I've been thinking this as a melody, but you put lyrics to it. Unidirectional empathy is a ploy. Omnidirectional empathy leads to rationality, literally the weighing of ratios of interest; and to creativity, where we can identify win-win solutions.
We should be wary of activists who redefine words while denying that they are doing so.
Language has always been, and will continue to be, a tool that all sides use to try and persuade and coerce people into a particular viewpoint.
The difference is that the Left does control a lot of our important institutions, education, and is actively trying to use their cultural power to impose new definitions of words that a majority of people don't actually agree with.
I wish that well intentioned people on the Left would understand that just pushing for changes in language isn't going to convince people. At best it just confuses the conversation, the importance of agreeing of definitions has been recognized since Aristotle, and at worst it's a obvious attempt to social engineer people that will backfire and provoke an extreme response.
I don't understand how many secular folks that understand the limits of prototypical "compassionate Christianity" then not get it when "empathetic" people do the same self-righteous posturing without the direct appeals to religion. To me, selective compassion and empathy read as off-putting regardless of the in-group of the person who is using it.
I've been thinking this as a melody, but you put lyrics to it. Unidirectional empathy is a ploy. Omnidirectional empathy leads to rationality, literally the weighing of ratios of interest; and to creativity, where we can identify win-win solutions.
Yes! Exactly.
The culture war is largely about language.
We should be wary of activists who redefine words while denying that they are doing so.
Language has always been, and will continue to be, a tool that all sides use to try and persuade and coerce people into a particular viewpoint.
The difference is that the Left does control a lot of our important institutions, education, and is actively trying to use their cultural power to impose new definitions of words that a majority of people don't actually agree with.
I wish that well intentioned people on the Left would understand that just pushing for changes in language isn't going to convince people. At best it just confuses the conversation, the importance of agreeing of definitions has been recognized since Aristotle, and at worst it's a obvious attempt to social engineer people that will backfire and provoke an extreme response.
I don't understand how many secular folks that understand the limits of prototypical "compassionate Christianity" then not get it when "empathetic" people do the same self-righteous posturing without the direct appeals to religion. To me, selective compassion and empathy read as off-putting regardless of the in-group of the person who is using it.