Why don’t the left and right look at themselves the way the other does? Or do they, but I can’t find it?
We’ve all heard how since the left and right get their news from different sources and those sources present different facts, it’s as if two parts of the nation live in different realities. If so, how can they agree on points based on different facts?
A related issue I don’t think I’ve seen treated stems from each group evaluating themselves and the others based on different criteria.
The left judges the right based on its criteria, not the right’s, so it sees the right as failing, wrong, or bad. It also judges itself by its criteria and finds itself as succeeding as best it can, right, and good.
Meanwhile, the right does it the other way. It judges the right based on its criteria, not the left’s, so it sees the left as failing, wrong, or bad. It also judges itself by its criteria and finds itself as succeeding as best it can, right, and good.
Why does neither evaluate itself based on the other’s criteria? It doesn’t have to adopt the other’s criteria, but at least try to understand how it looks to the other.
That is, why don’t they practice empathy and self-criticism? As far as I can tell, they both just see themselves as right, the other as wrong, and then stop thinking or reflecting. I’m not saying they are equivalent, so I’m not creating a false equivalence. I’m talking about making the effort for mutual understanding, or even just one way.
Even if one side is right in some absolute way and the other is absolutely wrong, if the wrong side thinks it’s right, what harm is there in empathizing and understanding why they think they’re right when they’re wrong?
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