Leon has always been justice and fairness oriented. He believes eveyone should have a chance for a peaceful life. He's a very sympathetic man. But I don't think he naively believes everyone is equal; he's aware certain people hold more power than others. And he's pretty vocal throughout the series of his contempt of this.

I'm unsure exactly where this stems from, as the canon is very much schrödinger canon atm, since it's only from supplementary interviews, and not been referenced again.

The tension that's compelling, is that he's on the precipice of being nihilistic, but doesn't fall in. If that makes sense.

I personally have always seen us as animals. Because that's what we are. We still hold our instincts close, as modern human society is a fairly new concept in comparison to our existence. But being in modern life, we should widen our in-group, we should strive for compassion and coalition. As we would in our smaller communities. The scope has simply enlarged. As the poet Shane Koyczan said, we are atlas now.

As a human being you have the ability to think through your actions, not just react on instinct. Many animals have this ability. And the lack of awareness I think, is what causes a lot of friction in societies: people operating on autopilot in-group instincts, status-seeking, fear responses, or irrational emotional heuristics without stepping back to ask themselves where it comes from. online arguments, political polarization, even everyday misunderstandings often boil down to unexamined reactions..

There's nothing wrong with instincts, they're quite useful. But they clash with modern life when unexamined.