Empathy and Sympathy

Apologize if this isn’t the right kind of brainstorming. I’m not really sure what the point of all I’m saying here is, I’m sure it’s not a novel point about sympathy, but it seems comforting to me in a sense.

Today, like many of us, I was disgusted by Trump and Vance’s conduct in the Oval Office. Cruelty and callousness is hardly the mark of a strong leader, but it is the closest thing to strength they understand. We must be different. Our leaders have proven incapable of leading, so it is on us to take up that task and lead by example.

What this led me to really think about was empathy and sympathy. MAGA has no empathy. They are pathologically opposed to it and seem to view it as the ultimate weakness. I think it furthers their victim complex. We must lead with empathy and be exemplars of it.

Sympathy, translated literally, means I suffer with you. Yesterday, I saw a post saying we need to have empathy for people who voted for Trump. Who voted for the suffering and it struck me as wrong on some level. As unfair. Ultimately, I agreed, although I was still angry. We have to set aside our frustration and anger to the best of our ability. It’s hard, but empathy is what will make the difference between suffering together and suffering too.

TLDR; We can’t avoid suffering. But staying empathetic will be the difference between alleviating that by suffering together and just also suffering.