Living With Consciousness, Empathy and Compassion is... Surprising!
Sometimes I struggle a bit to understand the inner workings of certain people's minds.
Such as the person I found myself talking to the other week from whom I learned that having empathy is apparently a ”liberal lefty” sort of thing.
I think I can safely say — without any shadow of a doubt — that it's the first time I have encountered the idea that empathy has a political affiliation.
Maybe I shouldn't be all that surprised. After all one of the first things I learned about myself when I arrived in Texas from my native Denmark, back in 1981, was that since I was from Denmark I ”obviously had to be a communist.” That still remains one of the strangest assertions I have come across.
Upon reflection what troubles me here is not so much the false accusations as this seeming obsession with neat little boxes along the lines of ”if THIS, that means this other thing is true.” End of story, no discussion.
To be honest I don't really get it. If anything, it feels like a very weird brand of xenophobia quite unlike anything I have seen before.
Of course, it's entirely possible that I shouldn't be allowed anywhere near social media, these days! After all, it seems to be a magnet for some of the most reactionary people on the planet, holding some of the most extreme and extraordinary points of view I have ever come across.
Typically, reality is optional.
I say that, and yet that person who insisted that I was a communist because I was Danish did so in a time that predates the Internet. Not sure what to think about that.
Anyway, my personal observation of the human condition tells me that every time somebody holds some kind of extreme and often bigoted view it has to do with some kind of underlying fear that they have never looked at and perhaps are not willing to look at.
As I said, typically actual tangible reality is optional, in their world.
But getting back to this most recent thing I heard I'm not sure I even understand how somebody would arrive at the idea that having empathy — that is, caring about how somebody else feels and what their experience is — is a liberal or left wing idea.
I feel reasonably sure that quite a few of my Republican friends would be somewhat offended at the insinuation that in order to hold their particular right leaning perspective means not caring about anybody. That's just nonsense!
What's also slightly alarming here is that this person was being sincere and not trying to make some kind of joke!
I guess we can just call it yet another chapter in "why I worry about the world."
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great Sunday!
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2026.09.13 01:38 PDT
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