These four things are not the same:
hating persons who are different because they’re different racially, ethnically, etc.
fearing persons of a certain type (e.g., young black males) because that type is highly correlated with danger
holding persons in contempt because their views, however sincerely held, are dangerous to the lives, liberty, and livelihoods of others
belonging to a deeply rooted and close-knit group of persons (a clan, if you will) who share a distinctive culture.
“Tribalism” is widely misused as a descriptor of case number 3. I have misused it myself. I vow not to do it again.
Number 1 is a symptom of bigotry, of which racism is a subset. Number 2 is a sign of prudence. Number 3 is a rational reaction to views that a person believes are badly mistaken and can have dire consequences. Number 4 refers to tribalism.
I don’t believe that I’m guilty of number 1.
There are circumstances, which I avoid assiduously, where number 2 would apply to me.
I am definitely aligned with number 3.
I am not a tribalist (number 4) because I am not a member of a clan with a distinct culture. I am close only to my immediate family — my wife, children, and grandchildren. I have untold numbers of nieces, nephews, and cousins with whom I have had no contact for decades or ever. I haven’t been a member of a religious denomination for more than 60 years. The customs that I observe are generic ones (“thank you”, “you’re welcome”) not exotic ones associated with particular religions, ethnic groups, or tribes (in the traditional sense). My moral beliefs are generic; the Golden Rule predominates. I have no particular feelings about people with whom I might agree politically; I’m pleased that they agree with me (there is strength in numbers), but — as an extreme introvert with upper-middle-class tastes — I suspect that I would enjoy the company of only a tiny fraction of them, and then it would be for reasons other than politics (e.g., a liking for Bourbon).
I am, in sum, a lone wolf who disdains affiliation or identification with any kind of tribe.
But I have chosen a side (scroll to “The Importance of Taking Sides”). The side isn’t a tribe because it is bound only by a narrow range of beliefs, not by a deep and abiding culture.
Tribalism has deep evolutionary-psychological roots in mutual aid and mutual defense — survival. The idea that tribalism can be erased by sitting in a circle, holding hands, and singing Kumbaya — or the equivalent in social-diplomatic posturing — is as fatuous as the idea that all human beings enter this world with blank minds and equal potential. Saying that tribalism is wrong is like saying that breathing and thinking are wrong. It’s a fact of life that can’t be undone without undoing the bonds of mutual trust and respect that are the backbone of a society.
Tribes are good things per se. Poisonous ideas are bad things per se. I am on the side of those who seek to expose and discredit the poisonous ideas of the left and the “woke”. But — to repeat — I am not a tribalist.