The Decline of Empathy and the Appeal of Right-Wing Politics

[applegrove]

The Decline of Empathy and the Appeal of Right-Wing Politics

by Michael Baeder at Psychology Today

https://m.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-is-he-thinking/201612/the-decline-empathy-and-the-appeal-right-wing-politics

"SNIP.............


The failure of our institutions to empathize with the plight of the middle and working classes, to recognize their sacrifice and reward their hard work is traumatic. It is the same type of trauma that children experience when their caretakers are preoccupied or rejecting. The trauma erodes trust. It overwhelms systems that people have developed to deal with stress and creates psychological suffering and illness.

Adults, like children, try to cope with the stress of failures of recognition in the best ways they can. They certainly get anxious and depressed and may turn to drugs and alcohol to manage these painful feelings. In addition, when social trust is weakened and people are isolated, they try to find ways to belong, to be part of a community. The Tea Party is one such community. Others turn to their church communities. Their social brains seek an experience of “we” and often do so by creating a fantasy of a “them” that they can devalue and fight. Tribalism draws from our need for relatedness but, tragically, can also pervert it. Rejected by employers and government, they reject and demean others. All the while, they are trying to deal with the pain, powerlessness, and lack of empathy that they experience in their social lives.

Donald Trump clearly spoke to this pain. He empathized with the traumatic losses and helplessness of the white middle and working classes. He helped them feel part of something bigger than themselves, a “movement,” which combatted their isolation. And he helped them restore a feeling of belonging by positioning them against demeaned others, primarily immigrants and countries on the other end of “horrible trade deals.”

The research on the development of empathy and the trauma resulting from its absence, on the links between economic inequality and physical and psychological suffering, and on the corrosive effects of social isolation has to lead progressives to renew their campaign for radical reforms of our economy and politics. Tronick’s and others’ research on the development of empathy and the trauma resulting from its absence has to lead us to support families in every way possible such that parents have the time and resources to empathetically connect with their children. Wilkinson and Pickett’s research on the harmful effects of economic inequality should force us to make redistribution the centerpiece of our political program, just as it was for Bernie Sanders. Their research clearly shows us that greater equality itself can ameliorate a wide range of suffering. And the fact that our society disconnects us from each other means that we have to seek common ground with the people on the other side of what Hochschild calls the “empathy wall” and communicate to them that we not only feel their pain, but share it, and that, in the end, we are all in this together.


...............SNIP"

[elleng]

1. 'has to lead progressives to renew their campaign for radical reforms of our economy and politics.'

[Igel]

2. Shows true empathy and willingness to see the other's position.

Also known as "ramming it down their throats whether they like it or not."

Heard a preacher recently in a church that my wife attends because she thinks it makes me happy (this is her attempt at a compromise, and it's best if she realizes that it's not a good one on her own): In dealing with the imprecatory psalms and whether they show Xian love, the preacher said they do. "Sometimes the best thing that can happen to somebody, the way to show them love, is by killing their children or even them, in order to make clear that they're sinning or just to prevent evil."

I found the argument less than convincing. Bad things happen to bad people, and that can accrue to their good; but that doesn't mean that I nod approvingly or even smile at bad things happening to those I disapprove of. I don't find Schadenfreude to be a Xian or even a progressive virtue. That makes me, for many, a bad liberal.

In a good Xian church, I believe the leaders are servants.

In a good democracy, I believe the leaders are followers.

[Skittles]

3. once again

sure, Donald "SPOKE" to them....but how FUCKING STUPID do you have to be, to BELIEVE what that elitist bastard says? HIS PRODUCTS ARE MADE IN CHINA AND HE STIFFS HIS OWN WORKERS FER CHRISSAKES

[Initech]

4. My favorite meme is that they continue to paint Hillary as an out of touch elitist!

Um.... excuse me? You can't get much more of an elitist than Donald Trump! He lives in a fucking solid gold building with his name on it, rides around in a giant 757 with his name on it, ate 24 courses for Thanksgiving dinner - two of them named after him. And literally every single one of his cabinet appointees is a billionaire elitist - DeVos, Puzder, Tillerson - they're all out of touch billionaire elitists! I mean if that's not elitist, then I'm Elvis Presley!

[Cosmocat]

7. America 2016

This is the stupid we live with ....

[True_Blue]

8. Trump is the poster boy for elitism

[Cosmocat]

6. Right!

nm

[Cosmocat]

5. For the love of christ

Yes, lack of empathy is spot on, but it has jack shit to do with "trauma."

These people aren't that bad off.

It is plain and simple mean spiritedness. Racism, bigotry, hatred of gays, minorities.

All this trying to find some deep seeded psychological rationale for it is the nonstop effort to romanticize this kind of Bullshit, something these fuckers never give us the benefit of when they come up with whatever insane Bullshit they gin up to portray us as freedom hating bolshevic seeds of satan.

[applegrove]

9. Oh i do believe lack of equality can be traumatic. Think about poverty. It is so

stressful and psychologically hard on people. That I do agree with. So too isolation.