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Conservatives: Empathy Empty [1]
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Date: 2025-09-01
An article by Chris Armitage on Medium: Conservatism: America’s Empathy Disorder. Please read the whole article. I can only quote so much but it is very clear and enlightening.
A corrections officer turned researcher discovers that the psychological traits defining prison life, callousness, dominance, and empathy deficits, have escaped the cellblocks and now shape our politics
This article makes a ton of sense. I have been curious as to what makes the maga’s. The first few comments are pretty impactful, as is the whole article. Working as a corrections officer he saw a lot. Men, who had violated others, watching the television, would stand up and cheer 47 when he would deny accusations, say he was the actual victim, or attacking his accusers. Not only the prisoners but many of the guards too.
The right-wing extremists I encountered in corrections were different. Their circle of concern was tight: family, race, nation. Outside that circle, empathy simply didn’t register. The right-wing extremists were different. Their circle of concern was tight, family, race, nation, political party. Outside that circle, empathy simply didn’t register. Research by Waytz and colleagues (2016) confirms this pattern: conservatives don’t necessarily lack empathy entirely, but they restrict it to their in-group, while liberals extend empathy more universally. When a Proud Boy type told me he’d die for his “brothers,” I believed him. When he called immigrants “invading vermin,” I believed that too.
Empathy doesn’t register with the right wing extremists. I fear we will, and/or are, becoming the same. IMO: our empathy is waning due to the abuse, fear, and anger we are all experiencing. Example: Rudy Giuliani has a car accident and is injured. Many will, and did, cheer.
How can we remain who we are and as empathetic as I know we can be during these times? I too want to fight against the immigration tactics. I want anyone who messes with those kids they want to deport, or the ones who have been lost to adoption or whatever they are doing with them to die (the mind is not always a good place to go to).
Without empathy, women are dying in anti-abortion states. Without empathy, undocumented immigrants are getting rounded up and deported. Even legal immigrants. Without empathy, “cruelty is rewarded” repeatedly.
Here the one hopeful paragraph of the article.
But here’s what gives me hope: empathy can be rebuilt. Van Berkhout and Malouff’s (2016) meta-analysis of 18 randomized controlled trials found empathy training produces significant improvements (Hedges’ g ≈ 0.5). Even psychopaths have empathy circuits that can activate when explicitly instructed to perspective-take, according to brain imaging by Keysers et al. (2013), they have an “empathy switch” that’s off by default but not broken.
The right wing wants to challenge our empathy by calling it “woke”. Our caring for women who need an abortion, LGBTQ+ folks, immigrants, and more is being called into question by them. They attempt to make us seem weak, incompetent, and worse — traitors to the country.
I don’t want to change but find myself doing so quite often. How do we remain strong in our convictions, empathetic to others, in the midst of the horrific machinations of 47 and his ilk?
Go read the article.
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