Their side loves him for the same reason our side hates him.

[soldierant]

42. It's a good question.

I received this today -

https://johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/when-the-hell-did-empathy-become

On the one hand, I have to agree with Comment #24 that the right side of history is outnumbered by the wrong side - and the examples are extremely telling.

On the other side, I've seen (and this was year ago) experiments done with children under the age of three put into a room with someone (or even some animal) was struggling with something - and the tendency of the children to help the struggler was virtually universal.

Where does that go when we grow up? I think we are influenced out of it for the most part. And not even necessarily with bad intentions.

"Enabling" someone self destructive to stay on that path is a real thing, But avoiding it can be overdone. "Tough love" is also a real thing, but if it isn't founded on genuine love (and I suspect you can tell that easily - if it doesn't hurt you to do it, it isn't real love) then all it is is tough.

Parents and teachers are not always to blame - if you look at people like Stephen Miller, Paul Gosar, RFK Jr, all their families are at odds with them and a big chunk of that is really about empathy.

Also, all these people in MAGA have grievances. They all feel they hve been cheated out of something that is rightfully theirs, something has been stolen from them. What is that something? For many it is white supremacy, but that can't be true for all, and it's probably not the only thing even for whites. Gender identity is another thing they may feel is being stolen from them simply by non-binary identities' existence. Whatever ir is, it's generally something they can't put into words because that would require way too much self-knowledge.

In reality, they are all being used by people who want them to have those grievances because they can be led to do just about anything if they are aggrieved enough. And throughout history, there always have been people who are adept at using them and also at getting into power one way or another.