Liberals and Conservatives Have Different Moral Compasses

Photo by Samuel Chenard on Unsplash

The arena of American politics has long been a lively, cutthroat circus of right against left. Lacking the multi-party setup of its European counterparts, American elections have famously been rowdy affairs, due in large part to this dichotomous party feature.

In fact, the amount of proclaimed centrists within the U.S.’s borders has dwindled in recent decades, giving rise to the popular sentiment that we are now “more polarized than ever”.

Interestingly, there’s something ironic about the particular fanfare that is such a hallmark of American politics: the more clearly Red and Blue can distinguish themselves — the more they can frame their opponents as heinous aggressors trampling on their sacred mission — the more chance they have of capturing public zeal and converting it into votes.

The theater of American politics, one might argue, incentivizes polarization, particularly because it’s composed of only two legitimate parties: democrat and republican. And in reality, the troubling aspect is not the polarization itself but its byproduct: that we understand the other side less and less.

Ill-equipped to ferret out the motives of the political party on the other side of the fence, we’re more prone to ideological silos, so-called “echo chambers,” “pure-bred” media sources…