We live in a media environment that thrives on division—manufactured enemies and exaggerated threats . It’s profitable to keep us angry and distracted rather than focused on practical solutions.

I participated in heated debates in college, passionately defending capitalism against friends who supported socialism. Looking back, we weren’t even disagreeing about the real issues—just the methods to reach common goals. We wasted energy fighting over labels instead of collaborating.

Of course, some issues genuinely demand confrontation; bad actors exist, and we should stand firmly against genuine harm. But the majority of us—maybe 90%—actually agree on the basics: something's wrong, and we should fix it, preferably through compromise. Yet, time and again, we fall into the trap of fighting each other because it feels more productive and probably increases our social standing with our tribe.

This tyranny of the minority plays out everywhere, especially in crypto: Ethereum versus Bitcoin, Solana versus Ethereum. These communities likely have more in common than not, they believe blockchains are good and we should have credibly neutral coordination technology. But, FKA Twitter will allow us to believe that we are meant to be bitter rivals.

Tribalism clouds the real work we could be doing together.