{"id":31629,"date":"2020-01-29T09:26:17","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T15:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=31629"},"modified":"2020-01-29T09:26:17","modified_gmt":"2020-01-29T15:26:17","slug":"31629","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=31629","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul mentioned this in a comment on a previous post<\/a>.
\nIt bears serious reading.<\/p>\n

Why Liberals Can\u2019t Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

When Cathy Newman\u2019s absurdly hilarious interview with Jordan Peterson<\/a> exploded across the internet, it wasn\u2019t just because it was so funny. To a lot of conservatives,\u00a0myself included<\/a>, it sounded way too familiar. What we\u2019ve known for a long time, Cathy Newman made blindingly obvious: Liberals really don\u2019t listen. Maybe liberals can\u2019t listen.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m seeing it again in a book I\u2019m reading on the history of America\u2019s culture wars. Conservatives\u2019 opposition to new views on morality in the 1910s and 20s was \u201cdriven by fear,\u201d the author says. Never mind that when the Pope Pius XI\u00a0weighed in on the question<\/a>, his answer was balanced, focused both on the real\u00a0good that\u00a0comes for all from true morality, and what dangers may follow upon straying from it. No, it was all \u201cdriven by fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liberals don\u2019t see both sides. In fact, it\u2019s almost as if they can\u2019t. Or maybe we should drop \u201calmost\u201d from that sentence. For there\u2019s some fascinating \u2014 and disturbing \u2014 research that says conservatives have the ability to understand liberals, but liberals literally can\u2019t understand conservatives.<\/p>\n

It has a lot to do with seeing moral issues from multiple points of view. The Pope could do it; can liberals?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure they think they can. Suppose you went out and struck up a conversation with a liberal friend of yours, or a teacher or a co-worker. Suppose you asked them, \u201cWho\u2019s better at seeing moral issues from more than one point of view: liberals or conservatives?\u201d What would you bet they\u2019d claim they could do it better? I\u2019d put a lot of money down on that one.<\/p>\n

Five Moral Foundations<\/h4>\n

But then along comes New York University\u00a0psychologist Jonathan Haidt. He and his research team set out on a global project seeking to understand human morality. They found that wherever you go, you\u2019ll find five basic \u201cmoral foundations\u201d:\u00a0Caring, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority\/Respect,<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Purity<\/em>. He explains all this brilliantly in a\u00a0TED talk<\/a>, if you can overlook some lingering bias. (In his book\u00a0The Righteous Mind<\/em>\u00a0he includes\u00a0a sixth,\u00a0Liberty.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s more. Haidt found a glaring difference between people on the left and people on the right. Conservatives, by and large, tend to live with all five of these moral dimensions in balance. Liberals don\u2019t. They\u2019re strong on Care and Fairness, but they\u2019re weak on Loyalty, Authority and Purity.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s a problem. Jonathan Haidt, who viewed\u00a0himself as a liberal before doing this study, extended his research to look at what societies need in order to maintain stability and security. And he realized it isn\u2019t just the left\u2019s favorite pair. It takes all five moral categories. He paid attention: he\u2019s a moderate now.<\/p>\n

\n

Conservatives could do it. Liberals couldn\u2019t.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Really Interesting Difference Between Liberals and Conservatives<\/h4>\n

But hang on \u2014\u00a0we\u2019re just now getting to the interesting part. Haidt asked liberals and conservatives to put themselves in one another\u2019s shoes; to imagine how the other side would answer a list of ethical questions. Conservatives could do it. Liberals couldn\u2019t. People on the right had the ability to understand people on the left; even to empathize with them to a degree. People on the left couldn\u2019t do the same in return.<\/p>\n

The reason, Haidt says, is because liberals\u2019 moral scope is unbalanced. They\u2019re so focused on Care and Fairness, they can\u2019t imagine anyone thinking other values being important. Therefore, he says\u00a0in this excerpt<\/a>\u00a0from his book\u00a0The Righteous Mind,<\/em>\u00a0\u201cIf you don\u2019t see that Reagan is pursuing positive values of Loyalty, Authority, and Sanctity, you almost have to conclude that Republicans see no positive value in Care and Fairness.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if we don\u2019t value Care and Fairness \u2014 liberals\u2019 most important values, by far \u2014 then we must be Really Awful People.<\/p>\n

Misunderstanding Conservatism<\/h4>\n

Think I\u2019m overstating it? Go back to the link and re-read the rest of the excerpt. Read the New York theater critic who wrote, \u201cRepublicans don\u2019t believe in the imagination, partly because so few of them have one, but mostly because it gets in the way of their chosen work, which is to destroy the human race and the planet. \u2026 I personally think they should be exterminated before they cause any more harm).\u201d<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t just that liberals don\u2019t\u00a0want<\/em>\u00a0to understand us. Many of them simply\u00a0can\u2019t.<\/em>\u00a0Not without considerable effort and coaching, at any rate; but which of them puts in that effort? Why would anyone want to empathize with Really Awful People? \u201cMany readers,\u201d writes Haidt, \u201c stayed locked inside their Care-based moral matrices and refused to believe that conservatism was an alternative moral vision.\u201d He continues, \u201cOne reader \u2026 thought it was \u2018sad\u2019 that Republican narcissism would prevent them from understanding my perspective on their \u2018illness.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

We could go on all day explaining our positive reasons for the positions we take; all they\u2019ll hear is us playing cover-up games. We must be driven by fear. Or power, or hate. Anything but decency.\u00a0\u201cWhat you\u2019re really saying is\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

They can\u2019t even imagine anything better of us. Why? According to Haidt, they don\u2019t have a place in their minds to process Loyalty, Authority or Purity. For a large proportion of the liberal world, those values don\u2019t even belong in the \u201cethics\u201d category \u2014 even though human societies can\u2019t\u00a0survive without them.<\/p>\n

So What Do We Do?<\/h4>\n

Need I say it? There\u2019s no magic formula to fix this. It\u2019s going to take time, and patience, and even love on our part, along with constant clear explanation of who we are and what we believe. It\u2019s going to take real relationships, in other words.<\/p>\n

Even that, though, may be difficult, since both conservatives and liberals have gotten ourselves fenced off in different towns and cities, or different parts of town, and certainly on different parts of the internet. It\u2019s going to take real relational outreach on our part, in other words.<\/p>\n

And even then nothing is guaranteed. Considering how many people ignored Jesus right up until the end of His life \u2014 and how eager some of them were to end His life \u2014 we need to be realistic with our expectations.<\/p>\n

Yet some responded to Him then, and some will respond still today. I\u2019m not giving up. And in the meantime, I for one find this insight from Haidt to be very interesting \u2014 and helpful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul mentioned this in a comment on a previous post. It bears serious reading. Why Liberals Can\u2019t Listen When Cathy Newman\u2019s absurdly hilarious interview with Jordan Peterson exploded across the internet, it wasn\u2019t just because it was so funny. To a lot of conservatives,\u00a0myself included, it sounded way too familiar. What we\u2019ve known for a … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31630,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31629\/revisions\/31630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}