Left-wingers and right-wingers not only see the world differently, as Jonathan Haidt explains, they experience the world different. Much of our political orientation comes from our biology.
I wonder if your politics can change your physiology?
When I think back over my life, I don’t recall getting offended, but when I push my introspecting, I recall getting upset much more offend when I was experimenting with the Marxist worldview (from ages 19-22). Then racism and blaming the poor would often cause a heartfelt emotional reaction in me, much like what women have. I’d get a major case of the feelz.
Aside from those three years, I’ve been right-wing. In recent years, I’ve moved further to the right — meaning even more against equality. I’ve come to see conflicts in Darwinian terms — that different forms of life have different interests that often place them in life and death conflicts with other forms of life. Along with a Darwinian worldview comes reduced belief in the capacity for freedom of choice. As one reduces one’s belief in free will, there’s less reason to get upset about other people’s choices.
So, for me, I find a right-wing perspective leads to me rarely if ever getting offended, while a left-wing point of view led to me constantly getting offended. The feeling of offense triggered changes in my body chemistry while the feeling of being beyond offense creates a feeling of solidity. That’s why I wonder if a worldview might change your physiology down to the cellular level.
