No Stupid Questions

The right wing has a long history of real repression. Think slavery, segregation, Jim Crow (simply saying it doesn't do it justice), voter suppression, KKK, mob violence, etc. As much as I hate to realize it, they were fundamentally built on violence and hate. It's never left them. Especially the mentality, which is "my way or violence".

This is also why they project the left is violent. Because they are, so they assume everyone else is too. So they try to portray left groups as violent. Same with having an agenda. They have one, so they assume everyone else has one too. It's all projection.

I honestly don't think there's much of a difference between these groups. Both have lots of people hating the guts of another group. And both are substantially radical in views. This all is just crazy

This is the broadest stroke I can make of it:

Conservatives decisions are based on instincts and lower brain functions like fear and hatred.

Liberals decisions are based on marginal benefit and rational decision making based on a combination of large and small scale unbiased data and historical outcomes.

There are tons of outliers and vocal minorities that break the rule, but basically a conservative thinks a liberal should face eternal punishment, while a liberal thinks they're not fit to judge a conservative.

Because we have elderly people in our life that we care about and they weren't monsters when we were young. Think of how much effort it would take you to objectively look at ideas your grandparents held/hold and what it says about them. I know I can't do it. I can't see my grandfather as a person who used to refer to homosexuals with a word I won't repeat. The man who took me on so many hikes and fishing trips? No way.

Now extend it. Do you really want to go through your life thinking everyone passed a certain age is a terrible person? So evil becomes misguided.

The reverse of course isn't true. No one gives a shit about a 30 year old. They ain't cute and they are starting to run stuff.

If it makes you feel any better I'm on your side and I get the same whiny milquetoast doormat bullshit from liberals. They think they can get power to abdicate itself by begging, and they think violence is barbaric despite it being the only way things have ever progressed anywhere.

You and I are on different parts of the internet it seems. As a non American, your guys' politics frighten and confuse me. The amount of hatred seems pretty damn comparable on both sides. Also neither of your partied are actually very different. Just different flavours of authoritarian.

It's the classic good vs evil.

Evil hates everyone and good is displeased with evil.

Because we're better? :)

Gunna take this as Liberal/Conservative as party brand names rather than strict social ideology and you're talking about "the left" more generally.

I think the short answer is empathy. When you dig down to the bottom a lot of the discussion on the left talks about different forms of human needs. A need to feel accepted and loved, desires to exist publicly without fear... It is a radical form of empathy that asks you to put yourself in multiple pairs of shoes and see the world through perspectives you aren't naturally born into. The ultimate aim is to achieve a picture of humanity which is inclusive of the widest possible range of understanding.

In that way "Conservatives" are also people. It is not impossible to empathize with their issues. It takes a lot cognitively to internalize this new data and a lot of the rejection from the right comes not from outright cruelty but a desire for things to be and remain simple and easy. They don't want to stretch themselves and are scared of a world where that is something they are forced to do. The issue is a lot of the people selling the pitchforks on that side are doing it because it benefits them. That desire to understand encompasses the motives of individual Conservatives and splits them apart. A lot of the issues Conservatives have is that the left is "preachy" that we act like we're better than them and that does come from somewhere. Some leftists do just want to be the smartest most correct person in the room but others are just waiting for the Conservatives they know to be more understanding of other people who they learned about so they stop being mean. The person who pitties the school bully is often their target because that empathy seems to the bully like condescension.

Liberals hate leftists like conservatives hate liberals.

Liberals are a hop and a skip away from being conservatives.