Let me explain the question:
If fox news and religious propaganda are exactly that, propaganda, then they are victims.
If, however, every person is free to listen to what they want and then rant against liberals, migrants, Muslims, Arabs, trans, gays, atheists, you name it, then they are just gullible.
I’d have more patience for a victim than a gullible person.
Everybody is free to believe what they want to believe. What I don’t get is why they have to stir things up and why they believe they are the only ones getting it and everyone else is dumb, woke, a communist or is going to hell. Why can’t they keep their opinions to themselves?
“If somebody spends the whole day watching fox or religious propaganda, gets worked up and all he can think of is owning a liberal or converting an unbeliever, is this person a victim or just gullible?”
Neither. Such folks (Along with their “enemies” on the opposite end of the sociocultural continuum, who get all of their intell from The Daily Show and Vox)are case studies in the willfull devolution of modern humans. The sooner all of them guzzle down a gallon of Draino each, the saner this planet will be
Honestly, I think there is a real problem with infantilisation - and (Warning: unpopular opinion) a large part of this is the marvel films and manga trend. Those always over simplify every problem to a short, violent solution.
Those always over simplify every problem to a short, violent solution.
Yeah, entertainment totally didn’t do this before Marvel and manga. 🤨
Seriously, blaming entertainment (actual entertainment, not “news” that weasels in court calling itself entertainment) has been a thing since the stone ages. It wasn’t true about rock and roll, it wasn’t true about dime novels, it’s not true now about superhero stuff.
When you stop empathizing with people, you’ve taken a step toward dehumanizing them. You aren’t under any obligation to empathize, and goodness knows it is tiring. However, it is important to realize that once you stop empathizing, you are more likely to accept extreme solutions in a subconscious attempt to resolve your frustration.
You have simultaneously also described why you can’t easily unite a left-leaning base. My issue is obviously the most important (and so is everyone else’s to them) at every moment. Also if you are a rep you are honor bound to resign and recuse and be a perfect parent of the children in the other camp.
Yes, we can walk and chew gum, but you can’t chase every car in the lot at the same time and you can’t shoot yourself in the leg out of honor when the competition is going to shoot your other leg for spite.
Depending on your definitions (empathy, sympathy, and compassion are often confusingly defined and contradictory between dictionaries), you ARE empathizing by realizing they are mental children. You’re just not sympathizing and therefore deciding no longer to act with compassion, which makes plenty of sense to me.
IMHO it’s good to empathize with the right (understand your attacker), but it’s also important have to understand that whatever the underlying reasons, these people, when activated into an idiot army they become a dangerous group.
The definitions that make the most sense to me is
Empathy - understanding the perspective of another, where there desires and fears come from. It takes intelligence to not just project one’s own personality on everyone else and understand that they are different.
Sympathy - Feeling in sync with another (like when you speak of sympathetic guitar strings causing each other to vibrate). Like you see the bombing in Gaza and not just understand that they don’t want to be bombed (empathy), but imagining the pain of losing your child.
Compassion - The positive treatment of another due to having sympathy for them
Tldr “In this moment, I am euphoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my intelligence”
Being abnormally gullible can be a symptom of some types of mental health issues. Extremely gullible people, especially, deserve compassion.
Why can’t they keep their opinions to themselves?
Freedom of speech?
“Why don’t you keep your non cis het stuff to yourself” is something I hear often from that side. We should be better than that
Freedom of speech guarantees the federal government won’t be able to mete out punishment for speech. It does not mean that anyone can say whatever, wherever, whenever. Social consequences for speech are fair game, as long as those consequences don’t themselves rise to misdemeanor or crime.
