Us vs. Them

It's so much easier to paint "them" as less than us - less intelligent, less moral, simply...less. There's no possible way that we don't have the high ground. If we didn't, well, surely we would change our ways. But we also know that's not the way it works. 
It's much easier to simply attack the "other" and paint them as something less than human. As soon as we allow ourselves to empathize with them, and realize that, like us, they are simply accumulations of their experiences. It would also require us to add nuance to our perspective, and not paint the world in black and white.
In Under and Alone, William Queen writes about his aunt dying while he was undercover inside the Mongols motorcycle gang. His aunt was essentially his mother, as she had raised him. After coming back from her funeral, he noted that none of his fellow ATF agents or others within the bureau offered him condolences. Conversely, every member of the gang offered their condolences, hugs, and sincere statements of love. These hardened criminals, the supposed dregs of society, showed more love, support, and compassion than the supposed best. Does this make them good people? Probably not. But it does show that we cannot simply paint a person, much less an entire group, as entirely good or entirely bad. There are shades of gray everywhere.

“If I can add some nuance and complexity and some context and compassion. If I can get people to think about walking a mile in the other guy’s moccasins, or pretend like you want to, I can feel like I’m adding something that is unusual. When people say it’s so refreshing, you wonder why it’s refreshing to try to see the other person’s view point? Shouldn’t that just be how we are?” –Dan Carlin