Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
I couldn't agree with you less.
The chief argument against the other side isn't that their policies are flawed. It's that they're bigots, warmongers and fearmongers who want to oppress women and control their bodies, don't care about poor people, and just want to hoard wealth for the people who already have too much and need to "pay their fair share".
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It's just much easier for people to believe that the other side disagrees with you because they're bad or stupid than it is to accept that they might have a point. (For an example, see this thread.)
This is not a left/right thing, just another people thing.
Paradoxically, the more you see yourself as being a rational person and your views as carefully considered and practical ones, the more prone you are to think your opponents are simply being bad or stupid. After all, after you've thought about your idea a lot, it tends to become the obvious and only truth for you.
Unfortunately most people can't (or don't want to) think with multiple simultaneous truths. People like simple world views where something is always right or always wrong. They especially like to think they're almost always right.
If you tend to think that people in general are selfish and terrible, it's pretty natural to think your political opposition are terrible. That's a cynical world view.
On the other hand if you think your views are morally the right ones, and the opposition offers ideas that on the surface sound nice (such as free education), then it's more natural to think that your opposition is stupid or naive or delusional. Or you know, maybe you just prefer to pick the better option of "they're either stupid or bad".