Shownotes
Today, we dive into some eye-opening data from Pew Research that reveals a surprising perception about morality in America. Despite a staggering 53% of American adults believing the people around them are morally bad, the research shows that when it comes to specific behaviors, we’re not trailing behind other countries. In fact, we find ourselves in the middle of the pack on various moral issues, which really makes you wonder where this negative perception stems from. I believe it's largely due to a cultural retreat we've experienced, where we’ve become more isolated from one another, making it easy for media narratives to shape our views on morality. As we unpack these findings, let’s challenge ourselves to reconsider our assumptions about those around us and the shared moral vocabulary that seems to be fading away.
Takeaways:
- The Pew Research study revealed that Americans perceive their fellow citizens as morally bad, despite data showing we're in the middle of the pack globally.
- Cultural isolation has contributed to a belief that people are morally corrupt, with many not seeing the inherent decency in those around them.
- We need to challenge our assumptions about the people we interact with, as many of us have preconceived notions that may not reflect reality.
- The decline of a shared moral vocabulary has left room for fear and anger to fill the gaps in our understanding of one another.
- Despite our perceptions, Americans are not the worst morally; we often fall in the middle when compared to other countries on various behaviors.
- Engaging with those outside our established circles could help us rediscover the common decency that exists among our neighbors.
Links referenced in this episode:
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy
Transcripts
Want to talk to James?
Speaker A:Leave him a comment on jamesabrown.net this is the Daily Note.
Speaker B:Welcome back to the Daily Note Live.
Speaker B:I'm James A.
Speaker B:Brown.
Speaker B:Thanks for joining me.
Speaker B:You can check out what we can check out what we're doing@jamesabrown.net that's jamesabrown.net so let me try to put all this together because we've been sitting with this number for about an hour now, and I want to make sure we're clear about what we found.
Speaker B:Pew Research asked more than 30,000 people in 25 countries a simple question.
Speaker B:Do the people in your country have good morals or bad morals?
Speaker B:And in 24 of those countries, the answer was sure.
Speaker B:In one country, the answer was, nah, 53% of American adults say the people around them are morally bad.
Speaker B:Pew tested this belief against nine specific behaviors, and the belief didn't hold up for behavior after behavior.
Speaker B:We're among the most morally permissive societies on the planet on substances like drugs and marijuana and gambling.
Speaker B:We condemn affairs, but so is almost the entire planet.
Speaker B:We don't like it when you cheat on your spouse.
Speaker B:We fall in the middle of the pack on just about everything.
Speaker B:But we but about, about half of us believe the rest of the country is, is morally bad.
Speaker B:So where did that come from?
Speaker B:Well, I think it came from a retreat.
Speaker B:We have been pulling back from each other culturally.
Speaker B:We stopped going to the places where we used to see each other with our own eyes, that most people are decent.
Speaker B:And into that vacuum came a machine that makes money on telling us the opposite.
Speaker B:A media environment built on the idea that the people on the other side of the screen are not just wrong, but morally corrupt.
Speaker B:And we were easy targets because we didn't have any counter evidence anymore.
Speaker B:We were isolated.
Speaker B:We're not seeing people who are different than us anymore.
Speaker B:We didn't run into a neighbor who'd shovel your sidewalk without being asked.
Speaker B:We didn't have a stranger at a diner that we saw all the time.
Speaker B:You know, we stopped having moments where we interacted with people who we didn't already know, who we didn't already have established relationships with.
Speaker B:And I know some of you are going to say, look, James, people have really gotten worse.
Speaker B:Look at these Republicans, look at these Democrats, look at all the road rage.
Speaker B:Look at the way that people talk to each other online.
Speaker B:And look, I think some of that is accurate.
Speaker B:Honestly.
Speaker B:These are things that I've talked about a lot on this show and on the Daily Note.
Speaker B:I think we've seen A degrading of customer service.
Speaker B:I think we've seen a degrading of online discourse.
Speaker B:I'm not going to tell you your experience is wrong.
Speaker B:It's not.
Speaker B:We've all been burned by people.
Speaker B:We've all watched somebody behave terribly in a parking lot or a comment section.
Speaker B:It's all real and it counts.
Speaker B:I've seen it.
Speaker B:But here's what I keep coming back to.
Speaker B:Those moments are real.
Speaker B:Yes, yes, they are very real.
Speaker B:But they're not the whole picture.
Speaker B:And the data tells us that, that they're not even the most of the picture that we encounter day to day.
Speaker B:If America's really morally bad or really more morally bad than people in other countries, they'll show up in the other behaviors that Pew Research tested.
Speaker B:But it doesn't.
Speaker B:There are 25 countries, nine behaviors, and we're not the worst at anything.
Speaker B:We're in the middle, which, you know, it makes sense.
Speaker B:American Americans are a melting pot by nature.
Speaker B:We, we absorb people from all over the world and, and we, we, we've come up with our own crazy culture.
Speaker B:So if even we as.
Speaker B:Say that we're, you know, we're about in the middle morally on, on a slew of different cross tabs, as they say in the polling business.
Speaker B:So on individual issues, we say that, hey, that they're, that people are morally okay.
Speaker B:But when we ask the big question, are we moral?
Speaker B:Are we, are the people around us morally good or morally bad?
Speaker B:We come up with the conclusion.
Speaker B:Half of us come up with the conclusions that, that our neighbors are morally bad.
Speaker B:I think it's because we are looking at reality through an unhealthy frame.
Speaker B:Because if that frame were healthy, if you discover things that differ from your reality, you adapt your train of thought.
Speaker B:Instead, what we have done is we've devolved into a trench warfare that I believe is harmful, harmful to who we are and who we can be as a nation.
Speaker B:Now, I want to close with something that I'm going to come back to in the weeks ahead because this Pew data opens a ton of different doors I can walk through and we'll walk through.
Speaker B:Fewer people now say you need to believe in God to be moral.
Speaker B:America, 68% say you don't need God to have good values.
Speaker B:That's the record.
Speaker B:Now, I'm not saying that's good or bad.
Speaker B:I mean, I am on God.
Speaker B:I am a.
Speaker B:Maybe I used to be an atheist and now I'm an.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:What I'm saying is that this used to be A reflection of a moral vocabulary in this country, a set of ideas that we could agree on, a connective tissue that, hey, at least we know that those people who, who are unlike me had something that I understand now.
Speaker B:That vocabulary, that moral vocabulary is thinning.
Speaker B:And when cultures lose a shared vocabulary, much like we lost shared spaces, something always fills that gap.
Speaker B:And I think what fills that gap is fear and anger and suspicion and faulty beliefs.
Speaker B:With the assumption that the person next to us in line is morally bad.
Speaker B:So here's the question I want to leave you with, and I mean this sincerely.
Speaker B:I want you to think about the person in your life that you haven't talked to in a while.
Speaker B:The neighbors you know, you don't know, the family member use you've written off.
Speaker B:Do you actually know what who they are morally, how they see the world.
Speaker B:Do you actually have an idea of who they are?
Speaker B:And I bet that answer is no.
Speaker B:If that answer is no, I think you need to start reconsidering the people around you.
Speaker B:I think you need to.
Speaker B:Give more of us a chance.
Speaker B:So what do you think?
Speaker B:Let me know in three ways.
Speaker B:You can leave a comment on jamesabrown.net that's jamesabrown.net you can email me at james the dailynote.net or you can send me a text or a voicemail.
Speaker B: -: Speaker B:We might have you on the show.
Speaker B:This is the Daily Note.
Speaker B:I'm James A.
Speaker B:Brown.
Speaker B:More in a moment.
Speaker A:Slowing down the news.
