Does the Modern Left Confuse "Empahy" with "Excuses"?

the typical discussion goes in one of 2 directions:

quote:

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(1) "big government leftist" (BGL) defends government wealth redistribution programs that rely upon stealing money from people to give to others. "small government rightist" (SGR) explains that this is not fair, it is actually immoral, and is negative to everyone. BGL claims that SGR only says this because the SGR lacks empathy

(2) SGR, when discussing poverty and the middle class, explains that personal responsibility and good decision-making is the main difference. BGL explains that this is a privileged view that destroys the empathy necessary to have this discussion, and the SGR really wants to maintain a system that has given the advantage to the SGR. if the SGR had empathy for the plight of the poor, the SGR would support wealth redistribution plans via government.

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i get accused of this often on here, and on facebook when i get into it occasionally. i get the same BS on the OT when i refuse to excuse (oh shite, catch phrase!)the behavior of a person who is in a bad position directly due to consistent bad decision making (often having nothing to do with politics).

"empathy" has become a new buzzword, and it's literally getting to the level of misuse as literally. empathy is "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another." it's about understanding an emotional state and knowing when another person is feeling that state. nothing more.

so, when a SGR says that a person who is poor (because he/she made bad choices to become poor) doesn't have a right to steal the money of people who made good decisions (and are more prosperous), the SGR is not failing to take an emotional inventory of the poor person. the SGR is just making a logical-rational statement based in facts.

the BGL claims the SGR lacks "empathy", because if the SGR could understand how that poor person feels, the SGR would want to help the poor person (via government redistribution, of course. individual charity is never an option). this is an emotional-irrational thought process.

that belief also has nothing to do with "empathy". the BGL wants the SMR to excuse the behavior of the person whose bad choices led to a bad result. the BGL believes that if another person is not in an optimal situation, you should feel bad for him/her. and if you feel bad for him/her. that's empathy, and that's OK (and the SGR engages in that thought process). however, the BGL takes it one step further and demands you agree that the state should take from the non-poor to excuse the actions that led to the poor person becoming poor. that is NOT empathy.

the SGR understands completely how bad poverty sucks. that's empathy. the SGR, however, uses this as an example and/or motivation to make the right decisions to do our best to avoid finding ourselves in that position. there is no better statement of empathy than that to me. we understand how bad it gets, why it sucks, and can put ourselves in the position of a poor person to understand. that's empathy.

ETA: as a non-political aside, the biggest mis-use, just for the record, is with trolls. people love to criticize trolls by saying they lack empathy. the opposite is true, however. they completely understand emotions, emotional reactions, who has them, and how to evoke them. that's the whole point of trolling.