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What are blue tribe normies like?
I have a pretty good vision in my head of red tribers. Into music that plays on the country station, whether or not it’s country, he drives a truck if he can afford it(and sometimes if he can’t), might tell black jokes but isn’t particularly racist, big believer in the benefits of sports even if not actually a participant therein, thinks the anti-trump law fare is trumped up BS, she thinks she should be into gardening and babies even if she’s not, everyone believes Christianity is true even if not really practicing or a strict literalist, etc.
What are normie blue tribers like? Like I’m pretty sure resistance twitterati are not very representative.
Normie is in the eye of the beholder, but here an amalgation of my male friends and coworkers:
A portrait of a male normie blue triber
works in a highly credentialed field, probably went to university
But it's "something useful" (as judged by himself)
Could earn more, but took a pay cut to work somewhere he believes in
Has a gf who is much further left than him, and studied something that he normally has a low opinion of (but she's different, obviously)
(mostly) vegetarian when cooking for himself, but might eat meat when going out
Is really into some solo sport like rock climbing or long distance running which he does with a group of friend, is well in shape
Strongly disagrees with the far left on most practical policies, but believes them often when they scream Nazi/Misogynist/etc
Very conscientious, agreeable & reliable
Materialist Atheist, but it's important for him not being an ass about it
every immigrant he knows well is also credentialed and similarly conscientious, so he has a strongly positive opinion about them
Thinks we need to do something about immigration, but in practice is against all policies except cracking down on proven criminals or more support for integration
Thinks BG3 is the pinnacle of gaming
Goes on lots of vacations, all over the world; He really likes talking about the three months he spent backpacking through India
Really liked GoT, Dark, House of Cards, Inception ...
Plays board games once a week with the same group of friends
Thinks he is not elitist, but will always default to expert opinion (and doesn't see any contradiction here)
Used to be against it, but is now in favor of nuclear energy
Has at most 2 kids, shares obligations 50/50 with the wife on the first kid but not the second
Felt insulted by the bear question and thinks women who answered bear are stupid and/or crazy
Often struggles with the concept of some people just not giving a shit
Isn't blank-slatist, but thinks that group differences are vaguely problematic
Knows that women and men are different, but thinks that the differences are overstated and still substantially influenced by culture
I can do the same for a modal normie female blue triber if you're interested, she is quite different.
I would very much like to read the female version.
I have no idea how indoor rock climbing became the quintessential sport/activity among yuppie tech workers. I went to my nearest gym a few times and felt out of place not wearing a Google/Dropbox/Salesforce t-shirt.
I used to manage a rock climbing gym, and I'm now a yuppie, so...
The thing about Rock Climbing that makes it so popular is that the part that makes climbing a route cool to normies is separate from the part that makes it technically cool to insiders.
When I tell people I climb, they ask things like "How high do you go? Do you go all the way to the top? Do you climb outside?" That's what people get excited about, or maybe free solo shit or overhangs and dynos if they're watching. They don't really care about route grading, just doesn't enter their head, luckily because once stats enter the mainstream they tend to get lied on so often they become useless.
There are 80-ft outdoor toprope routes around me that are beginner grade nonsense, I could take any reasonably athletic mottizen there next weekend and coach them through it. But your average normie is going to be more impressed by that video on Insta, than they would by me finishing the V6 benchmark project I've been working on for the Moonboard for months, despite the latter being vastly harder and rarer.
So the first day you show up at an indoor gym, you do what the general public perceives as just about the coolest thing there: you climb up a big wall on top rope, all the way to the top. Any decent gym has a route for beginners on a big wall, I would always make sure our route setters kept something easy on the tallest wall in the gym for that exact reason. After that, it's all progress, and it's a sport-hobby you can whittle away at infinitely.
Compare the classic ne plus ultra of yuppie sports: distance running. When I ran the marathon that gave me my username, I didn't train for it at all, it was on a bet (with another rock climber, coincidentally). Why did I casually stroll 26.2 miles and not 20 or 25? Because finishing a marathon has a cache to it, and the part normies ask about is finishing the marathon. The cool part of endurance running is the endurance, not the running. Only those who are into marathons care about your time, most people just think it is cool that you did it. So no matter how good you are at distance running, if you finished, you did the cool part. It's not really any cooler, in normal conversation, to brag about your three hour marathon than it is to say "I ran a marathon."
Similarly, going rock climbing is cool because you went, not because you climbed 5.12. This makes it popular among the casual, because the part they brag about isn't hard. Post a picture of you climbing on instagram, nobody is looking at the holds and saying it looks juggy except serious climbers, most people just notice how high you are off the ground.
I also like rock climbing personally, and think it is popular, because as a workout it will actually naturally build the body most people want: lean, muscular, upper body focused. MyFitnessPal logs an hour of rock climbing as some absurd number like 950 calories burned, and my forearms and biceps are tough to fit into shirts after I got into climbing.
Thanks for this comment.
I'd be interested in your opinions about the dynamics of Red/Blue tribe affiliation at the ultra high end of climbing. Obviously, there's a lot of crunchy types there, but:
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Oh, that's easy: As long as you have an okay baseline of fitness, it's the absolute perfect casual social sport. If you're a beginner, you can go for easy routes and get help from the more experienced (and vice versa if you're experienced). If you're competitive, you choose hard route and repeatedly do it in a rotation with a similarly competitive friend. If you're a talker, you just do a minimum amount of climbing and otherwise watch the others and talk with the ones currently on a break. If you're a nerd, you choose a weird-looking route and theorize on how it ought to be done. And the best part, all these people can go together simultaneously without being in each others way.
Now compare soccer. I like it as well, but it generally goes best with a fixed group of friends on a similar level of fitness, experience and inclination. It's better for closer bonding, but for a casual round it happens too easy that somebody feels like they aren't fitting in.
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It requires a decent income, which prevents other demographics from getting into it (at such a high rate). Climbing gyms around me are 100 bucks a month (double what a nice lifting gym costs), and that's without rentals. Factor in shoes, harness, chalk bag, belay device and it's a big initial investment (or money going towards renting gear ever time you go).
And there's a big intersection with hippies. Might be different in other parts of the world, but in the mountains of Canada, I associate traditional rock climbing with west coast hippy/vanlife folks, who are either a-politcal weird lifestyle people who are not traditional in any sense of the word except in rock climbing, or default left wing. Those are the folks who are often foundational to climbing gyms (work there, teach there, or park their modified school-bus-turned-home outside there to climb in the off season).
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I think it suits well as a modern sport since it's largely self-directed, supports a wide range of time slots, Instagram friendly and you can take a friend group of differing ability to participate without direct competition.
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