This is the deep-dive, not the point.
A flashy contempt map is the most screenshot-able thing here — and the version that spreads is a grievance ripped from context. So before you read it: the finding is that we overestimate each other. This map is the structure underneath that.
Contempt depends on direction
The single clearest thing in the real data: who is talking to whom changes everything. Across the divide, contempt is aimed. Inside a group, the same words are used to say “they look down on us” — or worn with pride.
◆ Real Reddit sample · classifier not yet validated — suggestive, not findings
Across the divide
When the contempt actually crosses between groups, it's overwhelmingly aimed — not imagined.
- Liberals & progressives → Conservativesn 799
- Conservatives → Liberals & progressivesn 585
- Conservatives → Rural & working-class folksn 117
- Liberals & progressives → Rural & working-class folksn 111
- Liberals & progressives → Coastal cultural eliten 90
- Conservatives → Coastal cultural eliten 74
- Rural & working-class folks → Coastal cultural eliten 37
- Urban professionals → Rural & working-class folksn 26
- Coastal cultural elite → Rural & working-class folksn 25
- Rural & working-class folks → Urban professionalsn 24
Within a group
Talk inside a group is the opposite: people attribute the put-down to outsiders, or claim the word with pride.
- Conservatives about themselvesn 343
- Liberals & progressives about themselvesn 325
- Rural & working-class folks about themselvesn 256
- Urban professionals about themselvesn 41
- Coastal cultural elite about themselvesn 31
- Southerners about themselvesn 15
The lexicon network
The structural view: who aims which words at whom. Edges point from the group using a term toward the group it targets; thickness is volume. Tap a node or edge to inspect it.
Solid edges ◆ are real (unvalidated) Reddit data; dashed edges are illustrative fixtures.