Blue Tribe

English

Etymology

Coined by American psychiatrist and blogger Scott Alexander Siskind in a 2014 blog post (see quotation), from the blue colour of the Democratic Party.

Proper noun

the Blue Tribe

1. A loosely-defined culture in the United States associated with liberal politics, hipster culture and the Democratic Party.

   Coordinate terms: Red Tribe, Grey Tribe

   • 2014 September 30, Scott Alexander, “I Can Tolerate Anything Except The Outgroup”, in Slate Star Codex‎^[1], archived from the original on 2023-07-24:

     The Blue Tribe is most classically typified by liberal political beliefs, vague agnosticism, supporting gay rights, thinking guns are barbaric, eating arugula, drinking fancy bottled water, driving Priuses, reading lots of books, being highly educated, mocking American football, feeling vaguely like they should like soccer but never really being able to get into it, getting conspicuously upset about sexists and bigots, marrying later, constantly pointing out how much more civilized European countries are than America, and listening to "everything except country".

   • 2016 January 5, Conor Friedersdorf, “Oregon and the Injustice of Mandatory Minimums”, in The Atlantic‎^[2], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 4 April 2017:

     When HBO's John Oliver broadcasts a polemical monologue, its subject is invariably something that America's Blue Tribe—Americans whose place on the cultural and ideological left forms a core part of their identity—regards as idiotic, evil, or both. Last Week Tonight helps its audience indulge in collective outrage.

   • 2020 July 9, Gideon Lewis-Kraus, “Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley's War Against the Media”, in The New Yorker‎^[3], New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-28:

     The issue of the Gray Lady against the Grey Tribe, like so many conflicts that have recently played out on social media, is perhaps best viewed as an internecine struggle over the strategies of the Blue Tribe in an era of political crisis and despair. Everyone has skin in the game, and the stakes are high.

   • 2021 February 13, Cade Metz, “Silicon Valley’s Safe Space”, in The New York Times‎^[4], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-07-28:

     Mr. Siskind was not a member of the Blue Tribe. He was not a voice from the conservative Red Tribe ("opposing gay marriage," "getting conspicuously upset about terrorists and commies"). He identified with something called the Grey Tribe — as did many in Silicon Valley.

   • 2021 September, Marcus T. Anthony, “WWW: Web Wide Warfare Part 2 - Towards a Deeper Healing of the Online Culture Wars”, in Journal of Futures Studies, volume 26, number 1, New Taipei City: Tamkang University Press, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 34:

     The blue/red dichotomy is admittedly an oversimplification of the reality that the culture wars now feature multiple memetic tribes, as Limberg and Barnes (2018) outline. Roughly aligned with the Blue tribe are groups like the establishment left, social justice activists, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, Neo-Marxists and far-left radicals like Antifa; while aligned with the Red tribe are the establishment right, Benedictines, Christian right, Trumpists, Infowarriors and the Alt-right.