So I noticed a lot of the posts here about the protests are trying to make cops look good and protesters look bad...

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[–]Chipit 9 insightful - 2 fun9 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

Johnathan Haidt's research addresses your bigoted opinion.

His explanation: the two tribes have different moral palates. What for conservatives counts as moral touchstones -- loyalty, respect, and sanctity -- gets perceived by leftists as profoundly negative traits. This is the source of your completely ignorant "boot leather" comment. Here's his TED talk on the topic: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html

After mucking around in a lot of survey data, he came up with this basic idea: People of the left underpin their politics with moral concerns about harm and fairness; they are driven by the imperative to help the vulnerable and see justice done. Conservatives and people of the right value these things as well but have several additional moral touchstones — loyalty, respect and sanctity. They value in-group solidarity, deference to authority, and the protection of purity in mind and body. To liberals, those sincerely held values can look a lot like, in Dr. Haidt's words, "xenophobia, authoritarianism and Puritanism." This asymmetry is the fountainhead of mutual incomprehension and disdain.

One of the most telling discoveries was that conservatives tend to be curious about what liberals think and why, while liberals see conservatives as inferior "other," inherently incapable of thought.

http://theindependentwhig.com/haidt-passages/haidt/conservatives-understand-liberals-better-than-liberals-understand-conservatives/ When faced with questions such as "One of the worst things a person could do is hurt a defenseless animal" or "Justice is the most important requirement for a society," liberals assumed that conservatives would disagree.

The entire problem is treating other people as The Other, as detailed in this influential essay. http://archive.is/QRJ6m

Haidt's experiments ask liberals and conservatives to fill out questionnaires about their values, then to predict how someone from the opposite tribe would fill out the questionnaire. He finds that conservatives are able to predict leftists' answers just fine and seem to have a pretty good understanding of their worldviews, but that leftists have no idea how conservatives think or what they value. http://www.aei.org/publication/liberals-or-conservatives-whos-really-close-minded/

[–]Tom_BombadilBombadildo 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I can tell someone else wrote this comment for you Chipit.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The Aei link doesn’t work. Plus you failed to point out generational differences between liberals and conservatives that have much to do with their disagreements. Conservatives technically value the same things that liberals do but liberals are dynamic in their quest for it while conservatives have a static definition. It takes a powerhouse authoritative figure to move conservatives and by god when it happens, it can be a game changer. Like now! It is a sight to behold!

[–]Tigerbitecrazy 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

While that is really interesting (saving some of those for later research so thank you) either side you sit on you should still be upset about what the police are doing. The whole left/right thing just seems to be a way to further divide us so we don't come together and throw their sorry butts to the curb so we can do what's truly best for the USA and it's population.

[–]Chipit 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's not, though. The left/right divide is a fundamentally human personality difference. You're correct; we should unite against the elites. But the left doesn't recognize the right as fellow human beings. The elites cackle at the useful idiots and use them to take ever more power.

The thing with the police is that the left cannot distinguish between legitimate authority and illegitimate authority. It all looks like fascism to them. And when the right says, we should respect legitimate authority because society runs better that way, we look like the most evil nazis to them. They thrive on knocking down barriers and destroying things, and rarely stick around afterwards to face the consequences. It's the breaking they like, not the building again after.

Things are worse than they've ever been. The left is blaming the right for all of society's problems right now and is having a temper tantrum. If it gets better, it won't be for another generation. And frankly, with the schools turning out indoctrinated, demoralized people who have never heard dissenting opinions, I don't think it will get any better. One only look at Mao's China which did the exact same thing. It took 40 years and dozens of millions of dead before Deng Xiaoping said, "You know what? This doesn't work and is bullshit, let's try something new." And even he was heavily opposed and only barely won, and even then because people stood to get rich.