehow suffering if something doesn't go right for their party. They pick up their iPad and read the news that day and they're happy or sad according to which team is ahead, which team is losing. It's actually causing mental dysfunction. It's causing mental problems. And some of them, the great thing is our staff is able to, when you look at some comments sometimes, we of course we just get rid of 'em. If somebody's so crazy that they come out and attack you or attack me because of what we say, they're gone. I mean, it's a zero tolerance. And we do that. I don't mind a discussion about what's going on. Let's talk about this topic. But the anger and the dedication to that baseball team is so crazy that they can't even carry on a conversation without personal attacks, rather than just say, let me think about what they're saying. I might disagree with it. I don't agree with what they're saying, but let me at least think about it. You've got an American public, and interestingly enough, the age group that this hits is fairly young. They're the ones most affected by this. Baby boomers seem to do better with it, the younger, and they're not great. They become so, the opposition is just so crazy. But where do you think this goes, man?

I don't see it getting better. To be perfectly honest with you, I do not see any of this getting better anytime soon. I think we unfortunately continue down this path and it is disappointing. Because it's funny, I'll get emails from people.