Grey Tribe

English

Etymology

Coined by American psychiatrist and blogger Scott Alexander Siskind in a 2014 blog post (see quotation).

Proper noun

the Grey Tribe

1. A loosely-defined culture in the United States associated with nerd culture, Silicon Valley, and political beliefs that fall outside of mainstream left-wing or right-wing ideology.

   Coordinate terms: Red Tribe, Blue 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:

     (There is a partly-formed attempt to spin off a Grey Tribe typified by libertarian political beliefs, Dawkins-style atheism, vague annoyance that the question of gay rights even comes up, eating paleo, drinking Soylent, calling in rides on Uber, reading lots of blogs, calling American football "sportsball", getting conspicuously upset about the War on Drugs and the NSA, and listening to filk – but for our current purposes this is a distraction and they can safely be considered part of the Blue Tribe most of the time)

   • 2019 August, Andrew William Jones, The Kids are Alt-Right: The Intellectual Origins of the Alt-Right‎^[2] (thesis), Toronto, Ont.: York University, archived from the original on 7 August 2023, page 130:

     Prominent figures within the Grey Tribe are often international figures who fall within the vague in-between space between the genuine mass-media celebrity and the internet famous YouTuber or tech figure, as will be discussed later, these figures include Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Jordan Peterson or Steve Jobs.

   • 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.

   • 2020 October 22, Conor Friedersdorf, “Should the Professional Be Political?”, in The Atlantic‎^[4], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 October 2020:

     If so, Coinbase got a head start on ideologically assortative co-working, hastening the exodus of the progressives least tolerant of diverse co-workers while signaling to the "Grey Tribe" that it is safe at Coinbase.

   • 2021 February 13, Cade Metz, “Silicon Valley’s Safe Space”, in The New York Times‎^[5], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-07-28:

     Life in the Grey Tribe