The Daily Note with James A. Brown · James A. Brown

Can We Trust Our Neighbors? A Moral Inquiry

March 14, 2026·11 min·1 clip

Pew Research found 53% of American adults say the people around them are morally bad, but the data shows that belief doesn't hold up.

The episode opens with James Brown introducing a Pew Research study that surveyed over 30,000 people in 25 countries about whether people in their country have good or bad morals. In 24 countries, people said yes, but in the United States, 53% of adults said people around them are morally bad. Brown then explains that Pew tested this belief against nine specific behaviors like drug use, gambling, and affairs, and the belief didn't hold up—Americans are among the most permissive on substances but condemn affairs like most countries, placing them in the middle globally. He notes that America is a melting pot, so it makes sense they'd be average. Brown argues that into the vacuum of lost shared spaces came a media machine that makes money by telling us people on the other side are morally corrupt, and isolation made us easy targets since we no longer encounter strangers doing kind acts. He acknowledges real degradations like road rage and online discourse but emphasizes data shows these aren't the whole picture. Brown introduces another Pew finding that 68% of Americans say you don't need God to be moral, a record high, which he ties to a lost moral vocabulary. He concludes that fear and anger fill the gap left by lost shared spaces and moral language, leading to assumptions that neighbors are morally bad. The episode ends with Brown asking listeners to think about people they've written off and whether they actually know their moral views, urging them to give more chances.

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