Thinking men avoid extremists of all descriptions

I've searched the internet without success to learn who authored the below fine observation, which I'm here paraphrasing:

"The battle among men, between nations, is not between good and evil, but different ideas of good" - anonymous

I often recall that wisdom when considering larger political and cultural conversations. Doubtless, relatively few advocates or actors contemporaneously believe themselves to be in the wrong. 

Of course, we know that some indeed are. Third party perspective -- evaluating ideas and actions for their general impacts on peoples and values upon which civilized societies agree -- allows for appropriate condemnation. 

(It is understood, too, that occasionally, influential global actors knowingly pursue limited benefit to the detriment of general welfare. Such persons pose extreme dangers, and are outside the scope of reasonable conversation.)

Most average citizens, whether they do or do not support President Donald Trump and the America First cause, surely are good-hearted, and possessed of positive intentions. 

I caucused for Trump, here in Iowa, and was enthusiastic in my November 2016 general election vote for him. I have variously agreed or not with specific actions he's since taken, but understand "long game" strategic ideation. (Even were Trump to accomplish nothing else, his salutary reforming of the Supreme Court will Make America Great Again for generations, preserving traditional Constitutional principles, and reasserting unique national character.)

I wasn't born in this ideological circumstance, though. Many in my intellectually and creatively-inclined family are Democrats. I was, too. For decades, I fought on the progressive side, even eventually leaving the Democrats. Long a Left independent, I helped found the Iowa Green Party and served as paid 2004 Iowa Coordinator for independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

From those Nader days, I developed heartfelt sympathy for the public interest, electoral system integrity, a belief in citizens' duty to participate democratically, a and wariness of anti-democratic corporate interests. Too, the faith in equality I'd felt while in the Democrat and Green parties was further strengthened. 

I shake my head, then, when I today hear voices on the right slur all Democrats and progressives as wicked and un-American. I know better. My own familial and activist experience tells me that is not so. 

By the same token, neither is it the case that every Trump supporter is a racist hate-monger yearning for national return to the ugliness of legally codified bigotry.

Each assertion is a cartoonishly exaggerated misrepresentation, advancing absolutely nothing save for a given propagandist's moral posturing. Worse, these deceitful characterizations deny that genuinely decent people can innocently hold different viewpoints.

Most injurious of all, so despoiling adult conversation makes impossible reasoned, fully inclusive dialogue through which greater comprehension might be got. (The divisive efforts of identity obsessives notwithstanding, we are one American people, with a common welfare.) 

I was prompted to think on all this by an internet meme I recently saw. With assaultive, declarative arrogance, it alleged that each and every Trump supporter is necessarily sympathetic to the KKK and Nazis. Every one of us, with no exceptions. (Actually knowing the tens of millions of us and what we think was apparently not necessary for this irresponsible, smearing meme crafter to feel confident in his vile assessment.)

I've found that similarly unfounded, counterproductive, and personally destructive rhetoric often spews from callow shouters of much earnestness, though they also boast underdeveloped senses of fairness and common sense.

Accusing ideological opponents broadly of racism or any other form of despicable hate does not advance conversations. It shuts them down, which generally seems its intended purpose. That tactical name-calling is hardly the resort of serious thinkers, but instead, is relied upon by those incapable of substantive argument demanding facts and logic. 

So, the reasonable person's inclination might be to mock such screamed, youthful foolishness. But, Malcolm X put it well:

"Don't be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn't do what you do or think as you think, or as fast. There was a time when you didn't know what you know, today."