Have you seen the above heat map before? It was popularized on X.com, and is often used as a meme when conservatives and liberals are at odds with irreconcilable differences in priorities.
The moral circle rings of the heat map represent the range of all things from (1) all of your immediate family in the middle, to (16) all things in existence on the outer ring. Apparently, self-identifying conservatives and liberals value-ranked the rings, and the results are inverse of each other.
As a disclaimer, the origin is disputed, and I don’t vouch for the integrity of the study, if it exists at all. What I can vouch for is, when I have shown it to conservatives and liberals, they have both said that it not only tracks but also believe they have made the obvious moral rank-order.
When I first saw this heat map, my first instinct was that there is an evolutionary explanation for the results. For example, if someone’s ancestors came from a harsh environment, but had enough sustenance for themselves, they would be more inclined to believe that excluding outsiders was better for their survival, and therefore exclusion could be encoded in their DNA. Inversely, people whose ancestors came from a scarce environment that relied on a large group banding together to produce enough to provide for everyone, they would be inclined to inclusion, and that could be programmed into their DNA.
Not being an evolutionary biologist, (1) I had no confidence in this theory, and (2) after the US presidential election 2024 witnessed something that made me change my hypothesis.
Being terminally online, immediately following the election there was yes, a lot of basking and gloating on the right, but also a lot of cope on the left, before the exodus to Bluesky started. The particular cope that I took note of was “college graduates overwhelmingly voted for Kamala Harris”, as if to say that smart people are simply and unfortunately outnumbered in the United States. When I saw this, I had the same gut, reflexive response over and over: “a degree doesn’t make you smart, it makes you specialized”.
Gradually I started formulating a new hypothesis about the heat map. In times of abundance, having a broad group of diversely specialized people in your network ensures that all needs are met, and progress can continue unmitigated, regardless of how many new people are introduced. An abundant, specialized population is by its nature inclusive, because no one person is capable of doing all things.
On the other hand, working people who are not college educated tended to me more generalists. When you have a small group of capable people who are basically able to take care of themselves, they will tend to be exclusive. They can’t reach the synergy-driven pinnacle of wealth that the specialists have the potential of. The pool of assets is limited, so there is an incentive to lean into exclusivity. Those people who will be a net negative to the group cannot participate.
The crux of the hypothesis should be coming into view: There is a special kind of pride among the uneducated middle-class in America. It comes from making your way into the middle class without playing the university and corporate game. There is a sense that your hard work and intelligence beat the system, when you’ve been told from childhood that you need to go to college to be successful in America. It involves significant risk to generate wealth without corporate backing, so all things considered, that sense of pride is not difficult to understand.
Therefore, when the borders are opened and there is even one federal benefit offered to an otherwise illegal immigrant, imagine the resentment of the people who were making it here against all odds, from whom the government only takes, and offers nothing. They know their money goes to Ukraine, Israel, a slew of other countries, immigrants, and corporations, and they can’t even get healthcare? “Shut it down, cut off the border, we’ll take care of ourselves”.
Once I thought about the college-educated mindset overlayed on the heat map, it all made so much sense. The educated, specialized corporate populace has less inherent pride in their work because they are a part of something bigger. A cog in a corporate machine. They may have pride in their company, but in their work? It’s more difficult to define how your contribution generated value. Inclusion makes more sense because it come with less risk.
There are more insights to glean from the heat map, that I am continuing to think about. But this is the one for today: “It doesn’t make you smart, it makes you specialized”.
Jarom Reid 