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Because different people have different values. We tend to characterize political discussions as intellectual arguments where one side has the facts and the other is operating on delusion or fantasy, and while that may certainly be true, what's often the case is that two people are interpreting the same situation through different moral perspectives.
We tend to demonize people of different political leanings as morally corrupt or inferior because their views seem to completely exclude the things we value. For instance, in the abortion debate, pro-choice people see the other side as being cruel and authoritative by forcing women to carry and birth an unwanted child, where as pro-life people see abortion as barbaric and sadistic for killing, in their words, a baby.
The reality is that that these two sides have different moral arguments for their position. We've seen in research that people that are politically left tend to lean more towards empathy and compassion and have a higher tolerance for ambiguity, whereas people on the political right have greater regard for sanctity and loyalty, while also having a stronger disgust reflex.
What that means is that people on the left approach abortion through the struggles of the woman and understand that it would be a heavy burden on her to carry this fetus to term. There is also ambiguity to whether a fetus is the moral equivalent to a fully viable infant or whether it's lack of consciousness makes it humane to dispose of since it can register no pain and is unaware of what is happening to it.
For contrast, people on the right feel that all life is a gift from God and that it isn't humanity's place to take that. That human's have souls and therefore have sanctimonious immunity from judgement on its life. Since the fetus is the product of the woman's DNA, she owes her loyalty to the fetus and should see it through to birth and beyond. Their strong disgust reflex also makes them more sensitive to the act of aborting and basically butchering a fetus in order to terminate it.
It becomes such a heated debate among people because they're approaching the issue from two very different sets of values and morals. And their inability to communicate those values in a way that aligns with the values of the other side leads to a lot of acrimony, a lot of vilification, and pure frustration from being unable to breach the impasse. We have to embrace complexity and understand that people have their reasons for believing the things they do, and have the intellectual humility to understand that our way of seeing the world isn't the sole path of righteousness
We tend to demonize people of different political leanings as morally corrupt or inferior because their views seem to completely exclude the things we value. For instance, in the abortion debate, pro-choice people see the other side as being cruel and authoritative by forcing women to carry and birth an unwanted child, where as pro-life people see abortion as barbaric and sadistic for killing, in their words, a baby.
The reality is that that these two sides have different moral arguments for their position. We've seen in research that people that are politically left tend to lean more towards empathy and compassion and have a higher tolerance for ambiguity, whereas people on the political right have greater regard for sanctity and loyalty, while also having a stronger disgust reflex.
What that means is that people on the left approach abortion through the struggles of the woman and understand that it would be a heavy burden on her to carry this fetus to term. There is also ambiguity to whether a fetus is the moral equivalent to a fully viable infant or whether it's lack of consciousness makes it humane to dispose of since it can register no pain and is unaware of what is happening to it.
For contrast, people on the right feel that all life is a gift from God and that it isn't humanity's place to take that. That human's have souls and therefore have sanctimonious immunity from judgement on its life. Since the fetus is the product of the woman's DNA, she owes her loyalty to the fetus and should see it through to birth and beyond. Their strong disgust reflex also makes them more sensitive to the act of aborting and basically butchering a fetus in order to terminate it.
It becomes such a heated debate among people because they're approaching the issue from two very different sets of values and morals. And their inability to communicate those values in a way that aligns with the values of the other side leads to a lot of acrimony, a lot of vilification, and pure frustration from being unable to breach the impasse. We have to embrace complexity and understand that people have their reasons for believing the things they do, and have the intellectual humility to understand that our way of seeing the world isn't the sole path of righteousness