Thread by @rasmansa

43% of progressives and 25% of conservatives say the other side has a fundamentally evil moral foundation.

These poll results really surprised and saddened me and each for different reasons.

I was talking with @freespe4ker and he said many progressives think conservatives have an evil foundation. I didn't assume that was the case. He estimated the number would be around 30%.

I was very wrong.

For progressives, selfish and mean were things I expected to be said about cons. I didn't expect evil, not at that rate.

On the conservative side, I hesitated before posting it, because I thought cons would see progressives as naive or overbearing, I didn't expect evil.

I tweeted this a week ago, and I still mean it to my core. I certainly believe there are some evil moral foundations, and I surely find a lot of beliefs morally abhorrent, but I can't see them as generally true about either conservatives or progressives, much less foundationally.

If there's a point I can make here, it's that I think it's unhealthy to consider the norm among cons/progs to be fundamentally evil. I stand by the idea that people should speak forcefully for and against ideas, call those ideas evil if you're sincere, but we're still neighbors.

I'll end with my own naivete. I love my neighbor regardless of ideology. It takes a lot for me to see a person's ideology as representative of them as people. Let's at least make sure we never let hatred cause us to lose sight of each other's humanity, or our own.

I'm much more comfortable calling certain views immoral or morally abhorrent than I am calling people immoral.

https://twitter.com/evanaugustPdx/status/1360774003237916674?s=19

Grr, terrible late night math

It should've been 21/59 = 36%
Instead I had done 21/49 = 43%

Apologies all 😔