Let's make fun of Trump, bash him, etc. while we can!

[Bob Butler 54]

(08-29-2016, 09:38 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: Values lock -- one cannot legitimately understand why others hold the views that they have, and probably can't legitimately express the views of others.

So how can someone be wrong?

1. Intellectual inadequacy, a/k/a stupidity or ignorance.
2. Insanity and delusion.
3. Gross inadequacy of moral standards, as with sociopaths and sadists.
4. Selling out to the highest bidder.
5. Myopic class interest.
6. Brainwashing.
7. Fear -- fear the tyrant who can do anything to one or the God that can have one burn in Hell for the slightest deviation.
8. Revenge-seeking against old enemies.

I would start looking in other places, though my list contains rewords of yours.

Self Interest:  If one is living day to day, having trouble finding a good job, living on Main Street day to day, one is apt to sympathize with Demand Side economics, approve of government assisted health care and otherwise lean blue.  If one has a large stock portfolio, is secure in one's job, has a large inheritance, then tax breaks to the wealthy, reduced capitol gains taxes, and paying one's own way rather than sharing burdens through tax and spend seem like good ideas.

Cultural Difference: One inherits a lot of one's parent's beliefs.  What worked for them gets preached to the new generation.  Churches and schools are a similar sources for explanations of how things work and ought to work.  For many, it is hard to let go of one's upbringing.

Situation Difference:  If one is living in wide open spaces, self reliance and independence can be productive, prudent and wise.  There is just more travel involved to get together and play team games.  If one lives in an urban area, the opposite can be true.

These are three common, broad and bland examples, but there are a lot more reasons for sincere disagreement.  If one is in the habit of solving a given problem in a given way, and it generally works, there is going to be sincere resistance to giving up the tried and true for an untried scheme.

Now, I'm not saying the things on your list never happen.  I just prefer to assume that someone I disagree with is intelligent, sane, and acting reasonably based on the world as he sees it.  I will try to maintain a benefit of the doubt as long as reasonably possible.  Someone might come from a different environment, a different culture, and thus have different world views and values.  However, I assume that the culture evolved to suit the place he came from.  Common cultures come to exist for a reason.  Understanding said reasons is a vital part of the process of political discussion.  If one hasn't made a sincere attempt to understand where the other guy is coming from, one shouldn't knee jerk instantly assume that he is evil, stupid, insane, brainwashed, etc...

That is the biggest difference between us.  I am ready to assume sincere differences between cultures, world views and values.  You are far more apt to assume that anyone who disagrees with you has major league mental or moral problems.  I consider the assumption that any disagreement in world views and values must be due to some sort of moral or mental deficiency to be a major and most problematic symptom of values lock.  Anyone who assumes that your list of reasons for disagreement above are common reasons for political disagreement is apt to be having values lock problems.