It took me a seriously long time to read this book, but it was worth it. I think I will need to read it again to absorb everything better, now that I got the main concepts down. The author is a great teacher and explains everything step by step, but it's still a lot of information. The author asks you to empathize, which I really engaged with, but it took more energy out of me than I expected.

The main concept presented here is that human morality is a combination of 6 different foundations or "tastes":
1. Care/Harm
2. Fairness/Cheating
3. Loyalty/Betrayal
4. Authority/Subversion
5. Sanctity/Degradation
6. Liberty/Oppression

Which pillars you put emphasis on, the amount of emphasis you put on each, and the expressions of how you show concern for each category will align you with broad political categories.



This chart, taken from the book, shows that people on the political left usually value the care/harm and fairness/cheating principles far above all other things. Their "moral palette" is much narrower than someone on the political right, to the point where, say, respect for authority might not be on some people's moral palette at all.

Another big difference that causes disagreements is that two people might have the same value, but that value is expressed in different ways. Let's take Fairness for example. Person A says, "It's not fair that I work so hard and 35% of my income goes to paying for someone else's lifestyle." Person B says, "It's not fair that some people don't have the same access to education and good jobs as you and I do, so we should try to close those gaps with tax-funded programs." This realization, that we actually do have core things in common with each other, opened up the empathy gate in my mind.

I think I truly gained some humility while reading this book. I hope I will continue to be mindful of different emphases on *shared values* with people I disagree with.