Americans: Still Pretty Judge-y

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/06/americans-still-pretty-judge-y/372414/

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Oh, America, land of hot-dog-eating contests and sugar-related self-doubt and tweeting nuns. Never change.

And in the past decade, it certainly hasn't seemed to—at least not in terms of how its citizens think about moral issues. In a survey released last week, Gallup reports that people in the U.S. haven't changed how they feel about most social and ethical issues during the last ten years. In general, Americans think the state of the country's morality isn't great: In answer to the most vaguely worded question ever—"How would you rate the overall state of moral values in this country today"—78 percent said "poor" or "only fair." And 74 percent said things are only getting worse.

The most interesting thing about this isn't that Americans are exceptionally grumpy about their neighbors' moral fiber—it's that they've always been this way. Since 2002, the polling organization has found that roughly three-fourths of respondents feel pessimistic about the state of morality in the United States. They felt most positive about it in 2004, when 27 percent of respondents said "moral values" were improving; but 2006 through 2008 were the darkest years, when only 11 percent said the same.

But this measure only hints at a vague discontent among the masses. Opinions on specific ethical issues are much more telling about the nature of American judginess.