Fear plays a part, but it's something much more important than that. It's trust and belief.
The primary difference is people who trust the government, trust the doctors, trust the media, trust in the fact that people are good or honest or think the way they do. It's a nice sentiment, and I wish it could ever be true, but it's naive. This is the key difference between the left and the right. The people in power also know this, and use this to move the perception of the trusters farther and farther away from the skeptics, until there can be no discussion between them.
The left needs the right to protect them, because the idea that people can be honest and ethical is important, but without the reality based logical understanding of the possible awfulness of man, it gets abused and taken advantage of.
I would definitely agree that naivety plays a huge part. But I also think that is a direct result of the dumbing down of folks through the education system. There was a time in this country when people weren’t so naive.
I dont necessarily think so. These trusting people (artists, women, young people) have ALWAYS been trusting. And we have always protected and guided them. Thats what the patriarchy was. Our civilization worked because we allowed for that innocent and naive hope to flourish and feed our positive outlook, while reigning in its myopic idiocy with realism and integrity. The left will ALWAYS wail and gnash their teeth about the unfairness of the world because their world view can't be a reality. The right will always point that out to no avail because the left can't understand it. When strong honest men rule the system works. When they dint it doesn't.
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