"The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism."

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Reposted by Mike Masnick
https://bsky.app/profile/mmasnick.bsky.social

Qasim Rashid, Esq.
‪@qasimrashid.com‬

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Hannah Arendt said 'The death of human empathy is one of the earliest & most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism'

We saw the recent cruelty of MAGA denying empathy to Melissa Hortman

Empathy for Kirk—not because he ever acted like a decent human—but because we are decent humans
September 10, 2025 at 4:37 PM

Hannah Arendt said 'The death of human empathy is one of the earliest & most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism'

We saw the recent cruelty of MAGA denying empathy to Melissa Hortman

Empathy for Kirk—not because he ever acted like a decent human—but because we are decent humans

— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@qasimrashid.com) 2025-09-10T20:37:17.916Z

[FirstLight]

1. Nope, can't do it.

I may not be dancing, but I certainly have more bitterness than empathy for him and all of them. I guess we are devolved into barbarians, but what did you expect? I'm not going to take the high road on any of this

[sop]

2. Arendt is right. You're right. Decent human beings feel empathy for others, no matter who they are.

Our culture fell into barbarism a long time ago, Kirk's death is just one more example.

[thomski64]

6. ..live by hatred, die by hatred..

There's one common thread in all
these shootings...







.....guns...

[marble falls]

3. Nothing until we know more.

[Autumn]

4. Nope. I have no empathy for hate mongers and people who celebrate gun deaths

to preserve their fucking gun rights.

"I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights".

"Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” an audience members asked. Kirk responded: “Too many.”

The questioner followed up: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”

“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk asked.

Then he was shot.

Fuck him. Decent people owe him no emapthy. The universe got it right.

[Coventina]

5. Sorry, but Kirk was anti-empathy, so, I'm honoring his wishes in that regard.

*Coventina resumes grave-dancing*

[RockRaven]

11. It is very empathetic of you to reflect his values back at him.

[SamuelTheThird]

7. Hannah Arendt had a romance with a literal Nazi

I don't have empathy for fascists and fascist enablers.

[fujiyamasan]

24. Yikes didn't realize that

And had to look it up. I’ll have to find more about it. I knew there was some controversy about her, but never knew about the affair.

How banal.

[muriel_volestrangler]

30. I'd dispute that she 'enabled' him

I presume this is Heidegger. She had an affair with him in the mid 20s, before he showed any Nazi signs. In the 30s, he joined the party; not in charge of any crimes, but doing nothing to denounce or prevent them either - what his feelings about Jews really were, who knows, but she was Jewish herself, of course.

After the war, they reconnected (resumed a physical relationship? I don't know), and she defended him. But I don't think that's "enabling" him - because he didn't do Nazi things after that.

Given her work helping Jews to emigrate to Palestine, and her arrest by the Gestapo, I don't think it's fair to dismiss her as a "fascist enabler", or to implicitly dismiss her ideas.

[Prairie Gates]

33. Agreed

Bashing Arendt for her affair with Heidegger is very silly business.

That said, I wouldn't exactly say that he showed no Nazi signs in the 1920s. There's a good case to be made that much of his philosophy was proto-Nazi and certainly right wing all throughout that period.

Heidegger's writings on Jews are much better understood after the release of the so-called black notebooks. They are pretty bad. The major rub for Heidegger scholars is that he absolutely refused to apologize for any of it, even when begged to do so (by Arendt, among others!). Of course, he was barred from teaching after the war as part of the de-Nazification programs. One Heidegger scholar, on writing about the postwar period and the black notebooks, concludes simply that Heidegger was prideful and had a "hard heart" (see Krell, Ecstasy, Catastrophe: From Being and Time to the Black Notebooks). It seems an insufficient judgment.

In any case, I agree with the gist of what you're saying here, and the attempt to discredit Arendt's point on empathy by pointing to her relationship with Heidegger is...not great.

[SamuelTheThird]

37. Arendt DEFENDED Heidegger post-war

We didn't even need his journals to see his Nazi support.

She had empathy (and love) for Heidegger, and that made her do the disgusting thing she did

[SamuelTheThird]

36. I wasn't calling her an enabler, but Kirk

I'm not sure what Id call her, but her gross defense of Heidegger post-war was a kind of enabling though.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. "I can't stand the word empathy. Actually I think empathy is a made up New Age term that does a lot of damage."

https://www.reddit.com/r/ToiletPaperUSA/comments/y2gpp2/charlie_kirk_i_think_empathy_is_a_made_up_new_age/

Charlie Kirk, 2022.

[RockRaven]

9. Yeah, well, Americans are not decent human beings. At least not a majority.

Empathy is dead in the US. It's primary executioners were Reagan, Gingrich, and Murdoch, and its date of death was a few seconds after we elected a black guy POTUS.

[electric_blue68]

13. Disagree. I think there Still more Empathetic Americans than not...

It's that the less so, or totally unempathetic people are louder esp since drumphf was first elected.
He gave them "permission" to be out, and about.
Imho.

[Ponietz]

10. Interesting that Mike Lee of Utah was the biggest asshole commenting on Hortman's killing

Rather than offering condolences or condemning the violence, Lee posted a photo of the alleged gunman, Vance Boelter, wearing a latex face mask. He captioned it, “This is what happens… When Marxists don’t get their way.” Lee also shared another post with the caption, “Nightmare on Waltz Street,” referencing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

https://apnews.com/article/mike-lee-posts-senate-minnesota-lawmakers-shot-eb58f097a2e627b9441f64ac6f7bbaa8

[Torchlight]

12. Hannah would hate Mark Twain

I have been reading the morning paper. I do it every morning—knowing well that I shall find in it the usual depravities and basenesses and hypocrisies and cruelties that make up civilization, and cause me to put in the rest of the day pleading for the damnation of the human race. I cannot seem to get my prayers answered, yet I do not despair

[mcar]

14. I have empathy for his family and the students

None for him. He cared more about guns than human lives.

[dpibel]

16. Did you weep for Pol Pot?

Will you be sad when Putin dies?

How about Muammar Gaddafi? His death was particularly brutal and grotesque.

[BannonsLiver]

21. +1

Pretty sure I know the answer to the Putin question. It’s not exactly a mystery at this point.

[dpibel]

23. Maybe conditional empathy ain't so bad, after all

Who knew?

It was worse than the death of empathy. And now it's just a blank space.

[W_HAMILTON]

20. Been a tough day for you?

[Cuthbert Allgood]

17. Are we going to have this same discussion when Putin dies?

No. We aren't. Kirk was a horrible human being. I don't need to have empathy for him. I'm sorry for his children that they lost their dad. How's that?

[JCMach1]

18. I don't have moral relativism about evil

I call it out when I see it and Kirk exemplified a modern American brand of evil.

[milestogo]

22. Judging by the comments I have seen today, it seems to be dying on DU.

[fujiyamasan]

25. Sorry I'll sit this one out

I have only so many fucks to give about the state of the world. Most of my fucks are given about my family. The rest are sparingly given (the state of democracy is one, and I actually have empathy for dead kids at school and their families).

Kirk, in life or death really doesn’t get any and he wouldn’t have given any either.

[ecstatic]

26. That might be true but how did we get here?

Kirk and others like him helped to get us to this place.

I don't condone what happened to CK, if for no other reason than I do not ever want to see that happen to someone on our side.

I feel empathy for his family, especially his kids who may end up seeing the horrific video online at some point. But we're talking about a guy who viciously attacked various groups, several of which I am a part of. If David Duke gets shot do I have to feel empathy for him too? WTF?

[Keepthesoulalive]

27. Perhaps I'm missing something

Japanese internment camps, Native American genocide, slavery, which group to hate this week and the most recent was putting children in cages without proper identification treating them worse than a dog in a boarding facility. This is America without the false halo, let’s be honest and see her without her makeup.

[ImNotGod]

28. that train has already left the station. nt

[ihavenoidea]

29. Well said

[hatrack]

31. With all due respect to Hannah Arendt (and my respect for her is substantial) . . . .

I have doubts that empathy is a very common human attribute.

[Prairie Gates]

34. I don't think Arendt had any illusions about that

[hatrack]

39. I wouldn't put it in hens' teeth territory, but judging by the last 20 years, it seems to be lacking in Americans . . .

It doesn't awaken as easily in me as it once did, I know that . . .

[Emile]

32. Hate speech deserves no empathy.

[Brainfodder]

35. To me this is just the natural result of GREED and a few evil apples at the top doing ANYTHING/EVERYTHING to not SHARE?

The barriers, the lawyering, the absurdly expensive shit just for them.

Root of all evil....

[fshrink]

38. No empathy here.

None.