Over The Transom

 This Wall Street Journal polling came in over the transom this morning. Republicans and Democrats have different perspectives over who is being discriminated against,

I find this infuriating, because the design of the poll at least seems on first look to not differentiate between discrimination by the government itself (or by institutions such as employers and schools who are answerable to the government) and private prejudice and discrimination on the streets and individual affairs. I think those two types of discrimination both occur, and in different directions, and it matters.

It allows both groups to be aghast. "You can't really mean that there is no prejudice against black people or trans people at all!" leading to discussions that are already going nowhere beginning "I didn't say that." The polling almost begs people to enter pointless arguments.

I suppose it does illustrate that different people in our society hear different things when identical words are said. I suspected that, but putting numbers to it has some value.