Scott Pen
Scott Pen
Sep 5, 2018 · 2 min read

Mr. James M. Ridgway, Jr.- my liberal ego would like to thank you for this article, but my critical thinking seems to be getting in the way.

Does this type of analysis really add any value to the divided political atmosphere that you’re describing? I enjoy reading people compliment my ideology as much as the next person, don’t get me wrong- but lately I’ve been thinking that this “good-guy/bad-guy” stuff between the right and left is a useless perpetuation of conflict.

The economically and politically powerful people in the U.S., on BOTH sides of the coin you’re describing, have realized that their personal interests are aided by increasing the suspicion that liberals and conservatives have of each other. They want us to keep fighting so that they can continue to stay on top of the scrum.

I’m going to refute a couple of things here, in the interest of fairness:

[Liberals] rally around intellectual abstractions of fairness, facts, truth and universal ideals

That’s not just liberals. Conservatives do that too. The difference lies in their opposing definitions of what is true, fair, and universal.

[Conservatives] rally around ego-tribe impulses of self, family and friends, religion, race, local culture and region in general. They tend to fear and hate those unlike themselves and thus can easily be driven to violence by crafty demagogues.

There are liberals who are just as protective of their egos and tribe as anyone else. This is because of the echo chamber that most of us live in, where we only swallow that which goes down easy. Lots of liberals fear and hate conservatives these days, and the powerful 1% love it that way. Reality check: the conservative “base” is NOT “easily driven to violence.” That’s an irresponsible assertion. There are people on both sides who are willing to be violent, and they’re not the “base.”


Perhaps we would all be better served by discarding derogatory expressions of political tropes, and walking the high road of active listening and compassion.

Scott Pen

Written by

Scott Pen

College-dropout & armchair philosopher, armed with the internet and a library card.

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