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DemocratSinceBirth

(101,856 posts)
Thu Jan 29, 2026, 04:42 PM Jan 29

MAGA's War on Empathy (By Hillary Rodham Clinton)

When I first saw the video of the killing of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital, I immediately thought of the parable of the Good Samaritan. Federal agents shot Pretti after he tried to help a woman they had thrown to the ground and pepper-sprayed. Jesus tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves and help those in need. “Do this and you will live,” he says. Not in Donald Trump’s America.

Americans have now seen with their own eyes the cost of President Trump’s abuse of power and disregard for the Constitution. Videos of the killing of Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents have exposed the lies of Trump-administration officials who were quick to smear the victims as “domestic terrorists.” Even Americans who have grown habituated to Trump’s excesses have been shaken by these killings and the reflexively cruel and dishonest response from the administration.

This crisis also reveals a deeper moral rot at the heart of Trump’s MAGA movement. Whatever you think about immigration policy, how can a person of conscience justify the lack of compassion and empathy for the victims in Minnesota, and for the families torn apart or hiding in fear, for the children separated from their parents or afraid to go to school?

...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/war-empathy-hillary-clinton/685809/


Their lack of empathy is a function of the fact that they are practically feral.
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MAGA's War on Empathy (By Hillary Rodham Clinton) (Original Post) DemocratSinceBirth Jan 29 OP
Hillary was Right about Everything! And still is Bread and Circuses Jan 29 #1
She would have made a great president SocialDemocrat61 Jan 29 #2
We wouldn't be... 2naSalit Jan 29 #4
This message was self-deleted by its author 2naSalit Jan 29 #3
K&R 2naSalit Jan 29 #5
Elon Musk... GiqueCee Jan 29 #6
Thank You & Hillary. 💔☮️🌺🌻🌸🕯️🕊️💜 Cha Jan 29 #7
It's all howling at the wind. Boomerproud Jan 29 #8
And yet some on our side durablend Jan 29 #9

Response to DemocratSinceBirth (Original post)

GiqueCee

(4,285 posts)
6. Elon Musk...
Thu Jan 29, 2026, 05:53 PM
Jan 29

... was quite vocal about his contempt for empathy, calling it "The West's greatest weakness". The complete lack of empathy is a hallmark of conservatism, and always has been. The Republicans' Bitch Goddess of Greed, Ayn Rand, railed against empathy and altruism every chance she got. When I was a young man in the late sixties, I had the misfortune to meet her once, however briefly. My employers were big time "Objectivists", and strongly urged me to read both her door-stop novels, as well as her essays. Anyway, they took me to a talk she gave, and, as movers and shakers in the Rand-loving community, they got invited backstage to kiss the ring of The Great One. I had no choice but to tag along. She was an absolute pig to everyone.
An absence of empathy is one of the red flags of sociopathy, so it's no surprise that hard-core Trump-humpers not only openly display such anti-social behavior, but are proud of it. I despise them all.

durablend

(9,274 posts)
9. And yet some on our side
Thu Jan 29, 2026, 06:48 PM
Jan 29

Still insist we find common ground with these "people".

"Well there has to be a middle between getting rid of ICE and them killing people. Maybe we settle for them bashing in some heads?"

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