Regarding your paraphrase: "there's plenty of ignorance on both sides," I am reminded of Trump's statement that there are good people on both sides, both aggressive neo-Nazis and young people wanting to stop the insanity. So I am not quite saying that there is ignorance on both sides, but rather on all sides. The ignorance is inherent in our psychological conditioning. But in saying this I also clearly see the difference between a deceitful agenda that results in suffering versus an agenda affected by human ignorance and egoism that results in suffering even when the intent is to be beneficent.

In essence it seems that you're saying that today's conservatives are messed up far more than liberals (or leftists as we are now called). If I look at this from the standard of what causes the most suffering then I agree. I also agree that conservatives pretend to have a philosophy, but it is incoherent, horribly conflicted, manipulative, as changeable as the weather, and many times evil. And I would call this evil, in many cases, evil genius because it is wrought from knowing and applying psychological principles to manipulate and harm people. People, at their root, are scared and insecure, and the powers that be in the conservative movement know this well and capitalize on it.

Lastly, yes, there's an agenda in humanism too, but an agenda does not equate to malicious intent even if it produces unwanted side effects, etc.

Overall, I wonder if we are both using the word "knowledge" in the same way.

Thank you for this exchange!