The Tinkerbell Effect

It has been commented on recently, though I suspect the feeling has been around before, that what we are undergoing now is not just a conflict of political differences but rather a competition of divergent realities. I tend to think that I am on the side of the actual world but it is worth reviewing The Tinkerbell Effect and pondering whether what is happening, most notably with the Tea Party revelers, is a refusal to acquiesce to larger systems that the rest of society accepts. I don't pose the question to make them sound heroic. I believe they are very much not. That being said, what happens to our understanding of our society when some of us refuse to even acknowledge its right to exist? Additionally, isn't it great that economics and other social sciences come up with such great terms?