Of all the horrible things that hard-right populism is doing to our country, maybe the worst is the attack on one of our best human traits.
Empathy, you might think, is a good thing. But not to hard-right Christian nationalists according to a recent AP story. “Empathy becomes toxic when it encourages you to affirm sin, validate lies or support destructive policies,” said Allie Beth Stuckey, author of “Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion.”
Specifically, Stuckey and the hard-right Christian nationalists don’t like empathy for women seeking abortions, gay and transgender people, those who support more immigration and, well, pretty much anybody with any views that weren’t popular in the 16th century.
At one time this sort of nuttiness would have been laughable, maybe even pitiable. But in this environment, with these people in power, this is very dangerous stuff. Frankly, it’s the stuff of Nazis. Literally.
When I asked Google about “false empathy” — a concept espoused by the hard right — and the Nazis, here’s what I got: “The Nazis did not warn against “false empathy,” but rather manipulated the concept of empathy for their own purposes, defining it as a threat when directed toward “racial aliens”. Their ideology, and particularly their propaganda, functioned by fostering empathy for their own group while eliminating any empathetic feelings toward their targets.” *
It was this underpinning that allowed people to do monstrous things to other human beings. It was important for the Nazis to first render their targets as subhuman. So, it’s no accident that Trump attacks immigrants with terms like “vermin” and talks about their “poisoning our blood” and calls journalists “enemies of the people.”
If you think I’m stretching things by comparing Trump and the Christian nationalists to Nazis, I don’t think I am. I’m trying to be honest about the kind of people we’re dealing with here.
Now, it’s also important for those of us who aren’t nuts to have empathy for some Trump supporters too. I try to understand how blue collar Americans can be so frustrated by an economy and culture that shorts their pay, undermines their security and mocks their values that they’re willing to ignore the lawlessness, corruption and sheer incompetence of Trump and his henchmen. Look folks, it’s not like preachy, condescending liberals haven’t helped Trump along this path.
Liberals who practice empathy when it comes to immigrants, the LGBTQ community, criminals and racial minorities, should also search their souls for a little understanding of Trump supporters as well.
We’ll only get out of this mess by recognizing the common humanity in widely diverse people: Trump supporters, university professors, Fox News hosts, immigrants, evangelical Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists and on and on. When we look for the commonality many good things are possible. When we emphasize our differences and scape goat those who can’t defend themselves unimaginably horrible things can happen.
Empathy, otherwise known as compassion, is the foundation for everything that’s good about humanity. We lose that and we are well and truly screwed.
- An editorial note: I find AI very useful. I have long used it to generate images for my blogs, but now I am increasingly using it to answer research questions. But when I do use AI I will always attribute it as such. AI is here and it’s the future. We need to figure out ways to work with it honestly and productively.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
Oh brother. I’d like to see one of those affordable housing projects come to Monroe Street and see how long your empathy lasts. Unless you have skin in the game your emotional appeal rings hollow.
I believe it’s necessary to have both empathy and accountability playing off each other. I certainly don’t agree with the hard religious right’s lack of empathy on the subjects you brought up but the hard left’s unconditional empathy is not the solution either.
I think AI is useful to tighten up your writing but I would be cautious about using it for research.
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“If you think I’m stretching things by comparing Trump and the Christian nationalists to Nazis, I don’t think I am. I’m trying to be honest about the kind of people we’re dealing with here.”
The kind of people we’re dealing with here are the one’s who have regularly referred to President Trump and the Right as Hitler, Stalin, Nazi, Satan, fascist, racist, misogynist, existential threats to democracy, who need to be (and I quote): “Stopped At All Costs;” tantamount to openly asking for violent responses to political differences.
The kind of people we’re dealing with here are positively squealing with breathtakingly perverse glee that a 32 year old MODERATE Republican (leaving behind a wife and two [2] small children) was murdered. And not for his extreme rhetoric, but because he was successfully effective in objectively debating the Left’s myriad faults and winning young hearts and minds.
The kind of people we’re dealing with here are over at BlueSky posting erudite “elevation of the human spirit” comments like “Thoughts and prayers you Nazi b-tch… Hope the bullet’s okay after touching Charlie” and far FAR worse.
The kind of people we’re dealing with here are the SPLC listing turning Point U.S.A. and Charlie Kirk on their HATE MAP
The kind of people we’re dealing with here are Harris, Pritzker, et al slobbering that this is the fault of January 6th.
The kind of people we’re dealing with here are Joe “The Uniter” Biden issuing a We The People…Just Not YOU PEOPLE speech.
Curious; what shall we “honestly” call THOSE kinds of people?
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Of course there are a relative handful of obscure leftists and internet fools who are saying this crap. I call out the hard-left on a regular basis. The difference is they’re not running the country. You really think it’s okay for THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES to refer to people — any people — as “vermin”? Don’t change the subject. Justify that comment from Trump.
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“You really think it’s okay for THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES to refer to people — any people — as ‘vermin’?”
Emphatically and unequivocally NO!!
“Justify that comment from Trump.”
I can’t, and won’t even try. I’m not, nor have I ever been, Trump’s biggest fan. The guy has no impulse control; he’s all Id with no Super Ego to rein it in. It drives me (and I’m by no means alone in Conservative circles) up a flippin’ wall.
It’s a damned shame there isn’t someone Trump respects unerringly who would supply him with Dutch Uncle advice similar to that offered by LBJ to then AL Governor George Wallace 60 years ago:
“George, you and I shouldn’t be thinking about 1965; we should be thinking about 1985. We’ll both be dead and gone then. Now, you got a lot of poor people down there in Alabama, a lot of ignorant people. A lot of people need jobs; a lot of people need a future. You could do a lot for them. Now, in 1985, George, what do you want left behind? Do you want a great big marble monument that says ‘George Wallace: He Built’? Or do you want a little piece of scrawny pine lying there along that hot caliche soil that says ‘George Wallace: He Hated‘?”
Regrettably, were such a person to even exist, it just seems that (IMO) every fiber of his being rejects sound counsel.
“Of course there are a relative handful of obscure leftists and internet fools who are saying this crap.” (bolds mine)
Um…Hilary “Basket Of Deplorables” Clinton, Joe “The Only Garbage I See Floating Out There Is (Trump’s) Supporters“, Barak “Bitter Clingers” Obama, most of what comes out of The Squad’s pie-holes, et al, are not what I’d call obscure leftists and internet fools, but your definition and mine may not align.
And relative handful? That there’s a masterful understatement! Heck, Montana DAs and Pre-K School Teachers are advocating/endorsing violent responses to political differences. And while not going quite that far, even a former Madison Mayor made public his…um…strong feelings toward our President. Disagreement is one thing, visceral hate is entirely another.
We’ll both agree that both sides contribute to this prevailing ugliness, but I’m seeing quantifiably more coming from one side of the aisle; what say you?
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I say those comments by Democrats were stupid — and I wrote that at the time. But there’s a difference between one off comments and consistent statements — and policies — over time. Clinton, Biden and Obama all pursued policies (higher minimum wages, access to health insurance, more support for public education, job creation programs that heavily benefited states that voted against Democrats) that benefited the very people they were dissing. But I agree — and have written many times — that that attitude (you’re dumb and racist, but we’re here to help you) is why the Democrats lose elections they should win. You can’t compare those isolated comments and an overall condescending attitude with the statements and policies of Trump over the last 12 years.
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It is more than just a few leftists making comments in poor taste. This is the country we decided to live in back in 2016. Electing Trump, who is the king of poor taste comments, let everyone know that this is the new way to communicate. Prior to 2016 this type of thing existed, but was not widespread. After, it was mostly Rs, while Ds thought we might eventually return to normal.
We didn’t return to normal, and now Ds collectively realized that this is the new normal. It’s been acceptable for online Rs to use terribly crude and derogatory language about liberals for years, and now people appear to believe that if it’s good for the goose it’s good for the gander.
I would like our leaders, D and R, to stop calling political opponents the enemy and framing politics in the terms of war. But our voters keep electing the worst example.
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JD Vance called Trump a Nazi too.
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“And I will say also that in this campaign, we have also heard, and I’m going to now direct this at Vice President Biden, I do not believe you are a racist.” – Kamala Harris
This was so perfect on Kamala’s part. Persuasion experts will tell you why … people drop the “do not” part and are left with “Biden racist”. That was certainly my takeaway from that debate. It’s the same logic behind golf advice to focus on positive outcomes, I.e., don’t think “Don’t hit it in the water”.
Kamala painted Joe as a racist while having complete deniability that she ever did such a thing. She could have gone far if Tulsi didn’t rip her a new asshole at the next debate.
Now what Dave and the Gotch don’t understand about Trump is that people are hungry for TRUTH. The days of being “Presidential” are gone. Rosie Odonell is a fat pig (well a slimmer pig now). That was a wake up call for the masses. Someone “Presidential” would have called her a “lovely woman”. Trump told the truth! OMG you can’t do that and get elected! Huge paradigm shift.
Contrast that with “Presidential” Joe Biden:
“To stand up against the poison of white supremacy, as I did in my Inaugural Address — to single it out as the most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland is white supremacy. (Applause.)
And I’m not saying this because I’m at a Black HBCU. I say it wherever I go. “
People see the lie. Heck he, Kamala and Obama all repeated the thoroughly debunked “fine people” hoax before the last election. People are sick of the lies.
The truth is some people ARE vermin. Some of them got fired over their social media posts the last few days.
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I half agree with you. I’ve felt for a long time that politicians don’t speak like real people. It sounds phony because most of it is and voters can see through that. But is it possible — is it just possible — that somebody can present the unvarnished truth and yet also be tethered to facts and reason and not be a complete asshole?
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