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There are people who believe that the political polarization now afflicting the United States might finally start to subside if Americans of both parties could somehow become more empathetic. If you're one of these people, the American Political Science Review has sobering news for you.
Last week APSR—one of the alpha journals in political science—published a study[$] which found that "empathic concern does not reduce partisan animosity in the electorate and in some respects even exacerbates it."
The study had two parts. In the first part, Americans who scored high on an empathy scale showed higher levels of "affective polarization"—defined as the difference between the favorability rating they gave their political party and the rating they gave the opposing party. In the second part, undergraduates were shown a news story about a controversial speaker from the opposing party visiting a college campus. Students who had scored higher on the empathy scale were more likely to applaud efforts to deny the speaker a platform.
It gets worse. These high-empathy students were also more likely to be amused by reports that students protesting the speech had injured a bystander sympathetic to the speaker. That's right: According to this study, people prone to empathy are prone to schadenfreude.
This study is urgently important—though not because it's a paradigm shifter, shedding radically new light on our predicament. As the authors note, their findings are in many ways consistent with conclusions reached by other scholars in recent years. But the view of empathy that's emerging from this growing body of work hasn't much trickled down to the public. And public understanding of it may be critical to shifting America's political polarization into reverse somewhere between here and the abyss.
(Score: 4, Informative) by legont on Monday November 11 2019, @06:46PM (53 children)
"Fly over deplorables" overthrew "liberal psychopaths" who are fighting back using "false news media" they control.
Where is empathy here?
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Monday November 11 2019, @07:04PM (49 children)
Where is empathy here?"
It's reserved for those that are on the same side, and that's the problem.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @08:06PM (24 children)
Ah yes, the victim card. Pretty myopic thinking, liberals are supposed to only be angels and still get shit on by conservatives. There was and still is plenty of empathy, but it has worn reaaaaally fucking thin by the election of a criminal conman and constant obstruction of progress the US sorely needs. Like universal healthcare and taxing the elites properly.
We've laid these things out, sourced the facts, yet still we have stupid arguments about whether burning oil and coal is bad and how universal healthcare is some kind of socialism that will lead us into the 2nd coming of communist death camps. Meanwhile you have literal camps for immigrants and poor treatment of minors.
For shame you whiny hypocrites.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @08:17PM (22 children)
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @08:37PM (21 children)
In that article, it's not quite clear to me what the problem is. If I were the target audience, I'd probably be able to pick the right answer from "sins of the father", "Venezuela bad 'mkay", and "cops can and should solve poverty".
Probably, though, it's "cops good povs bad", because as far as I can tell, RedState is just one more so-called "conservative" platform trying to shove Nicaragua-style capitalist politics on the poor whites who suffer the most under it. #rednecklivesmatter
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @09:14PM (20 children)
Ortega is a socialist, like all socialists he became a tyrant. You don't get to claim socialists weren't socialist just because you don't like a specific rulers flavor of Socialist tyranny. Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao - you support socialism, you support all of them!
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @11:35PM (1 child)
Dictatorship != socialism
Try passing 8th grade kplzthxbye
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @12:08AM
Which however does not preclude such widespread phenomenon as "daylight".
Looking up the name of the logical fallacy you tried to use is left as an exercise for the reader.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @11:40PM (9 children)
You don't understand the definition of socialism, and thus it's not surprising that you can't differentiate it from communism or fascism.
While we're making definitions up out of thin air, Trump is a hardcore socialist for using taxpayer money to fund the military, law enforcement agencies, and handouts to the rich and corporations. In fact, under this all-encompassing definition of socialism that some people love so dearly, only hardcore anarchists aren't socialists.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @12:17AM (8 children)
Really?
If you think there's some different "not real socialism" definition that is widely accepted and would not include nationalization under the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or syndicalism under the Partito Nazionale Fascista then it is you that doesn't understand.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @08:24AM (7 children)
Collective ownership is communism not socialism. But we already knew using words as intended is hard for americans when we learned about their party names.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @10:03AM
Go explain that to the Oxford English Dictionary, wikipedia [wikipedia.org] ...
... and every other dictionary written in the past 100 years!
Here's the action replay:
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 12 2019, @12:55PM (5 children)
Note the definition said "state or collective". Communism is a subset of Socialism not the other way around.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @06:06PM (4 children)
Millennials! [babylonbee.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 12 2019, @07:13PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 13 2019, @08:28AM
May the alt-right recruiting grounds flourish!!! /puke
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 13 2019, @09:49AM (1 child)
A satire site? Really?
https://babylonbee.com/about [babylonbee.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 13 2019, @01:49PM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Tuesday November 12 2019, @12:22AM (7 children)
Yeeess, of course.
As another example, a king [wikipedia.org] oversees the one of the most awful** social-democracies [soylentnews.org] on the planet.
** awful indeed how it confirms your assertion in form and contradicts them at every point in substance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @10:09AM (6 children)
Social democracies are capitalist societies with social welfare. When the balance tips due to demographics (ageing workforce / sub-replacement birthrates / immigration) and there are more taking out than paying in, these countries too will collapse. Was that your point?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday November 12 2019, @11:10AM (5 children)
I think you should also show how this is a problem specific to social-democracy and a pure capitalistic society is immune.
Nope. That Norway pension fund is an investment one - as much a Ponzi scheme as any stock/share market is. The only difference is it is managed by a (pretty competent judging by the results) government agency instead of a private for-profit entity.
Sort of saying if the world economy is doing fine, so will the Norway pension fund. If the world economy is doing bad, at least the Norway citizens are backed by whatever value those $1T assets would have, so they'll be experiencing a much shorter landing than anyone who goes into hardship if missing $400 in cash flow from one month to the other.
Besides, a better health system is likely to result in a longer active age, a better education makes the persons more adaptable to career switching, a lower criminality leads to lower socialized cost of risk prevention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 12 2019, @12:57PM (4 children)
There's far less "taking out" for starters in a pure capitalist society.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday November 12 2019, @01:40PM (3 children)
And a lot less giving back and redistribution - done right, the later strengthen the society and make it more resilient to adversities. It shows in those numbers already - labor force participation rate, cost vs quality of heath care, percent of tertiary educated population, criminality.
Some more numbers?
Poverty rate: Norway - 0.2% [macrotrends.net], US - 12.3% [ucdavis.edu]
Life expectancy: Norway 82, US - 78.
Nobel laureates per 1M capita (believe it or not, this metric exists [wikipedia.org]. hypothesis - a good metric for the recognized value to humanity): Norway - 24, US - 11.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 12 2019, @02:14PM
And done poorly it makes all those conditions worse. One side is Norway and another side is Greece and Venezuela.
I'll note that the poverty comparison is bogus - it's not comparing like. The rest just isn't that interesting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @04:05PM
Barack Obama got a Nobel peace prize.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @04:26PM
Why would you even consider posting that. There is very little in the way to assume an accurate argument in trying to parallel the US with Norway. The economics, population (by count and culture), politics and government are all substantially different. To suggest that the US should use a small Scandinavian country as a benchmark is absurd. Even in an attempt to use our close neighbor Canada, you'll quickly note that California alone outnumbers it, and as a whole has a more diverse economy and population. What you're doing is saying it's as simple as mimicking Norway or Canada, but the US has a higher poverty rate than either, meaning more participants that offer zero contribution. To suggest providing all of this to some 320m residents, or even 309m legal citizens, is absurd. First: the bureaucratic establishment will flail and falter you'll be integrating a new wing to the government, the Office of Medical Provision. In a handful of years they'll open a new department for arbitration surrounding healthcare denied or discrimination, complaints and so on. And then with some speculative consideration you could maybe postulate the hazards of selecting a corrupt and paid-for government to head a healthcare program, one which will be at the very least steered by the FDA. Then there's the fact that the system is already taxed, pushing it harder and whipping it screaming "go faster!" is only going to further compromise the already poor treatment rates.
The reality is: you're treating a symptom of a much more substantial problem. A secondary issue. Insurance companies themselves are the truest issue, and the source of inflammation. Billing itself is a process that requires staff on both ends to negotiate the hazardous terrain. Hospitals charge insane rates universally to gouge insurance companies, which in turn jack up their own rates. This puts a bag of saline and its haphazard installation by an under-trained and overpaid nurse at $900 instead of a more reasonable $100, but considering the reality, the bags cost virtually nothing, and the time taken is sub 10 minutes, the real cost there is less than $20. Artificially controlled supply (read: graduate school) rarefying physicians keeps the prices and demand sorted for prospective professionals, as well, as do prohibitive costs and exclusivity of medical school.
http://truecostofhealthcare.org/hospital_financial_analysis/ [truecostofhealthcare.org]
(Score: 1) by Arik on Tuesday November 12 2019, @08:55AM
What?
Nah, going no further, anony. Explain that if you want to continue the conversation. How am I playing the victim card? Please, be explicit. Prove you're human.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @08:10PM
Problem? I'm through the despair, people are stupid and it's popcorn time. [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Flamebait) by ikanreed on Monday November 11 2019, @09:41PM (22 children)
Bull fucking shit.
Your monstrous inhumanity isn't some artifact of you being perceived to be on the "other side", it's the literal goddamn nazis you willingly abet, it's the goddamn fucking concentration camps, it's the absolute scourge of downright inexcusable "destroy the whole planet for trivial financial convenience" de facto policy.
Also, stop acting like a disintested party, you're a psychopath who is protected from the consequences of your evil by saying "both sides". 100% of the problem is the right. If people are outrageous enough to call you evil, it's because they're decent enough not to lie.
We either have a world where the right wing movement is totally destroyed, or a world that's totally destroyed.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by khallow on Monday November 11 2019, @11:43PM (8 children)
Let me guess. You're the empathetic side?
Good example of dehumanization escalation. Guess it'll be the gas ovens next, right? Or rather for the "right".
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday November 12 2019, @08:34AM
There's no empathetic side. Both sides are empathetic, but they have different limits within which their empathy is active.
These limits are carefully crafted by two competing agencies on Madison Avenue. Both owned by the same holding company, in China.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Troll) by ikanreed on Tuesday November 12 2019, @02:16PM (6 children)
"Where's your empathy" screams the man plunging a knife into a child's abdomen. "You just don't know how hard it is to be me" he sobs as he gestures for his friends to laugh at the small guts spilling on the floor.
I empathize with someone who lost their job in the the shitty tailspin of a rich-only economy we've created over the last 40 years. My empathy ends when they start a pointless ethnic cleansing and doom the planet. You poor babies have ridden the "pity me" train all the way to genocideville and the sooner you die the better.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @02:39PM (4 children)
This character is the reason people are pushing those red flag laws. When he finally goes postal there will be a lot of people nodding their heads saying, "Yep, I always thought he'd be the one." Batshit crazy.
(Score: 1, Troll) by ikanreed on Tuesday November 12 2019, @02:52PM (3 children)
Sure, your "side" such as it is has radicalized to cause hundreds upon hundreds of innocent deaths, but your fantasies of oppression can't be stopped.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @03:58PM (1 child)
Gets a little frustrating arguing with idiots who can't see simple reality. You nailed it though, the ultimate victims gaslighting everyone else.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 13 2019, @02:13PM
By example. Genocideville [soylentnews.org] has now dwindled to some nebulous "hundreds and hundreds of deaths" [soylentnews.org]. I wonder what the narrative will be next post?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @07:22PM
I have claimed no "side" except reason and I have not called for anybody's deaths as you have. You are clearly disturbed if you seriously think people you perceive as others must die to save the planet from "destruction for trivial financial convenience." The sad part is that you have convinced yourself that only you and other like minded people can save the world by eliminating those who disagree with you. You are as insane as any other doomsday cult. I hope you get help before you hurt yourself or someone else.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 13 2019, @02:07PM
What genocide?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @11:47PM
Yes welcome to rightwing politics, pure projection and zero critical thinking.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday November 12 2019, @03:21AM (6 children)
So you can only empathize with people who agree with you? That ain't empathy, son.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday November 12 2019, @09:29AM (2 children)
Empathy is a reciprocal thing. In other words, the human brain tends to reserve empathy for people who show empathy themselves, or at least those who haven't demonstrated a complete lack of compassion, mercy and remorse.
In that light you can understand how some folk might not feel empathy for those who cheer babies being torn from their mothers, who shrug their shoulders or roll their eyes at dead families floating down the Rio Grande, who gleefully crush and impoverish others for their own financial ends, who seem to actually take delight in causing suffering to the poor and downtrodden.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday November 12 2019, @11:54AM
No. No it is not. Empathy means you put yourself in someone else's shoes. That's all it means. You're thinking sympathy, which is giving a shit whether those shoes are too tight.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 12 2019, @01:03PM
I can understand. Doesn't mean I'll ever respect those folk for that. It's easy to hate those straw men, but it has nothing to do with the vast majority of humanity.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by ikanreed on Tuesday November 12 2019, @02:18PM (2 children)
I empathize with plenty of people who disagree with me. 21st century republicans aren't a polite disagreement. I empathize with your victims. And no matter how many times you come back to complain how unfair it is to say that you deserve to die, it doesn't change the absolute fact that you do entirely from evil choices you've made.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday November 13 2019, @01:09PM
Politeness has nothing to do with empathy.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 13 2019, @02:15PM
Those "evil choices" would be?
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @05:06AM (2 children)
Ladies and gentleman, I give you a textbook example of the unhinged rant of the left.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @06:33AM (1 child)
You are just lucky that the Allies (what we used to call the Left) are not still dropping Blockbusters on your Nazi ass, you loser Nazi racist twit!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @08:47AM
Oh hi Ari, can I have a sub sandwich?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Tuesday November 12 2019, @08:27AM (1 child)
"literal goddamn nazis you willingly abet"
[citation needed]
"goddamn fucking concentration camps"
[citation needed]
"it's the absolute scourge of downright inexcusable "destroy the whole planet for trivial financial convenience" de facto policy."
Well now. For a moment there you sound serious, and coherent. But if you think I have any power over that policy, or do anything but oppose it, what are you smoking?
"Also, stop acting like a disintested party, you're a psychopath who is protected from the consequences of your evil by saying "both sides"."
I've never claimed to be a disinterested party, not at all. I'm pretty transparent about that, actually.
But a psychopath? Really? Wow, I am even more of an underachiever than I thought. I'm a psychopath and I've never even killed anyone. Jeez, I could have racked up 40-50 kills by now without any risk or sweat, if I'd only known that was my goal!
No, wait, that's not my goal. That's just some weird shit from your pen. Why do you write shit like that? Seriously, what's your malfunction?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 12 2019, @01:05PM
(Score: 5, Insightful) by FatPhil on Monday November 11 2019, @09:25PM
To be honest, I think their "empathy scale" test needs re-evaluating, as if all it measures is in-group preference, I'd say it's failing to do what it says on the tin, for the reason you provide.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @02:01AM (1 child)
I'm from flyover country. What you described isn't what happened. The deplorables would have voted for Trump regardless. Instead, a bunch of independents and Midwest Democrats who've gotten repeatedly screwed over (many of whom also voted for "Change We Can Believe In") voted for the relative outsider with the populist message over the establishment "limousine liberal."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @05:21PM
Yes, and that worked out just splendidly, didn't it? Maybe there is a teachable moment in there, somewhere, for Midwest Democrats and independents? Of course, this is not to say that there may also be a teachable moment in there for all the "limousine liberals" as well.