Just to drive this point home for the quiet listeners at the back of the house, I’ve had very long conversations with conservatives (I’m in a red area) who actually get more distrustful the more you relate to them. I’ve been told to my face that nobody cares that much about other people, and I was clearly only pretending to in order to make them listen to me. That it was obvious, because nobody cares that much. That empathy can only be manipulative, and is never real.

It took me years to understand this isn’t a contradiction, but that since they can’t imagine caring that much, I must be fake.

My whole outlook changed once I realised that. It’s insane, but many people literally can’t envision caring, and they think you’re fake and just want recognition for doing so.

Several of these surveys take on a different meaning once you realise there are fundamentally different perspectives like this.

e: and this is one of the biggest divides with conservatives. Simple word choice will not bridge this gap.