One comment, not really about the main point, but the litany of liberal sins was a bit too easy. So let's look at crime. And I say this as someone who commuted to NYC on and off starting in 1969. So saw the worst and the improvement. Let's look as so called soft on crime. With the exception of a few extremists who really wanted to close down police departments, much of the complaints about judges or prosecutors being soft on crime amount to meaningless anecdotes. So yes the NY Post would highlight a criminal being released. But there was not clear pattern that showed the either soft or hard policies reduced crime.
The same with bail reform. While cops seem to hate it, there is little evidence that this has impacted crime in a meaningful way - though there may be a few isolated incidents.
Crime went up for decades till it peaked - and it did this nationwide, then crime went down nationwide. And in NYC the drop began before Mayor Giuliani.
"Increasingly overt racism is being mainstreamed in large swaths of the right."
I would posit that, today, racism is increasingly the only mainstream ideology on the Right. Hence the disavowal by the MAGA cognoscenti of issues such as affordability, the US's role in the world, housing, clean energy, corruption, etc.
I get the impression from this that there were people on the right who were cheering on the euthanization of Peanut the Squirrel? After all the pictures of that guy online in his little cowboy hat, loving his little squirrel life? And that for anyone to think euthanizing him was a monstrous act was evidence of suicidal empathy? These people are so broken. I still can't believe what they did to Peanut, and I hope the evil neighbor who ratted them out got the result they wanted.
Wait, he opposes the euthanasia of a squirrel and raccoon on suspicion of *rabies*? Getting rabies from someone else's wild pets so we don't have to put them down is about as suicidally empathetic as it gets.
I read it as a reference to the tragedy of Peanut the Squirrel, where a guy in New York befriended and made a pet out of a squirrel and turned him into a social media star. Then a neighbor alerted the authorities and animal control took Peanut away and euthanized him. I think what Saad is considering "suicidal empathy" is those who are irate that Peanut was euthanized as a precaution against spreading rabies, which there is no evidence he had.
oh Cathy. your articles' opening both-sides paragraphs tend to indicate to me that you must have a file of woke atrocities for every occasion. unfortunately scattered anecdotes do not a sociological pattern make.
That's true.. You made me curious and I looked up if there were other reports on this incident aside from the New York Post article Cathy cited. Which of course had the desired response from its readership condemning 'wokeism'. It seems it was fairly widely reported on, but the other sources focused on the fact that the attacker had been released from a psychiatric hospital just an hour before he shoved the victim down the stairs. Indeed Mayor Mamdani has ordered an investigation into this.
It looks like the New York Post in barely mentioning the obviously newsworthy aspect of the story was engaging in schlocky rage bait for their audience, rather than serious journalism. A familiar tactic of the Right. And it's a shame that Cathy opened her piece with this type of 'journalism' to pull us in in a similar way.
A lot of people on the right are obsessed with making up excuses to be assholes, and this is just another example. Empathy might lead to self-reflection, and then they would have to reckon with the possibility that selfishness is self-destructive, and their unhappiness is their own fault. In this way, as Ayn Rand is the asshole God, Trump is the asshole Messiah come to liberate assholes from the bonds of decency, kindness and love. Rand thought Christianity was for fools, and selfishness was the highest imperative of mankind. Now we have Objectivist dogma pushing Christ out of a large chunk of Christianity, to be replaced by worship of a man who is the embodiment of sin.
Suicidal empathy would be feeling sorry for Saad when really he's just a jerk. Anything, even something good, can be taken too far, but the narcissism Saad espouses is killing this country.
Perhaps the author of the book also has a problem with altruistic behavior. He would have that in common with our "bone spured" commander in chief.
It seems we've entered a period within our nation's development where the idea of community and the common good are thought to be naive and for lovers whilst self absorbed behavior is admired.
I wish I could find the exact quote I saw online but I have started using sympathetic instead of empathy because empathy is used incorrectly. Thank you for this well written article.
Sorry if I don't quite understand the concept, but isn't "suicidal empathy" something that has been widely admired, not condemned, as far back as human history can be traced? What else besides "suicidal empathy" could be credited for the parent who willingly gives up his life for his child, or the passerby who rescues a drowning stranger at the cost of his own life, or the hero who risks his own life by running into a burning building to bring out trapped strangers? Or even, to stretch the case a little, to the soldier who throws himself on a grenade to save the lives of his buddies? "Suicidal empathy" seems to be just the latest, nastiest neo-Randian label for selfless heroism. Is it really likely that the young lady in New York thought "I have more empathy for the person who attacked me than for those he might harm in the future"? Perhaps, in the twisted minds of Saad or Musk, but to me and most clear-thinking people, no such thought would have passed through her mind. That's not how real people think. I would prefer to think that her motivation was simple altruism mixed with some notion of justice. And in a much less tragic form, that altruism explains the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, and thousands of lesser known heroes. Saad and Musk are idiots.
"No one can have greater love, than to lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13, is one of the foundational concepts of our civilization. Jettison that, and what's left becomes something else, something a lot less admirable.
One comment, not really about the main point, but the litany of liberal sins was a bit too easy. So let's look at crime. And I say this as someone who commuted to NYC on and off starting in 1969. So saw the worst and the improvement. Let's look as so called soft on crime. With the exception of a few extremists who really wanted to close down police departments, much of the complaints about judges or prosecutors being soft on crime amount to meaningless anecdotes. So yes the NY Post would highlight a criminal being released. But there was not clear pattern that showed the either soft or hard policies reduced crime.
The same with bail reform. While cops seem to hate it, there is little evidence that this has impacted crime in a meaningful way - though there may be a few isolated incidents.
Crime went up for decades till it peaked - and it did this nationwide, then crime went down nationwide. And in NYC the drop began before Mayor Giuliani.
Libertarianism is the antithesis of empathy, it's not surprising Saad has a problem with it.
"Increasingly overt racism is being mainstreamed in large swaths of the right."
I would posit that, today, racism is increasingly the only mainstream ideology on the Right. Hence the disavowal by the MAGA cognoscenti of issues such as affordability, the US's role in the world, housing, clean energy, corruption, etc.
What a crying shame.
I get the impression from this that there were people on the right who were cheering on the euthanization of Peanut the Squirrel? After all the pictures of that guy online in his little cowboy hat, loving his little squirrel life? And that for anyone to think euthanizing him was a monstrous act was evidence of suicidal empathy? These people are so broken. I still can't believe what they did to Peanut, and I hope the evil neighbor who ratted them out got the result they wanted.
Wait, he opposes the euthanasia of a squirrel and raccoon on suspicion of *rabies*? Getting rabies from someone else's wild pets so we don't have to put them down is about as suicidally empathetic as it gets.
I read it as a reference to the tragedy of Peanut the Squirrel, where a guy in New York befriended and made a pet out of a squirrel and turned him into a social media star. Then a neighbor alerted the authorities and animal control took Peanut away and euthanized him. I think what Saad is considering "suicidal empathy" is those who are irate that Peanut was euthanized as a precaution against spreading rabies, which there is no evidence he had.
oh Cathy. your articles' opening both-sides paragraphs tend to indicate to me that you must have a file of woke atrocities for every occasion. unfortunately scattered anecdotes do not a sociological pattern make.
There are 2 sides to this, and I appreciate Cathy for making this clear, and going on to criticize Saad's book.
there really aren't two sides when one side is made up of random isolated extreme examples.
That's true.. You made me curious and I looked up if there were other reports on this incident aside from the New York Post article Cathy cited. Which of course had the desired response from its readership condemning 'wokeism'. It seems it was fairly widely reported on, but the other sources focused on the fact that the attacker had been released from a psychiatric hospital just an hour before he shoved the victim down the stairs. Indeed Mayor Mamdani has ordered an investigation into this.
It looks like the New York Post in barely mentioning the obviously newsworthy aspect of the story was engaging in schlocky rage bait for their audience, rather than serious journalism. A familiar tactic of the Right. And it's a shame that Cathy opened her piece with this type of 'journalism' to pull us in in a similar way.
the New York Post engaging in rage bait? I'm shocked I tell you shocked.
your curiosity turned out interestingly Gert.
A lot of people on the right are obsessed with making up excuses to be assholes, and this is just another example. Empathy might lead to self-reflection, and then they would have to reckon with the possibility that selfishness is self-destructive, and their unhappiness is their own fault. In this way, as Ayn Rand is the asshole God, Trump is the asshole Messiah come to liberate assholes from the bonds of decency, kindness and love. Rand thought Christianity was for fools, and selfishness was the highest imperative of mankind. Now we have Objectivist dogma pushing Christ out of a large chunk of Christianity, to be replaced by worship of a man who is the embodiment of sin.
Suicidal empathy would be feeling sorry for Saad when really he's just a jerk. Anything, even something good, can be taken too far, but the narcissism Saad espouses is killing this country.
“ Empathy is the ability to understand, share, and validate another person's emotions and perspective”.
How does that translate into “I don’t want to put another black man in jail”?
There is a missing reasoning step here; or else, empathy is being used in some other sense.
I feel intense empathy for whoever had to edit this book. Thanks for breaking down its argument for us.
Perhaps the author of the book also has a problem with altruistic behavior. He would have that in common with our "bone spured" commander in chief.
It seems we've entered a period within our nation's development where the idea of community and the common good are thought to be naive and for lovers whilst self absorbed behavior is admired.
Next do "Liars Kingdom."
I wonder what he makes of Jesus, who let himself be crucified in order to absolve us of our sins. You dont get any more suicidal empathic than that.
Check out "Separation of Church and Hate" by John Fugelsang.
I wish I could find the exact quote I saw online but I have started using sympathetic instead of empathy because empathy is used incorrectly. Thank you for this well written article.
Sorry if I don't quite understand the concept, but isn't "suicidal empathy" something that has been widely admired, not condemned, as far back as human history can be traced? What else besides "suicidal empathy" could be credited for the parent who willingly gives up his life for his child, or the passerby who rescues a drowning stranger at the cost of his own life, or the hero who risks his own life by running into a burning building to bring out trapped strangers? Or even, to stretch the case a little, to the soldier who throws himself on a grenade to save the lives of his buddies? "Suicidal empathy" seems to be just the latest, nastiest neo-Randian label for selfless heroism. Is it really likely that the young lady in New York thought "I have more empathy for the person who attacked me than for those he might harm in the future"? Perhaps, in the twisted minds of Saad or Musk, but to me and most clear-thinking people, no such thought would have passed through her mind. That's not how real people think. I would prefer to think that her motivation was simple altruism mixed with some notion of justice. And in a much less tragic form, that altruism explains the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, and thousands of lesser known heroes. Saad and Musk are idiots.
There are apparently a lot of undiagnosed sociopaths on the right.
you are correct, suicidal empathy is not a new thing. the Inuits' senicide is a good example.
"No one can have greater love, than to lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13, is one of the foundational concepts of our civilization. Jettison that, and what's left becomes something else, something a lot less admirable.
Absolutely! Well said and well quoted.