Are you afraid we are becoming like them?

[kentuck]

Lack of sympathy or empathy for our fellow man?

If they are too stupid to wear a mask, then f**k them!

If they would prefer to die by shitting themselves to death, the let them! Put some straw on the floor and give them a blanket. (hee-hee)

But, so long as they are willing to kill the rest of us, why should we care about them, some ask?

Because we are humans. We are supposed to care about our fellow human beings, even if they are our enemies and even if they are stupid.

Do we really want to give that up?

[BigmanPigman]

1. It takes a Hell of a lot more than that

to even begin to resemble their behavior.

[choie]

2. Exactly

N/t

[uponit7771]

46. +1, a majority of Dems love America and 90% of us like it here

[SharonClark]

51. Agree 100%

[sakabatou]

53. +10

[msongs]

3. dear repubs, thank you for putting me in the death camp? nt

[TheRealNorth]

7. Exactly

When they empty your bank account because you referred someone to a website on where a women could still get an abortion, then come back and tell me what you think.

[hlthe2b]

4. They don't die without leaving someone to pick up the pieces, whether orphaned children, pets,

spouses, or the people they infect before they go. I focus on these latter victims and work to give the COVIDIOT a chance to make amends to those they harmed. I may have trouble sympathizing with the willfully unvaccinated, but I retain my empathy for those around them.

[Ferrets are Cool]

5. Fuck em.

I'm tired of the bullshit.

[Irish_Dem]

6. How can we empathize and sympathize with evil?

We would not be expected to sympathize with the Gestapo.

It is perfectly normal to be angry at people who put themselves and others in danger.
People who refuse to do the right thing and put this country in harm's way.

It is normal to be disgusted with their behavior.

Dems are a tolerant, empathetic group and it is high time we start getting angry at the war
being waged against us and America.

As long as we have a moral core, we are not like them.

As long as we are not sociopaths, we are not like them.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

44. Yep

And you can't be made a sociopath,until you are born that way or choose to identify with the abuser as a kid.

Sociopaths are unworthy of life.

[Scrivener7]

8. I have come to the understanding that they will be imbeciles no matter

what we do or think.

I have also come to understand that our frustration, anger and worry are their goal.

I have decided not to waste any more energy beating my head against that wall.

I am just as human as someone who is continuing to beat their head against that wall.

And no, it doesn't make me just like republiQans. I am not doing anything with the aim of causing them anguish. I simply no longer care if they insist on immolating themselves over nonsense. There is nothing I can do to change their minds. I just don't waste mental space on them any more.

[Lunabell]

9. No, we are not becoming like them.

You can't kumbaya them. They are evil and have a deplorable agenda. We can only take so much and the only way to protect ourselves is to fight.

I'm more than willing to help my fellow human beings, but when their political agenda actually kills innocent people, they have forfeited the benefit of the doubt.

I appreciate your heart in the matter. We always need kindness and love. Just remember though that if they come for you, there are those of us who are willing to have your back even as you turn the other cheek.

[kcr]

10. No

[XanaDUer2]

11. No nt

[WhiskeyGrinder]

12. I really try to resist dehumanizing language, and I see a lot of it here.

Also, no one ever gets what they deserve.

[femmedem]

14. You've become one of my favorite DUers lately.

I'm sure you would have been one of my favorite DUers a long time ago if I'd been paying closer attention.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

49. This is kind of you to say. Thank you.

[StarfishSaver]

29. Agree

[femmedem]

13. I'll go out on a lonely limb and worry about it with you.

Our--Democrats'--policies are empathetic; we fight for the common good; we protect the vulnerable. But sometimes the comments here are incredibly disheartening to me. I push back against it from time to time, and it is not generally well-received. People respond by pointing out the faults of people they don't empathize with. I don't disagree with the faults. I don't disagree that their faults are hurting other people, sometimes killing them. I still don't find it hard to empathize. It's possible to empathize while recognizing that someone's ignorance is causing harm and while working to mitigate that harm. It's possible to empathize while recognizing that someone belongs in jail. I have my limits, though: I find it easy to empathize with people who've been brainwashed with propaganda but difficult to empathize with people responsible for the propaganda, for example.

I really like the Buddhist Charlotte Joko Beck's writing about the empty rowboat from her book Everyday Zen:

Suppose we are out on a lake and it’s a bit foggy--not too foggy, but a bit foggy--and we’re rowing along and then, all of a sudden, coming out of the fog, there’s this other rowboat and it’s heading right at us. And...crash! Well, for a second we’re really angry--what is that fool doing? I just painted my boat! And here he comes--crash!--right into it. And then suddenly we notice that the rowboat is empty. What happens to our anger? Well, the anger collapses...I’ll just have to paint my boat again, that’s all. But if that rowboat that hit ours had another person in it, how would we react? You know what would happen! Now our encounters with life, with other people, with events, are like being bumped by an empty rowboat. But we don’t experience life that way. We experience it as though there are people in that other rowboat and we’re really getting clobbered by them.

It helps keep me from getting so angry that I lose empathy, when I remember.

[StarfishSaver]

31. Thank you

I'm glad to join you out on that limb.

[femmedem]

37. Happy to have your company.

[roamer65]

15. It's perfectly OK to hate christofascists.

It’s like hating Hitler, Mussolini or Tojo.

Let the hate flow.

[Kid Berwyn]

16. Thanks, kentuck!

You grok.

[Dan]

17. Shoulda brought stock in Toilet Paper.

[cadoman]

18. fascists aren't humans

What we have in the average 'merican right wing extremist is closer to a wild animal that needs to be rounded up, vaccinated, neutered, muzzled, and trained to fit into progressive society.

There is no playing nice with them. We've all experienced them terrorizing us in the streets. We've seen first hand their hatred for brown bodies. They don't care about public safety. We let them roam freely in Texas and they stole the abortion rights of birthing persons for the _entire state_.

Are you going to be a part of the problem or help us do what it takes to fix them?

[roamer65]

22. Deprogramming camps.

They have been endocrinated by ilk like Rupert Murdoch.

Murdoch needs to be jailed.

[Hortensis]

47. Lol, Borowitzing the kind of Democrats who imagine they're

far better but sound exactly like them?

Mean times are dangerous times not just because they're mean but because their meanness is both contagious and incompatible with the principles and functioning of democracy. So the answer to the OP has to be yes.

[Dan]

20. Maybe like the Jewish people during the 1930s+ until 1945 should care about the Germans,

and their suffering during the bombing at the end of the war II.

Maybe like the Armenian people should have cared about the Turkish people after the Genocide in 1915, for the duration of WWI.

I see it, but I can't relate to it.

[Comfortably_Numb]

21. 1. I'm not killing anyone myself. 2. I sleep just fine watching them literally kill themselves.

The sooner they go, the fewer of us sane folk they can potentially expose and take with them. Empathy—nope. Sorry, not sorry.

[maxrandb]

23. I am more afraid we aren't becoming more like them

Look, they fucking showed up at an obscure high school in Washington state to rail against mask mandates, resulting in the school going into lockdown.

We can't even protest at ONE fucking Hate Radio station that actually dehumanizes and demonizes the majority of the residents where the station is located.

We can't even be bothered to show up at school board meetings to thank and protect ordinary Americans just doing their civic duty.

They fucking storm the capital. A couple of us write a "respectfully disagree" letter to the editor.

They are a fucked up cult with shit for brains.

If only we were as fervent about our values as they are about their ignorant ideology.

They engage in politics as blood sport.

We better understand that, or we will proudly be celebrating that we didn't sink to their level as we are marched off to the reeducation camps.

Women are going to fucking die because of this Texas law, but let's not get too aggressive in their defense....

[femmedem]

36. I get your point: they are effective. We can learn from that. But there is a difference

between choosing effective tactics and despising the people you are protesting to the point where you lose any empathy,

(Not saying that you have lost empathy, or that you were disagreeing with the OP while making a different and valid point.)

[JHB]

25. Why would we be afraid? Since when do we care about dead Nazis?

[Comfortably_Numb]

45. Especially Illinois Nazis.

[ProfessorGAC]

26. No

Becoming like them is not even a measurable risk, so no, I'm not at all worried.
And, your examples don't begin to bridge the gulf between their behavior & expressing anger & disgust at the dangerous, willfully stupid.
IMO, your question doesn't make sense.
My wishing ill on intentionally reckless & dangerous people as a consequence of their own actions has no connection to antidemocratic, disease spreading sociopaths at all.

[Arkansas Granny]

27. I'm disappointed and out of patience with those who refuse vaccination,

but I don't wish them harm. I'm pretty pissed that their actions still affect the places I can safely go and my activities.

[StarfishSaver]

28. Some are

I also see it in the demands that Democrats use Republicans abusive tactics. They seem to think it's okay because our cause is just... But that's always the excuse people use for engaging in such tactics.

[liberal_mama]

30. One time I said something that showed lack of empathy for others & my younger son said, "Don't say

that. You will lose your humanity." He was right. I try to restrain myself when I have dark thoughts now. Sometimes it is very hard given the depraved actions of a lot of my fellow humans.

[StarfishSaver]

32. You and your son are right. We do ourselves no good

by turning into them because we hate them so much ... Or turning into them in order to overcome them.

[Ocelot II]

33. When I was a little kid my mom would chastise me for saying I hated someone,

usually some other kid who'd teased me. She would always say, "You don't hate anybody!" These days it's hard to follow that advice, so I try to remember the Buddhist tenet that all sentient beings deserve compassion. The aggressive anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers infuriate me, of course, because of the harm they cause others. The fact that they are also potentially harming themselves (note the anti-vax radio talk show people who've been dropping like flies lately) doesn't seem to faze them, so it's hard for me to work up much concern for them. Lately it makes me sad because I'm losing faith in my fellow citizens, too many of whom seem to be fundamentally mean and dumb. I should feel more compassion for them than I do, but I do feel sorry for the people they are hurting, which includes their own families, not to mention the health care workers who have to take care of them, the other sick people who can't get care because they are taking up hospital beds, and members of the public they've been infecting. It's really, really hard to feel much compassion for the willfully stupid.

[Ron Obvious]

34. I, for one, share your concern

There's an awful lot of bloodlust and witch-hunting among the "left" these days.

[stillcool]

35. When human beings are dangerous and inhumane

I care about their victims.

[NJCher]

38. Emotions just are; don't guilt people over them

Here's something I learned from a psychologist. Emotions just are. You can't argue with them; all you can do is accept them.

The OP's post is loaded with emotion:

The headline brings up fear: Are you afraid we are becoming like them?

In the fifth paragraph, it attempts to "guilt" those who are unsympathetic and fail to care about anti-vaxxers and Covid disinfo people: Because we are humans. We are supposed to care about our fellow human beings, even if they are our enemies and even if they are stupid.

I don't really see this as a topic for discussion. If you sympathize and love anti-vaxxers, that's how you feel. If one doesn't and resents them, that's how that person feels. Emotions just are: accept them.

Attempts at guilting someone who doesn't want to love an anti-vaxxer only results in resentment,therefore, I see this post as a waste of time.

[Efilroft Sul]

39. My family members spoke out against the fascists in Italy, and fought them in both WW2 theaters.

My relatives warned me about signs of fascism if it ever showed up here. They taught me to never side with the oppressors. They said to give them neither comfort nor quarter.

That's why:
• I will never try to "understand" these fascists.
• I will never bend to their thuggery.
• And I will never mourn their passing.

The world will not be left any poorer when these bastards die. The sooner, the better.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

42. I totally agree with you

Fuck the fascists and I hope all of them die of covid.

Fuck the evangelical trash.

And fuck the rabid Antivaxxers sideways with a pineapple.

Some things are so wrong,so violent so disgusting and morally repugnant ,they lose humanity,that's what fascists do.

And I dispise fascists and talibornagain
assholes, I hate people that are cruel.

Sekhmet,kill them all
The world would be better if they were gone.

[Crunchy Frog]

40. Nope. nt

[Wounded Bear]

41. Yes. If you stare too long into the abyss, the abyss stares back into you...nt

[I_UndergroundPanther]

43. Doesent

Mean you are a monster in an abyss
When a monster is staring at you.
Anymore than looking in a mirror is a real life person that looks like you.

I stare into the abyss to learn how to slay monsters. I don't identify myself with monsters.

I guess it's all who you choose to identify with...

[CrackityJones75]

48. They wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire.

Ley me explain it to you. They want to take away women’s health rights. Given the opportunity they would probably celebrate the return of slavery. They would deny equal marriage and force people into conversion therapy.


If you think we are becoming like them… Well it isn’t just “Fuck Them” that comes to mind. I am casting my gaze your way too!

[ecstatic]

50. No, at least not at the top.

If we were like them, we would control public opinion and use righteous anger and indignation to propel our agenda forward. trump and his thugs would be in prison, voting rights restored, supreme court stacked, electoral college abolished, seditionists expelled from Congress and facing prison time, etc.

[Sympthsical]

52. Anyone who vigorously celebrates death is not the good guy

I wouldn't ask this sort of question in a social media bubble, to be honest. Social media bubbles - of all kinds - tend to reinforce the worst instincts in each other. Not only reinforce, but explain away and excoriate any attempt at self-examination.

I saw a thread about a month ago. Some 18 year-old winger died in a dumb off-roading accident. Never heard of him. Didn't seem particularly famous in any way.

18 years-old.

Man, were the people in that thread thrilled. I was appalled.

Somehow, people think if they're not the absolute worst person, then they're the good guys.

Not how that one works. It's a sliding scale of shittery.

Show me a social media bubble, and I'll show you a graveyard of self-awareness and some worst feet forward action.

[sakabatou]

54. It's hard to feel sympathy for people that cause mass destruction because of ignorance and ego

[JI7]

55. How is any of that like becoming anything like them ?

I never had sympathy and empathy for every single person .

Some people deserve to be hated.