Misunderstanding Yeezy-us-ness....,

LATimes |  Last year, John Tooby, a founder of evolutionary psychology, was asked by the website Edge.org what scientific concept should be more widely known. He argued for something called the "coalition instinct."

In our natural environment, humans form coalitions. Coalitions are slightly different from tribes, families or nations, in that those are all groups we are involuntarily born into. Coalitions are the teams we join.

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— Mrs RollinDiva (@mrsrollindiva) April 29, 2018

"Coalitions," Tooby explained, "are sets of individuals interpreted by their members and/or by others as sharing a common abstract identity." The coalition instinct is a bundle of "programs" that "enable us and induce us to form, maintain, join, support, recognize, defend, defect from, factionalize, exploit, resist, subordinate, distrust, dislike, oppose, and attack coalitions." Most animals don't have this instinct, and none has it as finely honed as humans do.

Because coalitions are formed to protect the interests of their members, we have a remarkable ability to forgive behavior when it is done by our teammates and condemn the behavior when it is done by members of a rival coalition. "This," Tooby said, "is why group beliefs are free to be so weird."

ChicagoTribune |  Here’s some advice for conservatives who are jumping to Kanye West’s defense. Don’t get caught up in the Kardashians’ mess.

There’s a good chance the recent Twitter fest between West and Donald Trump has nothing to do with politics. Most likely, it’s about television ratings.

Conservatives had to pinch themselves to make sure this was really happening. West appeared to be telling African-Americans that Republicans are really cool, and that they should give Trump — and the party — a chance. That’s what the GOP has been saying for years.

Fox News commentator Jesse Watters declared that West had “loosened the grip the Democratic Party holds on the black vote.”

Donald Trump Jr. wrote on Instagram, “Kind of a big deal. Seems like a cultural turning point.”

Liberal A-listers weren’t hearing it, though. Rihanna, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj and Kendrick Lamar were among those who unfollowed West on Twitter. Chance the Rapper tried to rein West in and got caught up in his own word battle with Trump. John Legend also urged his friend to rethink his tweets.

It was useless. Over the weekend, West went a step further and met with conservative commentators Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens. Trump Jr. tweeted a photo.

Look, everyone knows how hard it is for right-wingers to find celebrities who are willing to pose for a picture with Trump, much less one who will tweet that he “loves” him. We get why they’d get all excited that West called Trump his “brother.”

We understand why conservatives have tried to claim West as one of their own since he admitted that he would have cast his ballot for Trump in the presidential election — if he had bothered to vote. Unfortunately, voting isn’t on his agenda.

When it comes to Trump, West clearly is an anomaly that America may never fully understand. His wife’s family, on the other hand, is an open book.

If there is one thing you can be sure of, it’s that the tweet fest that roped in Chance the Rapper, Legend and a sitting U.S. president would make great fodder for “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”