Who Disagrees?

I'm going to say something which I used to think was completely obvious. But I've recently realized that it's not obvious to everyone. And I've heard some people explicitly dispute it.

I'm going to say it about myself, but I think that it's true of pretty much everyone, even those who purport to disagree.

Here goes:

I care about my own children more than I care about my neighbor's children.

I care about my neighbor's children more than I care about the children of a stranger in a different city.

I care about the children of a stranger in a different city more than I care about the children of a stranger in a different country.

Obviously there are complexities to this, and different types of relationships and hierarchies, but my point is that there is a hierarchy. To this I will add that I personally am not ashamed of any of this in the slightest. It's biologically natural and it's legitimate. Though it turns out that some people would be very ashamed to admit to such a thing, and therefore say that they believe otherwise.

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