incompl

Politically, I am pretty far into liberal territory.  One thing I’ve noticed among liberals is a common notion that conservatives hold their beliefs because they have been tricked or misinformed.  Worse, some suggest they are simply stupid.  This is nonsense.  Most conservatives don’t believe what they believe for these reasons.

Of course, this goes both ways.  Living in Boston I don’t meet a lot of conservatives but I have gotten a gist of a similar feeling on their end.  Liberals are amoral crazies who follow inspiring leaders like sheep.   This, too, is nonsense.  Most liberals don’t believe what they do for these reasons.

How did this happen?  How did we get so many people on both sides of the political landscape that simply do not understand the other side at all?

I don’t know.  But I do know why both liberals and conservatives think the way they do.  Fundamentally, both groups support a different model for social order.  A super liberal society focuses only on fairness and preventing people from hurting each other.  A super conservative society, in addition to doing those two things, also promotes loyalty, respect for authority, and sanctity.  These are also powerful ways of maintaining social order and keeping people from harming one another, but require compromise in the virtues that liberals hold most important.  Both models are imperfect, but both are functional.

This article goes into more detail.  Read it.  Go on.

So, let’s stop thinking that the the other 50% of the country is simply stupid or misinformed.  Let’s talk about issues, and let’s talk about what kind of society we want the government to promote, and why.