Your Conservative (or Liberal) Relative Isn’t the Problem

Photo by Jonathan Sharp on Unsplash

In the media landscape as it exists today, we all tend to lose perspective rather easily and foolishly.

We have to remember that the media mostly show the extremists because that’s what will give them the best ratings, provided they don’t go too far left or right to cause people to change the channel. They rarely show the average politically affiliated man or woman. Hell, they’ll show the extreme moderates before that happens.

Are we really to believe that most of us don’t want a living wage for hard-working people? Can we really stomach higher taxes for the little guy? Well, the data suggests that if you think the other side doesn’t care about fairness, justice, loyalty and tradition, you’re wrong. You simply get caught up in how these values are expressed.

This study also highlighted that respondents weren’t even able to accurately represent the moral views of people on the opposite side of the political divide. The media can also be thanked for that but it also has to do with the fact that we erect self-imposed echo chambers to block out any cognitive dissonance from setting in.

Now, I’m not here to address how the media is trying to divide us and all that. We are the media. If we don’t like it, we just won’t watch it. Besides, the media is more interested in revenue than tribalism. Whatever makes the most money, that’s what they’ll do. It just so happens that tribalism is a hot ticket, but it would be wise to not misconstrue their agenda.

Nevertheless, it is morality that typically gets called into question from either side of the political landscape. On one side, it is moral to grant abortions until a certain time. On the other, it is immoral. One one side, it is moral to wage war. On the other, it is moral not to fight. One one side, it is moral to help, on the other, it is moral to teach a man how to help himself.

An objective mind can see that an abortion for a rape victim is moral but it is also moral to bring a life to life. Furthermore, it is moral to fight for liberty, freedom and one’s values. But it is also moral to be peaceful. Furthermore still, there have been times when people needed help and times when people needed to conquer their own destiny.