Anecdotally, the proportion of my couple-dozen-or-so close friends and family who are conservative has always been about half or a bit less, and they have alway

Anecdotally, the proportion of my couple-dozen-or-so close friends and family who are conservative has always been about half or a bit less, and they have always been, on average, much more quick to insults and mocking when politics come up. I don't think this makes them bad or uncaring people, and of course some of my liberal friends and family have the same problem, and you would never know that any of these people are anything but kind and compassionate as long as you're talking about things they can relate to and agree with at the moment... But I do think it's essentially impossible for people, on the whole, to consider each other kind and compassionate when either side resorts to that kind of attitude so incredibly freely, which seems like something nearly everybody does if my experience with friends, family, strangers, and anonymous people online is indicative (which it may not be).