This appeals to a simple dichotomy which is wired in our brains, the yes/no operator, the good/bad operator, which exists even in the very primitive brain. One can easily train animal behavior through operant conditioning.
But what happens is you get strong instinctual reactions on both sides, as you approach them, that reduce or even eradicate nuance, reason, proportion, and the capacity to use a continuum for perception. Good is good. We seek this feeling. Bad is bad. We seek to avoid this feeling. And in both cases, most people are quite able and content to lie to themselves about both. Where in the New Testament does Christ say to torture heretics, and wage aggressive wars in the pursuit of Christianizing the world? But it has happened, often, and across large land masses and involving large numbers of people.
Is it good or bad? This is a question based in fear. What is it? What is interesting about it? How can I learn more about it? These are the questions of a civilized mind.
The good/bad instinctual reaction is based in a biological history where quick decisions meant life or death.
It survives today through traumatized children, and the adults they become. Even today, we have not evolved into a seeking and learning society. It may be that good/bad operation has been expanded and refined, but anyone who says “science” is in inherent good or bad, fails to perceive with nuance. We want so badly to simplify the processes of perception, and to simplify the signs of the tribes, to make clear who we belong to. We want a unique, shared truth, that returns us to biologically primitive times.
When a leftist shouts “racist” with all the reflection of a knee reacting to a rubber mallet, that is a conditioned response. They are rewarded for this behavior by their tribe. They get what they want and need, and truth–lacking its own voice, and being forced to speak through people who are violently silenced–need be heard no more than the counsels of compassion were heard in the Spanish Inquisition.
I feel humanity is at the bottom of an immense, perhaps infinite well. We are barely better than animals, and share a great deal with them. I believe there are in fact angels, and angels above the angels. Somewhere in there is genuine freedom.
Our task, at this level of existence, is to do what we can to stop reacting like squirrels, fishes, caterpillars, and grasshoppers. We have a long way to go.