A Few Thoughts about Empathy

Curmie came across the meme you see here a few days ago, and was struck by its timeliness.  For one thing, it provides a stark contrast between the ideology of MAGA and of one of the seminal thinkers of the twentieth century.  If nothing else, there are few if any better representations of what Arendt called “the banality of evil” than the Pompous Plutocrat, or at least his acolytes. 

Musk is no deep thinker; his weltanschauung is founded on little but greed, hypocrisy, and a little warmed-over Nietzsche, who was at least honest enough to state forthrightly that he was in fact arguing against the fundamental principles of both classical and Judeo-Christian thought.

Musk is, in a word, sadistic.  Nothing makes him happier than hurting or humiliating someone who isn’t like him: those who are interested in literally anything but the accumulation of material wealth or political power, those who care about justice or truth or even security, those who think elections are not commodities to be bought and sold.  Unfortunately, Donald Trump, who used to be simply oblivious to the damage to others (or to the country) if it benefited him personally, is now trending towards Muskian malevolence.

But this essay isn’t about Trump or Musk or anyone else in that evil cabal.  It’s about us.  By “us,” here, Curmie is referring to the overwhelming majority of the folks who will read this blog: people who, like Curmie, would vote for the Sauron/Voldemort ticket before they’d vote for the Manchurian Cantaloupe. 

There are some readers, of course, who may have even voted for Trump, seeing him as the lesser of two evils.  Let’s face it, Kamala Harris was, to put it kindly, way over her head, and the unwillingness of those in the know to convince Uncle Joe to step aside when his mental decline became obvious does not speak well of the leadership of the Democratic Party.  Nor does the anointing of Harris as the nominee without any opportunity for the party faithful to have any say at all in the process.

Curmie doubts that many actual MAGAs will find their way here, but they are welcome, and if the have arguments superior to those one would hear from a fourth grader, Curmie would very much like to hear them. 

In the piece linked above, Curmie wrote “Is it likely that a second Trump presidency would destroy the democratic (lower-case ‘d’) principles on which the nation was founded?  ‘Likely,’ no; ‘plausible,’ yes.”  Curmie miscalculated.  Less than two months into this regime, we’re already past “likely” and into “probable”; the hope is to prevent “inevitable.”

It’s not worth attempting to enumerate all the stupid and authoritarian actions undertaken by this administration.  Let’s just say that if it seems to you, Gentle Reader, that every fucking stupid idea Trump yammered about in the campaign has already been put into action and everything actually positive he said he’d do is already a broken promise… well, then you and Curmie are on the same page.

But.  And as they used to say in burlesque houses, it’s a big but.  It used to be that lefties were very much proud of the fact that, unlike the nonsensical proponents of “owning the libs,” we actually cared about everybody.  It is certainly true that a lot of MAGAs share at least some of the lack of empathy embodied in their heroes: they’re all for slashing budget lines that don’t affect them personally.  That said, a lot of them are feeling the pinch now.  They were taken in by a grifter and, unlike some diehards who still think Trump is a hero (and a fair number of GOP pols who know better but pretend not to), they’re regretting their foolishness.

They got suckered.  That happens to everyone.  All of us have voted for someone who turned out to be an idiot, or bought a stock that proceeded to plummet in value, or took any kind of stance we later wish we hadn’t.  Trump is a skilled and experienced con man, and his romanticized vision of American exceptionalism has its superficial appeal.

It’s true, of course, that those folks bear no little responsibility for the mess we’re in right now.  Still, all the jokes about face-eating leopards and the like are ultimately counter-productive.  Real people, our fellow travelers, are hurting, and they’re openly regretting their past actions.  This part, the realization, should be applauded.  Yes, they made a mistake, but now they’re trying to set things right to the extent that they can.

We ought to be applauding their new awakening, but too many of us aren’t.  Humiliating them because they voted for the wrong candidate and now have come to realize that fact is akin to teasing the fat guy at the gym.  It accomplishes nothing good, and in fact discourages others from also speaking out.  Arrogantly strutting our perceived ethical and intellectual superiority succeeds only in alienating erstwhile Trump supporters.  We come off as assholes.  That’s not to anyone’s benefit.

A variation on the theme can be found in the brouhaha about Slava Ukraini protesters in Cincinnati.  JD Vance tweeted, “Today while walking my 3 year old daughter a group of ‘Slava Ukraini’ protesters followed us around and shouted as my daughter grew increasingly anxious and scared… if you’re chasing a 3-year-old as part of a political protest, you’re a shit person.”

OK, leaving aside the misplaced modifier (Curmie couldn’t resist pointing that out), this is an interesting tweet.  Is it possible that Vance made up the whole bit about his daughter being scared?  Absolutely.  Indeed, the protesters claim otherwise, also saying they happened upon Vance; they weren’t following him.

Vance is, to be sure, dishonest even by politician standards, and certainly not above the Elon Musk technique of using his kid as a human shield, albeit a little less literally.  There is, however, a video of a conversation between Vance and the crowd of protesters.  He is indeed accompanied by his daughter, although we barely see her, and it’s impossible to tell whether she’s upset, although she very well might be.  The audio isn’t always as clear as one might hope, but Vance does say something at the end about his having traded five minutes of conversation in exchange for the crowd’s not shouting at his daughter. 

The chances are pretty good, then, that Vance isn’t completely making up the story.  Yes, he’s a despicable human being, and yes, as a number of leftie talking heads have claimed, three-year-olds in Ukraine experience a lot worse on an ongoing basis than having their fathers yelled at a few times.  But the daughter is an innocent.  She didn’t choose her parents and wasn’t consulted when her dad accepted the VP nomination.  Nor is it her fault her father is a lapdog to a lapdog.  Making her uncomfortable isn’t the worst thing in the world, but neither is it acceptable behavior.

By all means, exercise those First Amendment rights of free assembly and free speech.  Rage against the machine, to coin a phrase.  But don’t glory in the woes of others, even if they voted for someone you despise.  Don’t harass your fellow citizens for being led astray, especially if the reason you can do so is that they are admitting their mistake.  And leave the kids out of it.

We’re better than that.  Or at least we damned sure should be.