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Who Associates With Whom?
In politics, people of the left have long lectured from their moral high horses about the need for conservatives to listen to, to understand, and to make deals with people of the left. To do so requires associations and relationships between people who might be different.
But allegations have flown in recent years (mostly anecdotal, but with a few backed by statistics) that the concept does not seem to flow in reverse. Leftists/liberals are more likely to refuse to associate with conservatives and to terminate friendships or other relationships than conservatives are likely to do so in the reverse direction. I keep running into more anecdotes, suggesting this is not right-wing imagination. And I find the phenomenon interesting (even if I can’t understand it), so I collect these anecdotes.
Today’s anecdotes come from The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and from, of all things, a real estate article about the sale of Vice President Vance’s home.
Lin Manuel Miranda, creator of the hit musical Hamilton, joins several other performing artists in canceling their planned performances at the Kennedy Center in some type of protest against changes in management at the Kennedy Center instigated by President Trump. According to the news article, Jeffrey Seller, producer of the show, said they were canceling the show out of fear that the new Center management might cancel or renegotiate the contract. Do they fear that because they know that is what a left-wing group taking over an institution would do (projection)? It does not appear that the new Center management has made any moves in that direction. It seems Mr. Miranda, his crew, and others would rather self-cancel performances on one of the most recognized stages in the world than deal with management with which they might disagree.
An article from Realtor.com (a large real estate information business that generally seems to avoid getting very political beyond direct real estate matters) reports on the rapid sale by Vice President Vance and his wife of their house in Alexandria, Virginia, that they had bought less than two years ago. The reporter of the article interviewed some neighbors of the house who all noted (I recognize there could be some selection bias by the reporter) that the neighborhood was very liberal, and, therefore, the neighbors didn’t understand why the Vances would have chosen to live there in the first place. Maybe I’m reading too much into a few quotes, but the tone of their comments was, “How could they live among people they disagree with?” Now, there are reasons I would avoid living in certain “liberal” areas, but those are mostly driven by how government policy would impact my life and my property, which is only indirectly a function of my immediate neighbors. While I might avoid a town because of the leftist policies the town pursues, I would not usually avoid a specific neighborhood because the neighbors might disagree with me, unless those neighbors are likely to impose their disagreement on me through government or other means. More projection that they (the liberals) wouldn’t be able to tolerate living in a neighborhood of conservatives, so they assume conservatives also wouldn’t tolerate living in a neighborhood of liberals?
Why do “liberals” seem so much less willing than “conservatives” to associate with people of different political outlooks? Why are “liberals” so unwilling to maintain the associations and relationships that go into understanding “the other”?
As others here at Ricochet, especially @drbastiat, have been known to say, I do not understand how liberals think.
Published in Culture
The Left cannot imagine that anyone not on the Left hold their convictions out of moral or ethical belief. The Left believes that we believe we are wrong, but want our own benefit anyway.
A simpler explanation is the one Rush proposed: the Left believes it is virtuous and that the Right is evil.
No, the Left does not believe the conservatives are wrong, the Left believes anyone not aligned with the Left (as well as all-in on the latest thing) is evil.
Someone who I once considered a friend used to use our friendship as an example of how “people with different views could get along.” However, she insisted on dragging in our party affiliations when introducing me to others (something I never do.) After a while, I realized her tone was actually communicating, “I’m a Democrat and Elizabeth worships the Devil.”
Wouldn’t ” we believe we are wrong, but want our own benefit anyway.” be evil?
This one’s easy. The fundamental decision that places one on the left is to value one’s own mind and thoughts over external reality. That orientation places the person in a precarious position, because reality is always battering on them. They develop skill at selectively ignoring reality, which we call stupidity.
Intersectionality is a feature of the mind, not of reality – it means that the psyche, even a debased one, is a single piece. The realm of things they have to deny can only grow. It’s not possible for such a person to admit reality into any corner, because that would collapse the whole construct. Of course people of the left prefer not to associate with healthy minds.
Insightful.
If I’m not mistaken, I think the Vance family lived in Mollie Hemingway’s neighborhood. She had some interesting stories to tell. I suspect that the neighbors could put up nasty signs about Trump and/or conservatives. And I wonder if Vance’s children wandered the neighborhood, would be treated decently. Might not be a good fit.
I avoid interacting with crazy people no matter what they’re crazy ABOUT. Whether that’s because they think there are lizard-people living inside the Earth, or that boys can become girls, or that Joe Biden or Kamala Harris are smart.
I think Lucifer is the good idea in Genesis but I don’t worship him.
I live in that neighborhood. It’s the DelRay section of Alexandria. Very hip and groovy, currently. Wasn’t always so. It started as very blue collar. The residents 100 years ago mostly worked in the rail switching yards that are now Crystal City and Potomac Yards. Then as the rails declined, DelRay became a wasteland of winos and druggies in the 60s and 70s. Then it was gentrified through the 80s and 90s to its present state.
The thing is, if you want to live near DC, there are no “conservative” areas. You have to live in Democrat-majority neighborhoods. My precinct (which is Vance’s too) voted only about 30% for Trump in 2024. The place is chock-full of yards signs instructing passers-by on how to think and live. I haven’t had any bad interactions with neighbors because I just assume everyone I meet there is mentally challenged and I avoid talking about anything potentially inflammatory until I have evidence of rational thought.
I think many people on the left wing’s ideas are based on emotion and a deep belief that conservatives are evil. Their support for an issue is often ephemeral and lacking in both foundation and longevity. For example I said in a conversation at the coffee hour after a Mass that I didn’t normally attend that I thought Trump was really funny and not a bad person. Pretty mild comments I would have thought. One woman at the table said I had made her feel physically sick. She had to rush off to the bathroom to get ahold of herself. I’ve seen similar reactions to equally innocent comments before. Clearly since no discussion of any real issues were involved the reactions must have been visceral. I’ve noticed that these people get very confused when I don’t react in kind.
I’ve never yet encountered the same phenomenon in conversations with conservative acquaintances, we tend to agree to disagree on a topic and carry on from there.
That is a person who is seriously disturbed. I genuinely mean that. That she allowed herself to be brainwashed to that extent is very sad.
I’ve gotten that when I disagreed about religion before. Religion is so much a part of people’s identity that any level of disagreement is tantamount to a psychic attack. (1d4 psychic damage with a painful debuff)
My theory is that we are designed by an unloving G-d to hate each other based on tribe. Since America doesn’t have much tribal identity and ethnic identities weaken over time. Politics fills the place of that tribal identity. We are genetically quite similar to Syrians after all and we can’t get rid of our nature.