A Disabled Palestinian Was Carrying a Bag of Lollipops When He Was Shot by Israeli Troops

[Sympthsical]

135. Sometimes an underdog doesn't deserve support

Rudy would be a completely different movie if he ran around picking fights in bars, sexually assaulting classmates, and being an all around unbearable prick. He'd be an underdog, but you wouldn't be sitting there clapping. At least, one hopes not.

Empathy only works if it is unconditional. It is clearly conditional in many anti-Israel cases. Silence on October 7th. Silence on sexual assault. Silence on antisemitism.

This does not strike me as the behavior of empathetic individuals.

Performative empathy? Sure. Absolutely a thing. Finding the most emotionally punching story and characterizing it in the best way to evoke an emotional response - and only doing this if it serves narrative or political purpose?

Yes. That is performative empathy.

Doing this doesn't make someone a better person, a more moral person, or a principled person. In fact, I'd argue it makes them worse. Like parents who only love their children when the kids are doing what they want. Empathy given when it serves is not empathy at all.

That is called cynicism. And take it from a cynic - I know the shit when I see it.

People think they are helping when they are hurting, but does it matter when the object of the exercise is to only help one's image of oneself? If people cared about Palestinians, they'd have a lot to say about Hamas. But they don't. Because it's not about Palestinians. It's about ego constructed and the narrative that serves it. Savior of the Oppressed.

But, in history, saviors turn out to be devils predictably often.