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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy is "Bleeding Heart" even an insult?
If my heart is literally bleeding, then I am in desperate need of medical attention. What kind of inhuman mindset would look at someone who is mortally injured, and insult them and leave them to die instead of helping them?
Oh yeah, the GOP healthcare mindset.
Lost_Count
(555 posts)Feeling sorry for everything and everyone and giving in to emotions quickly.
The Blue Flower
(5,451 posts)Again, why is this a pejorative?
rrneck
(17,671 posts)Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)malady.
rrneck
(17,671 posts)and I don't disagree with the value of the objective, but moderation carries with it its own measure of wisdom.
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)"A bleeding heart is an informal label applied to someone regarded as excessively sympathetic, of having sympathy without warrant." (Wikipedia).
That is kind of one of those terms that is used all the time without any thought behind it. Yet, it is never applied to conservatives. "Bleeding heart" conservative? No way!
jwirr
(39,215 posts)To care for anyone is bad to a rwer.
Igel
(35,387 posts)etymology.com is a handy source. Usually fairly good.
In the sense of "person excessively sympathetic" (especially toward those the speaker deems not to deserve it) is attested by 1951, but said by many to have been popularized with reference to liberals (especially Eleanor Roosevelt) in 1930s by newspaper columnist Westbrook Pegler (1894-1969), though quotations are wanting; bleeding in a figurative sense of "generous" is from late 16c., and the notion of one's heart bleeding as a figure of emotional anguish is from late 14c., but the exact image here may be the "bleeding heart of Jesus."
The insult isn't just in being excessively sympathetic, sympathetic to every claim without warrant.
The insult is that your emotions are in charge of your brain, so you think with your empathy and make decisions as to right and wrong, good and bad with your emotions. Fairness is all emotion-based, and whether somebody should be charged with a time has nothing to do with facts or law, but with emotion.
And not just emotion, but to always side with the tear-jerker story, without critical thinking or evaluation of the claims. A person claims to have been wronged, you feel sorry for the person, what use are facts?
jwirr
(39,215 posts)However when that was the name we did not see it as all that bad. Not like today when it discredits you entirely.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)nm
G_j
(40,372 posts)NutmegYankee
(16,204 posts)They falsely see themselves as the only logical ones as they associate callousness with pure logic.
I find their approach only justifies their selfishness and am often called a bleeding heart liberal in my work as an engineer. I wear that name with pride. I'm proud to care about the less fortunate.
It sets up a perfect false choice dichotomy.
You must always side with the self-proclaimed victim or you must be ruthless and unfeeling.
There is no third way. Well, there is--there's not much more that's reasonable *other* than the third way, if you want to know the truth. But it's a difficult choice, because it means that sometimes victims are to blame and sometimes the appropriate choice is dry and not oozing emotions.
A lot of people sort of acknowledge that there's a middle, but only allow them and their own kind to be part of it. Their adversaries, their confirmation bias says, are only shoved up against the extreme opposite side.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Chorophyll
(5,179 posts)I always say, "thank you."
Having a bleeding heart means that you feel for others. It implies generosity.
CatholicEdHead
(9,740 posts)A "real man" is one who takes no punches, sees everything through, works to his goal, sets up others to fail so he can succeed, thinks only for himself. To consider others in the equation is un-manly, weak, if those under you can not compete with you, you are not worthy.
Or something like that. Compassion towards others has been stereotyped as weak, feminine, something not to strive for. We are currently in a hyper-bussiness culture where profit in the short term is all that matters no matter what the costs to get it.