Funny, I was thinking of starting a thread on the same topic. Though I don't have any research to back it up--really, nothing more than my anecdotal experience among people of differing political alignments--I do very much agree with the general sentiment.
The political world is so divided because people live in different realities. Though the study you posted seemed to focus on certain, narrow questions, as a broad fact that's obvious. People seem to either think Bush is the devil or the messiah. People think the Iraq war was stupid, evil, foolish, and unwarranted, or else it was brilliant, good, wise, and overdue. But by and large these aren't value differences ("I don't think we should go to war over X") but
factual differences ("I think Iraq under Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.") I mean, yeah, there are some differences of both types, but it is alarming the degree to which people don't share a common perception of the basic facts.
In my own writings, I have humorously referred to this phenomenon as people being on opposite sides of "the delusion fence"--i.e., I think you're delusional, and you think I'm delusional. It does seem to be how the world is these days, and I think it's a very, very, very bad thing. I wish I knew what to do about it, though--I know firsthand how hard it is to dissuade people from illusions they like, even when those illusions are demonstrably false! (How much more difficult, then, when the relevant facts are thousands of miles away and have been filtered through a dozen minds before we get them.)
Now of course, I disagree with you about
who's delusional. I kinda hopelessly think I'm right and the other guys are delusional. Or maybe both sides are to some degree. Still, it's a good observation.
Some very specific questions in that study, so I'm not too terribly interested in examining it that closely. But a broad dialogue accross the delusion fence is certainly called for. I applaud the effort, and may participate more heavily...
... when I'm not so busy writing something else. Argh. Gotta go starting interesting threads right when it's crunch-time getting ready for a class, don't you now?
