modern tribes

Did you follow the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial?

I almost none.

But I followed what happened on the internet on the sidelines of this trial between two ex-spouses who accused each other of being toxic and violent, I followed the virtual army that rose up for Johnny Depp.

Videos, memes and clips of Depp created by fans flooded the platforms. In the old days, when you liked a star, you would cut out his image from the pages of girls today and you pasted it in your header…

Today, you make videos that drive his ex crazy, because of the clicks.

Depp will soon be 59 years old. when M^me Heard was born (in 1986), Depp was already a small star in the suburbs of Hollywood fame, the handsome Brummel popular with teenage girls.

That’s how big Depp’s fan base is. His hyperpopular movies, fromEdward Scissorhands a Pirates of the Caribbean – have constantly renewed this pond, have widened it, have deepened it.

Hence this army of fans who defended it with clickbait, completely voluntarily. Create a reality, a truth: Depp, victim, from A to Z.

Did I say “army”?

Bad word.

“Tribe” is a better term.

Since the pandemic, I have been fascinated by identity. Not in the sense that we hear it in our debates in Quebec, across the country. No, I am talking about these new identities, freed from the age-old borders of race, religion, nationality, enhanced by digital technology. tribes of interest.

The anti-sanitary measures were not just an opposition to the rules, the vaccines, the masks. It was more than that. The individuals who actively participated in these movements affirmed something about themselves, about who they are. Having found each other, and self-inflated, on the Internet, they federated. They have become a tribe.

This tribe marched in the streets to say “I exist” as much – perhaps more – than to rant against the mask, health regulations and vaccines.

Protesting, sweating, they finally counted. To exist, a tribe must also reject. They rejected knowledge, the scholars. Society, a little.

Fifteen years ago, the tribe of 9/11 “Truthers” united around a rejection: that of the “official” version of the 2001 attacks. For a long time I saw them as an aberration. Rather, they heralded the world to come.

Take the bitcoin nuts. Do you understand something about cryptocurrencies? Me? Absolutely. I’m not saying I’m stupid, I just don’t care. But it is another tribe, that of the bitcoin tripe, one of the most intense of the time…

They have the certainty of the sect leaders, convinced that the reign of national currencies is over. Enraged in their belief that those who buy RRSP are not only wrong, they are heretics. His favorite insult: “Do you like being poor? »

On Twitter, they placed lasers instead of their eyes¹in your photos. They also love Elon Musk, the head of Tesla, who also believes in bitcoin…

They see themselves as Musk: rebels, system breakers. They are less rich than Musk, who made his money somewhere other than crypto…

I quote finn breton^two, author of a book on cryptocurrencies: “The culture around bitcoin is part of its appeal. When you buy bitcoin, you are buying a ticket in this environment. And this environment is part of your identity. »

In short, you join a tribe. You affirm your identity: I am not a stubborn person who buys RRSP, I…

And so you put lasers instead of your eyes, in your photo, on Twitter, although there is something profoundly stupid about putting lasers in your eyes, as an adult, as if you were Grendizer…

But it is the norm, it is the crest of the tribe, it is the others who are abnormal, those who “like to be poor”.

I don’t know where this new world of tribes will take us, with their codes, with their facts, with their… It’s funny to say it, but let’s be real: with its truths.

Because the more tribes there are, the more truths there will be.

I quote the American journalist David Roberts³ “Therefore, the information is not evaluated according to common standards of proof or according to a common understanding of the world, but rather whether or not the information supports the values ​​and goals of the tribe. “Good on our side” and “true”, then become one…”

It is the modern tribal belief: if we are numerous enough, if we are angry enough, we can alter reality.

Look at the Trumpists, the most disturbing tribe of the age, howling that their cult leader was robbed of the election (sic): they believe it. And maybe reality will have to bow to the Trump tribe. Either way, they’re off to a good start.⁴.