Studies Confirm: Conservatives More Tolerant Than Liberals
We are often told, usually by liberals, that liberals are exceedingly tolerant. “Tolerance” is one of their buzzwords but, in practice, that can be awfully hard to see. While they are exceedingly tolerant of their own views, they tend to get a little upset when confronted with alternative opinions. We were reminded of this recently when conservative feminist Christina Hoff Sommers spoke at Oberlin College. Furious and frightened that Oberlin would invite such a person onto their campus, a group of campus leftists quickly created a designated “safe space” where the delicate young flowers enrolled there could retreat so as not to be exposed to a politically incorrect point of view.
Similarly, a recent New York Times article opens with the story of a 27 year-old woman who unfollowed Facebook friends who don’t support Hillary Clinton. She is quoted in the piece as saying, “I’ve lost touch with many great childhood friends of mine due to social media providing a platform for political discussion.”
Heaven forbid she should have a discussion with someone with whom she doesn’t agree. The piece goes on to say that “with the presidential race heating up, a torrent of politically charged commentary has flooded Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site, with some users deploying their ‘unfollow’ buttons like a television remote to silence distasteful political views.”
The article then moves into how Facebook’s algorithms determine what a user will see, and ends with the positive note that there will still be cat videos for those avoiding politics. However, the article doesn’t really address the fact that this is an alarming social commentary.
Living in an echo chamber isn’t healthy. Iron sharpens iron. It’s both worthwhile and responsible to hear opposing points of view and to have respectful debate and discussion. This is how we learn and grow, even if nobody in the conversation has a change of opinion. One doesn’t need to engage in political discussions, but filtering out a friend so that those opinions are never seen only makes your world more insular. Blocking out every opposing viewpoint reeks of fear of the “other.”
So, which side is listening, and which side is putting their fingers in their ears and singing “lalalalala” with increasing volume? According to a Pew Research Study, 44% of people who are, as the study defines them, “consistently liberal” have hidden, blocked, defriended or stopped following someone on social media due to differences in political beliefs. Only 31% of those who are consistently conservative did the same. This silencing goes beyond social media, too. The same study showed that 24% of liberals have ended a friendship over politics, while that is the case for only 16% of conservatives.
I can hear the liberals now suggesting that this is because conservatives only have conservative friends, so there’s nobody with whom to cut ties. But I know that’s not true for me or my friends, and the Pew study confirms that my experience is not unique. Liberals are also less likely to have friends on the other side of the aisle than conservatives, so that argument won’t fly.
So, thus far, the data shows that conservatives are more likely to have friends with different viewpoints, and that we are more likely to listen to them. We are also more likely to seek out alternative viewpoints. A recent study by StatSocial, as reported by The Washington Examiner’s Becket Adams, found that conservatives on Twitter are more likely to follow those with opposing viewpoints than are those on the left. StatSocial’s CEO is quoted in the piece as saying “People on the Left are more insular. They’re less interested in others’ opinions.”
The data shows that liberals are less likely to learn about, listen to or be friends with those with opposing viewpoints. So, liberals, are you comfortable with that? With shutting out other viewpoints and only listening to those who support your own? I wouldn’t be, and that’s why I welcome and seek out other points of view. I enjoy learning why people believe and vote the way they do, as I think we all should.
I won’t pretend I don’t like a good video of cats trying to force their friendship upon dogs. But the country is becoming more and more polarized, and we are never going to get anywhere if we won’t listen to each other. Enough with shutting out dissent. Remember: our beliefs are as different from yours as yours are from ours, and we are still willing to listen.