a pluribus unum on the seal of the
United States from many one from
thirteen colonies to one nation our
country was founded by unity rural
Missouri downtown Manhattan New England
LA immigrants from China Brazil Zimbabwe
the idea of an American can mean so many
different things but it’s still an
identity being American my father came
here when he was 26 and growing up he’d
always tell me you know what’s so great
about America it doesn’t matter who you
are who you know and matters how well
you can do the job and that’s an
integral part of the American dream
right this unity found in disunity that
you can be proud of your labels but they
don’t define you it doesn’t matter what
God God gods or lack thereof you believe
in as long as you subscribe to three
fundamental values freedom justice and
liberty for all it’s a beautiful dream
isn’t it my whole life I’ve heard about
the dream my grandmother fled the
Communists in China
my grandfather escaped poverty in the
Philippines they face discrimination but
they worked hard they learned English
and ultimately they found success we’ve
fought since the inception of our nation
to break down barriers from landowners
to the landless – barriers of race of
gender thinking of the success stories
laws past speeches like MLK’s I have a
dream you’d envision a much different
America today we were moving in a
positive direction but now we’re getting
divided polarized and whichever party
you belong to we can all agree that the
election changed everything both parties
are fractured whatever direction we’re
going in it often doesn’t feel like
forward living conditions are better
technology is advancing at an incredible
rate crime rates have been decreasing
for decades but it still feels like
we’re going backwards so what happened
what caused this shift away from unity
and back towards division the driving
force behind this election and these
divisions is tribalism
and this is not a recent phenomenon it
is deeply seated in our culture our
society our basic human nature and
sometimes we forget this because we’re
no longer tribes fighting for land
we’re not amidst the Crusades and the
Cold War ended almost 30 years ago but
we are naive if we believe that
tribalism integral to our humanity since
the dawn of our existence has
disappeared in today’s civilized society
every party every community every person
has valid concerns valid ideas but we
ignore this truth through tribalism
today’s iteration of tribalism is based
on condition the fundamental fallacy
that our convictions and ourselves are
one and the same this allows the Justice
this allows us to justify our divisions
of red vs. blue left versus right
liberal versus conservative because if
this fallacy is true then we can forget
that the person on the other side is
fundamentally just like us it allows us
to say you believe in this policy
therefore you are a bad person our
stubbornness in this regard can divide
us it can impede progress but it doesn’t
matter right because at the end of the
day we all still feel like we have the
moral high ground because it’s not us
it’s them the election should not have
been a surprise it was the culmination
of these divisions a strong trend for
the last decade or so and this
polarization has terrible effects in our
politics were constantly in gridlock
each party just reverses the progress of
the other it’s a game with the players
of the American people and everyone
always loses everything links back to
this central trend of polarizing
tribalism and if we are to move forward
our direction individually and together
has to change to give you an idea of my
hometown Amherst Massachusetts many of
the liberals are very anti right-wing
the UM the Town Hall put up a Puerto
Rican flag one day which looks quite
like the Texas flag so a woman tried to
take down the flag saying she didn’t
want that kind of oppression
in her town I remember the day after the
election my school offered therapy
sessions to those who felt distraught or
unsafe people left people were crying
students lamented america’s descent back
to the dark ages where misogyny
xenophobia and jim crow ran rampant and
sitting alone in one of my classes i too
began to wonder had there really been
this great widespread resurgence of
nationalist racist sexist sentiment in
america but this narrative of a nation
that is just totally regressing is false
yes racism and sexism played a role in
the election but when Trump wins the
election with the same states that won
Obama the election I refuse to believe
these were the dominating factors it’s
easy to point a finger at something like
racism because it’s something that most
of us to test because then we our
families our friends our longer part of
the problem it’s an us-versus-them where
the them is distant detached
disconnected almost all of us can go out
and say the KKK is bad or those
protestors with the Nazi flag or bad and
it makes us feel better because
extremists are bad but in reality this
is absolutely not most Trump supporters
Trump’s victory is the result of
polarization driven by this deeply
rooted sense of tribalism our recent
increase in polarization can be
attributed to four main factors one
frustration with the economy two the
disconnect between the people and the
elites three the prominence of our
sensationalist media and four our age of
information so first is that frustration
with the economy for the majority of the
modern existence of the United States
blue-collar workers could support
themselves with a factory job and are
now overwhelmingly service-based economy
this is nearly impossible and for the
last few decades there hasn’t really
been a solution for those left out by
this shift I’m from Western
Massachusetts and there are so many
towns where the industry is gone but the
people are
still stuck there unlike places like
Germany which emphasize skilled trades
our culture glorifies pushing paper in
an office nine-to-five over something
like plumbing and the thing is it’s an
unnecessary economic burden that our
motto for our US education system is you
need a college degree no matter what
especially with how expensive it is and
for those who have been in the in a
declining industry such as coal for
decades this is nearly impossible and
then someone like Trump comes along and
he says we can get those jobs back no
problem and you know what all of your
troubles are China’s fault and all of a
sudden the previous economic trends of
the last few decades are no longer
inevitable effects of globalization now
there are the results of a trade war
that we’re losing it’s us versus them
and this is a war that we can win and
this always happens with economic
frustration or instability you look at
Germany before World War 2 with its
hyperinflation or more recently
developing democracies in the Middle
East or the Balkans political leaders
sees that anger and frustration and they
tell you none of this is your fault it’s
theirs and if we could just beat them
this time it’ll be different but of
course it won’t be because tribalistic
division doesn’t make a country stronger
it didn’t matter whether or not Trump’s
protectionist policies were viable he
was the only one offering a solution it
didn’t matter Trump was a billionaire
because he knew how to connect with
audiences he’s not eloquent but he says
whatever people want to hear and he did
this exactly where he needed to Michigan
Wisconsin Pennsylvania he was connected
while the establishment was detached and
the elites have always been detached
disconnected but this time it was worse
than ever this is the second factor to
our increased polarization in recent
years Republicans and Democratic elites
all failed producing establishment
candidates like Jeb Bush and Hillary
Clinton
establishment candidates in a time where
people are frustrated in a time where
people are desperate for change people
don’t trust the system right now
according to Pew Research the majority
of Americans aren’t satisfied with the
way democracy works in this country and
this is a problem shared with other
nations but when you look at places like
Germany or the Netherlands
by far most people are satisfied and
many voters especially Bernie supporters
for example hate the superdelegate
system because it’s part of that
establishment that they can’t control
and you can tell voters that Hillary
Clinton is an effective legislator which
she is and some of them might even
believe you but why would anyone vote
for someone who is such a prominent part
of his system they believed to be broken
and corrupt voters didn’t want a
politician and from clearly was not a
politician then you have celebrities who
essentially say Trump supporters are
racists they’re evil how could anyone
elect a fascist and instead of
convincing anyone you’ve alienated them
people who already feel forgotten
furthermore it’s almost as if the elites
forgot how people elect a president
almost never the people elect a
candidate based on policy or ability
alone at the end of the day people elect
a person voters elect a face not facts
and attempting to replace the endlessly
charismatic Barack Obama with Hillary
Clinton who attempted to dab on The
Ellen Show to connect with the youth was
a poor mistake in hindsight Trump also
used the media to win he capitalized on
the media’s sensationalism saying
ridiculous things making sure people
were always talking about him and some
people listened so you have this small
group of voters who actually believe in
Trump and all those people who want to
just disrupt the establishment who will
all absolutely go to the polls and then
Hillary Clinton whose main campaign is
not being Trump and then the media says
there’s no chance Trump could ever win
they essentially confirm Hillary’s
victory two months before the election
why would any Democrat be concerned
about getting to the polls ultimately
the media doesn’t have a real concrete
agenda other than what makes them the
most money right they want viewers to
watch their ads so they say whatever the
viewers want to hear and then cessation
alized
everything this is why they’re dangerous
and this is also the third factor to our
recent increase in polarization the
influence of our sensationalist media
and we make jokes about the media’s
exaggerations write headlines like tune
in after the commercial break for five
foods that will give you cancer tomorrow
and it’s kind of funny
because it’s ridiculous it’s not so
funny when those same sources are some
people’s only sources regarding
information for elections and the
scariest part is that we loved it
they’ll past presidential debates if you
look at the difference between them and
the predecessors debates like between
Bill Clinton and George senior the
difference in the discourse is
incredible
Washington eighths now is like watching
reality TV or a game show candidates
trading insults and quips to score
points
all while deflecting real questions
about actual policy and there are the
best ratings we’ve ever gotten I
remember going to a party for one of the
debates and there is popcorn and drinks
and there is this stark contrast
laughing and how ridiculous it could be
at times followed by this deep internal
guilt like oops this is actually our
country the media is there every waking
second of our lives and their constant
divisive sensationalism is profitable
but only encouraging and confirming our
increasingly radicalized beliefs is
leading me to my fourth and final points
the Internet
you think with access to endless
information people would be more
open-minded but in reality it often does
the opposite because now if you have an
extreme belief however ridiculous you
can find someone who thinks exactly the
same way or someone who’s even more
extreme you can find any opinion and
with our confirmation bias that tendency
to only look for information that will
support our
thisis why would you look for anything
that would contradict it
our tribalism drives us to believe that
our convictions and ourselves are the
same so why would you contradict
yourself this is evident when you look
at conspiracy theories or issues like
vaccinations the anti-vaxxer Minh
started with one article published in
England linking vaccines to autism we’ve
since proved that the primary author
falsified nearly all of the data and
hundreds of reputable studies find no
link between vaccines and autism yet if
you look specifically for anti-vaxxer de
khals you will find them and suddenly in
this age of information it is very easy
to verify anything regardless of the
truth and it gets worse more complicated
because now you have companies like
Google and Facebook who make it very
easy for special interests to control
all of the information you see you all
on the web ultimately at the end of the
day Republicans and Democrats all have
real concerns but rather than addressing
those concerns we’ve become so
radicalized that both parties are
fractured mutilated versions of their
former selves we have to stop
associating with our team focusing on
left versus right blanket statements
such as Republicans won because of
racism or Democrats just play identity
politics are incredibly
counterproductive because they ignore
the nuance that we so desperately need
we’ve become morally vain believing that
our convictions entitle us to some sort
of moral high-ground that we can be
better than someone else because of what
party we belong to so how do we move
forward I’m not going to try to convince
you of any perfect solutions what I do
know and this is a perk of having a
family that argues about literally
everything is that if we separate
ourselves from our ideas every argument
doesn’t have to end with a chair being
thrown across the room we can get over
our differences we can reverse
polarization if we realize that
fundamentally on an individual level we
are the same tribalism is frustrating
because everyone believes what they’re
doing is right
challenge is overcoming those instincts
realizing no declaring that we are not
our convictions maybe the American Dream
was never real but it doesn’t matter it
didn’t stop my father my grandmother my
grandfather from trying it doesn’t stop
millions of Americans today from trying
the idea of a great America persists as
long as we strive for those fundamental
values that make it great
a pluribus unum from many one it comes
from the Latin of an ancient idea
described by Pythagoras that the origin
of society is a social bond one idea
that when one loves the other as much as
himself unas fiat explorable it makes
one out of many and if we can forge that
unity we can reverse polarization and
the united states can be united once
again thank you [Applause]
United States from many one from
thirteen colonies to one nation our
country was founded by unity rural
Missouri downtown Manhattan New England
LA immigrants from China Brazil Zimbabwe
the idea of an American can mean so many
different things but it’s still an
identity being American my father came
here when he was 26 and growing up he’d
always tell me you know what’s so great
about America it doesn’t matter who you
are who you know and matters how well
you can do the job and that’s an
integral part of the American dream
right this unity found in disunity that
you can be proud of your labels but they
don’t define you it doesn’t matter what
God God gods or lack thereof you believe
in as long as you subscribe to three
fundamental values freedom justice and
liberty for all it’s a beautiful dream
isn’t it my whole life I’ve heard about
the dream my grandmother fled the
Communists in China
my grandfather escaped poverty in the
Philippines they face discrimination but
they worked hard they learned English
and ultimately they found success we’ve
fought since the inception of our nation
to break down barriers from landowners
to the landless – barriers of race of
gender thinking of the success stories
laws past speeches like MLK’s I have a
dream you’d envision a much different
America today we were moving in a
positive direction but now we’re getting
divided polarized and whichever party
you belong to we can all agree that the
election changed everything both parties
are fractured whatever direction we’re
going in it often doesn’t feel like
forward living conditions are better
technology is advancing at an incredible
rate crime rates have been decreasing
for decades but it still feels like
we’re going backwards so what happened
what caused this shift away from unity
and back towards division the driving
force behind this election and these
divisions is tribalism
and this is not a recent phenomenon it
is deeply seated in our culture our
society our basic human nature and
sometimes we forget this because we’re
no longer tribes fighting for land
we’re not amidst the Crusades and the
Cold War ended almost 30 years ago but
we are naive if we believe that
tribalism integral to our humanity since
the dawn of our existence has
disappeared in today’s civilized society
every party every community every person
has valid concerns valid ideas but we
ignore this truth through tribalism
today’s iteration of tribalism is based
on condition the fundamental fallacy
that our convictions and ourselves are
one and the same this allows the Justice
this allows us to justify our divisions
of red vs. blue left versus right
liberal versus conservative because if
this fallacy is true then we can forget
that the person on the other side is
fundamentally just like us it allows us
to say you believe in this policy
therefore you are a bad person our
stubbornness in this regard can divide
us it can impede progress but it doesn’t
matter right because at the end of the
day we all still feel like we have the
moral high ground because it’s not us
it’s them the election should not have
been a surprise it was the culmination
of these divisions a strong trend for
the last decade or so and this
polarization has terrible effects in our
politics were constantly in gridlock
each party just reverses the progress of
the other it’s a game with the players
of the American people and everyone
always loses everything links back to
this central trend of polarizing
tribalism and if we are to move forward
our direction individually and together
has to change to give you an idea of my
hometown Amherst Massachusetts many of
the liberals are very anti right-wing
the UM the Town Hall put up a Puerto
Rican flag one day which looks quite
like the Texas flag so a woman tried to
take down the flag saying she didn’t
want that kind of oppression
in her town I remember the day after the
election my school offered therapy
sessions to those who felt distraught or
unsafe people left people were crying
students lamented america’s descent back
to the dark ages where misogyny
xenophobia and jim crow ran rampant and
sitting alone in one of my classes i too
began to wonder had there really been
this great widespread resurgence of
nationalist racist sexist sentiment in
america but this narrative of a nation
that is just totally regressing is false
yes racism and sexism played a role in
the election but when Trump wins the
election with the same states that won
Obama the election I refuse to believe
these were the dominating factors it’s
easy to point a finger at something like
racism because it’s something that most
of us to test because then we our
families our friends our longer part of
the problem it’s an us-versus-them where
the them is distant detached
disconnected almost all of us can go out
and say the KKK is bad or those
protestors with the Nazi flag or bad and
it makes us feel better because
extremists are bad but in reality this
is absolutely not most Trump supporters
Trump’s victory is the result of
polarization driven by this deeply
rooted sense of tribalism our recent
increase in polarization can be
attributed to four main factors one
frustration with the economy two the
disconnect between the people and the
elites three the prominence of our
sensationalist media and four our age of
information so first is that frustration
with the economy for the majority of the
modern existence of the United States
blue-collar workers could support
themselves with a factory job and are
now overwhelmingly service-based economy
this is nearly impossible and for the
last few decades there hasn’t really
been a solution for those left out by
this shift I’m from Western
Massachusetts and there are so many
towns where the industry is gone but the
people are
still stuck there unlike places like
Germany which emphasize skilled trades
our culture glorifies pushing paper in
an office nine-to-five over something
like plumbing and the thing is it’s an
unnecessary economic burden that our
motto for our US education system is you
need a college degree no matter what
especially with how expensive it is and
for those who have been in the in a
declining industry such as coal for
decades this is nearly impossible and
then someone like Trump comes along and
he says we can get those jobs back no
problem and you know what all of your
troubles are China’s fault and all of a
sudden the previous economic trends of
the last few decades are no longer
inevitable effects of globalization now
there are the results of a trade war
that we’re losing it’s us versus them
and this is a war that we can win and
this always happens with economic
frustration or instability you look at
Germany before World War 2 with its
hyperinflation or more recently
developing democracies in the Middle
East or the Balkans political leaders
sees that anger and frustration and they
tell you none of this is your fault it’s
theirs and if we could just beat them
this time it’ll be different but of
course it won’t be because tribalistic
division doesn’t make a country stronger
it didn’t matter whether or not Trump’s
protectionist policies were viable he
was the only one offering a solution it
didn’t matter Trump was a billionaire
because he knew how to connect with
audiences he’s not eloquent but he says
whatever people want to hear and he did
this exactly where he needed to Michigan
Wisconsin Pennsylvania he was connected
while the establishment was detached and
the elites have always been detached
disconnected but this time it was worse
than ever this is the second factor to
our increased polarization in recent
years Republicans and Democratic elites
all failed producing establishment
candidates like Jeb Bush and Hillary
Clinton
establishment candidates in a time where
people are frustrated in a time where
people are desperate for change people
don’t trust the system right now
according to Pew Research the majority
of Americans aren’t satisfied with the
way democracy works in this country and
this is a problem shared with other
nations but when you look at places like
Germany or the Netherlands
by far most people are satisfied and
many voters especially Bernie supporters
for example hate the superdelegate
system because it’s part of that
establishment that they can’t control
and you can tell voters that Hillary
Clinton is an effective legislator which
she is and some of them might even
believe you but why would anyone vote
for someone who is such a prominent part
of his system they believed to be broken
and corrupt voters didn’t want a
politician and from clearly was not a
politician then you have celebrities who
essentially say Trump supporters are
racists they’re evil how could anyone
elect a fascist and instead of
convincing anyone you’ve alienated them
people who already feel forgotten
furthermore it’s almost as if the elites
forgot how people elect a president
almost never the people elect a
candidate based on policy or ability
alone at the end of the day people elect
a person voters elect a face not facts
and attempting to replace the endlessly
charismatic Barack Obama with Hillary
Clinton who attempted to dab on The
Ellen Show to connect with the youth was
a poor mistake in hindsight Trump also
used the media to win he capitalized on
the media’s sensationalism saying
ridiculous things making sure people
were always talking about him and some
people listened so you have this small
group of voters who actually believe in
Trump and all those people who want to
just disrupt the establishment who will
all absolutely go to the polls and then
Hillary Clinton whose main campaign is
not being Trump and then the media says
there’s no chance Trump could ever win
they essentially confirm Hillary’s
victory two months before the election
why would any Democrat be concerned
about getting to the polls ultimately
the media doesn’t have a real concrete
agenda other than what makes them the
most money right they want viewers to
watch their ads so they say whatever the
viewers want to hear and then cessation
alized
everything this is why they’re dangerous
and this is also the third factor to our
recent increase in polarization the
influence of our sensationalist media
and we make jokes about the media’s
exaggerations write headlines like tune
in after the commercial break for five
foods that will give you cancer tomorrow
and it’s kind of funny
because it’s ridiculous it’s not so
funny when those same sources are some
people’s only sources regarding
information for elections and the
scariest part is that we loved it
they’ll past presidential debates if you
look at the difference between them and
the predecessors debates like between
Bill Clinton and George senior the
difference in the discourse is
incredible
Washington eighths now is like watching
reality TV or a game show candidates
trading insults and quips to score
points
all while deflecting real questions
about actual policy and there are the
best ratings we’ve ever gotten I
remember going to a party for one of the
debates and there is popcorn and drinks
and there is this stark contrast
laughing and how ridiculous it could be
at times followed by this deep internal
guilt like oops this is actually our
country the media is there every waking
second of our lives and their constant
divisive sensationalism is profitable
but only encouraging and confirming our
increasingly radicalized beliefs is
leading me to my fourth and final points
the Internet
you think with access to endless
information people would be more
open-minded but in reality it often does
the opposite because now if you have an
extreme belief however ridiculous you
can find someone who thinks exactly the
same way or someone who’s even more
extreme you can find any opinion and
with our confirmation bias that tendency
to only look for information that will
support our
thisis why would you look for anything
that would contradict it
our tribalism drives us to believe that
our convictions and ourselves are the
same so why would you contradict
yourself this is evident when you look
at conspiracy theories or issues like
vaccinations the anti-vaxxer Minh
started with one article published in
England linking vaccines to autism we’ve
since proved that the primary author
falsified nearly all of the data and
hundreds of reputable studies find no
link between vaccines and autism yet if
you look specifically for anti-vaxxer de
khals you will find them and suddenly in
this age of information it is very easy
to verify anything regardless of the
truth and it gets worse more complicated
because now you have companies like
Google and Facebook who make it very
easy for special interests to control
all of the information you see you all
on the web ultimately at the end of the
day Republicans and Democrats all have
real concerns but rather than addressing
those concerns we’ve become so
radicalized that both parties are
fractured mutilated versions of their
former selves we have to stop
associating with our team focusing on
left versus right blanket statements
such as Republicans won because of
racism or Democrats just play identity
politics are incredibly
counterproductive because they ignore
the nuance that we so desperately need
we’ve become morally vain believing that
our convictions entitle us to some sort
of moral high-ground that we can be
better than someone else because of what
party we belong to so how do we move
forward I’m not going to try to convince
you of any perfect solutions what I do
know and this is a perk of having a
family that argues about literally
everything is that if we separate
ourselves from our ideas every argument
doesn’t have to end with a chair being
thrown across the room we can get over
our differences we can reverse
polarization if we realize that
fundamentally on an individual level we
are the same tribalism is frustrating
because everyone believes what they’re
doing is right
challenge is overcoming those instincts
realizing no declaring that we are not
our convictions maybe the American Dream
was never real but it doesn’t matter it
didn’t stop my father my grandmother my
grandfather from trying it doesn’t stop
millions of Americans today from trying
the idea of a great America persists as
long as we strive for those fundamental
values that make it great
a pluribus unum from many one it comes
from the Latin of an ancient idea
described by Pythagoras that the origin
of society is a social bond one idea
that when one loves the other as much as
himself unas fiat explorable it makes
one out of many and if we can forge that
unity we can reverse polarization and
the united states can be united once
again thank you [Applause]
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