René Magritte's classic
Liberal /
progressive vs conservative. I’ve
usually attributed the unbridgeable divide to critical thinking vs
emotions. Dennis Prager expands on the
reasons for the divide:
The
Left-Right divide in America is, unfortunately, unbridgeable. There are
three reasons.
First, we are divided by our vision
of what we want America to be. The Right believes the Founders’ vision was
brilliant and moral, that bourgeois middle-class values are superior to
alternative value systems; that rights come from God, not man; and that the
state must be as small as possible. The Left (not liberals) shares none of
those values.
Second, we are divided by the means
we use to achieve our vision. Given their different ends, left and right
obviously differ on what means to use to achieve their ends.
Third, and perhaps most troubling,
there is a reality-perception divide. Left and Right have different
perceptions of reality.
. . .
The Left believes socialism is
economically superior to capitalism. But the reality is that only capitalism
has lifted billions of people out of poverty. This is, therefore, not an
opinion divide—”You prefer capitalism. I prefer socialism”—but a reality
divide.
The reason this is so frightening
is that it means one side has lost its grip on reality. If half of this country
cannot distinguish truth from falsehood, that is not a good sign for the
nation’s future.
. . .
The full article is here.
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