My day job is online customer service, part of a team that supports tens of millions of people across America. I've worked directly with thousands of people over the years from small towns to big cities, and everyone in between.
From my personal experience, I can tell you that pretty much all Americans have a common set of values, mostly derived from the same shared value. It's the notion that you should treat other people like you want to be treated. If you feel that, you feel that people should treat others fairly. We should all compete on a level playing field, and play by the same rule; that's how to get ahead.
Beyond that, people generally feel that once they've provided for themselves, they should give someone else a break. That's the basis for all philanthropy.
Sure, people make other decisions about values for lots of other reasons. However, our shared values unite us; we have more in common than that which separates us.
I've found this to be true of people across America, whether they live in rural areas, small towns or the biggest cities. It's been my everyday experience for over 13 years on the job.
There are exceptions to this, like people who feel that it's OK to prey on other people. The predators are a very small portion of any population. I'm guessing it's less than 1 percent. We sometimes feel that there're a lot more of them than there are. My guess is that humans are hard-wired to perceive dangers at a higher level than everything else around us. Exaggeration of danger is a good way to get attention.
People who play by the rules know that there are predators around, and often they watch out for each other. However, there are lots of smart predators that specialize in gaining the confidence of good people, and the predators are REALLY good at deception.
Con-men hardly ever work alone — they usually enlist a whole contingent of other people who help them perpetuate a scam. Their goal is to help the con-men scare people into reacting out of emotions rather than responding out of reason.
One technique favored by con-men is to emphasize the apparent differences in values between people. Their M.O. is to find some issue that people disagree on, then exaggerate it to create a sense of "us versus them" and then get people angry.
Con-men often insist that they’re on the side of “safety,” and that anyone who doesn’t participate in their scam is reckless, dangerous, or doesn’t value security. It’s easy for people to get caught up in a scam when they feel threatened.
The con-men create wedge issues to get attention, perhaps to sell books, enhance TV ratings, or to steal elections. What normally tips you off about those kinds of con-men is the attempt to divide Americans, talking about "small-town values" versus big-city or even Hollywood values. And again, from my experience, we have more in common that unites us than that separates us.
I feel that we should all hang together, and not fall, once again, for that scam!
Could be true, but how about those who want their personal Christian values shoved down their neighbor's throats by law?
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