- Joined
- Jul 3, 2018
- Messages
- 51
- Reaction score
- 0
I’ve been reading about the “polarization” of American politics, and I stumbled across some interesting stuff.
The Washington Post reports about a poll, where a sizeable number of liberals claimed that their friendship would be strained if a friend voted for Trump. In contrast, Republicans carry no comparable attitude if a friend voted for Clinton. In a different poll, nearly half of liberals claim that they have no friends who were Trump supporters. The number is considerably less for Republicans. Part of the explanation for this is that Democrats tend to live in homogenous political environments (significantly urban centres) while Republicans don’t; and so Democrats do not get much opportunity to speak with Republicans, living and hearing only that which is in their epistemic bubble, which tends to manufacture smug liberals. We can also add to that their education within these cities is likely progressive and exclusionary of alternative perspectives (liberals have a hard time understanding what conservatives believe while conservatives better understand what liberals believe). Some authors (Ibid) claim that part of the difference rests in the worldview between progressive and conservative worldviews:
“Both Sowell and Pinker contend that conservatives see an unfortunate world of moral trade-offs in which every moral judgment comes with costs that must be properly balanced. Progressives, on the other hand, seem to be blind to, or in denial about, these trade-offs, whether economic and social; theirs is a utopian or unconstrained vision, in which every moral grievance must be immediately extinguished until we have perfected society. This is why conservatives don’t tend to express the same emotional hostility as the Left; a deeper grasp of the world’s complexity has the effect of encouraging intellectual humility. The conservative hears the progressive’s latest demands and says, “I can see how you might come to that conclusion, but I think you’ve overlooked the following…” In contrast, the progressive hears the conservative and thinks, “I have no idea why you would believe that. You’re probably a racist.”
That’s an interesting idea, too.
What best explains the difference in animosity between the liberal/progressive and conservatives? Liberals, why so mad?
The Washington Post reports about a poll, where a sizeable number of liberals claimed that their friendship would be strained if a friend voted for Trump. In contrast, Republicans carry no comparable attitude if a friend voted for Clinton. In a different poll, nearly half of liberals claim that they have no friends who were Trump supporters. The number is considerably less for Republicans. Part of the explanation for this is that Democrats tend to live in homogenous political environments (significantly urban centres) while Republicans don’t; and so Democrats do not get much opportunity to speak with Republicans, living and hearing only that which is in their epistemic bubble, which tends to manufacture smug liberals. We can also add to that their education within these cities is likely progressive and exclusionary of alternative perspectives (liberals have a hard time understanding what conservatives believe while conservatives better understand what liberals believe). Some authors (Ibid) claim that part of the difference rests in the worldview between progressive and conservative worldviews:
“Both Sowell and Pinker contend that conservatives see an unfortunate world of moral trade-offs in which every moral judgment comes with costs that must be properly balanced. Progressives, on the other hand, seem to be blind to, or in denial about, these trade-offs, whether economic and social; theirs is a utopian or unconstrained vision, in which every moral grievance must be immediately extinguished until we have perfected society. This is why conservatives don’t tend to express the same emotional hostility as the Left; a deeper grasp of the world’s complexity has the effect of encouraging intellectual humility. The conservative hears the progressive’s latest demands and says, “I can see how you might come to that conclusion, but I think you’ve overlooked the following…” In contrast, the progressive hears the conservative and thinks, “I have no idea why you would believe that. You’re probably a racist.”
That’s an interesting idea, too.
What best explains the difference in animosity between the liberal/progressive and conservatives? Liberals, why so mad?
