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Are there documented cases of the rock, paper, scissors in ideologies in today's society?

What got me thinking was I noticed that:

  • The Alt-Right march against Radical Islamists.
  • Radical Islamists march against Liberals/LGBTQ.
  • The Liberals/LGBTQ march against the Alt-Right.

Each group is in a sense defined by what it stands against. But what they stand against seems to form a circular loop, like the game rock, paper, scissors.

Even though they may also hate the other group, it is not their primary focus, more of an annoyance.

Are there any other examples of social groups that form similar circular structures?

zooby
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  • Firstly, you haven't put enough nuance in your argument for it to be valid, let alone sound (as was pointed out in an answer, the Alt Right also hate LGBT people which defeats your analysis of this being a rock, paper, scissors game). "Each group is in a sense defined by what it stands against." those groups do not define themselves that way, that is how you've chosen to define them with the intention to have them fit into the pattern you want to see. Secondly, it also has nothing to do with philosophy and isn't on topic for this site. – Not_Here Aug 30 '18 at 03:26
  • The second point being the most important: even if you remove the erroneous example you gave, this question still is not on topic for this site and should be closed. – Not_Here Aug 30 '18 at 03:28

1 Answers1

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I think the circularity that you're envisaging is something of a conceptual construct.

A significant fraction of the alt-right protest against radical Islamists and then by this Muslims in general (which is Islamophobia) but a significant fraction also protest against LGBTQ and by extension liberals (there's no general term for this kind of scale-goating). This isn't circular.

Scape-goating and smearing social or political groups or groupings has been a political tactic since time immemorial which does not mean that the emotions stoked up by such aren't real and that the imagined differences don't become reified.

Mozibur Ullah
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