> On emotional level, they like it when someone else is harmed. And that is it.
On the other hand I recommend you work on improving your empathy even if you don't use it for debating. That is ridiculous and you don't have the excuse of an upcoming election to get away with bad behaviour.
The pro-DOGE people generally want to pay less tax. That is a much better motivating theory. Will they get that? Probably not. But the emotional response (if any) is going to be much more on the greed or fairness aspects.
Many of these actions are explicitly about culture wars, most visibly the actions against trans people. There is no way to explain that in terms of taxes.
I can attempt empathy for their fear of trans people, but I don't know what to do with it. Their fear is inculcated by a vast propaganda machine, to which they are deeply wedded. Maybe over a few decades they will see that trans people simply aren't harming them, but it's not clear whether my empathy today will have any beneficial effect on that.
Everything they call "woke" is about culture wars rather than taxes, and there's a lot in that category. There have been many, many calls for "understanding" their position in the culture war over the last few decades, but it has only gotten louder and more virulent.
I think we may simply need to accept that we do understand them, but that what they want is simply unacceptable. That's an impasse, and it won't be resolved by empathy.
No, what you say is just what you want to be true. A comforting lie that is being repeated in various forms.
Listen to what those people say, watch what they do. They literally say they want to cause harm. When their politicians gets insulting or cause harm, they get more votes instead of less. Instead of listening and watching, you knee jerk sanitize it, use euphemisms and basically gaslight everyone else. I do actually read and listen to what conservatives actually say and write.
It is in project 2025. It is online. It is in conservative journals and articles. Talk to them in person long enough personally and they will tell you. It is the same thing with trade war. It is in Trumps rhetoric. And it was the same thing with abortions - it was totally paranoid to say they plan to remove protection for women ... until they actually did it. Again and again, their opinions and plans are sanitized and euphemized away. And then they get benefit of doubt no democrat or leftist is ever getting.
There were enough low tax republican politicians who lost against Trump. When centrist democrats adopt republican plans, the previously cheered on plans are suddenly bad and republicans who keep supporting them are suddenly ennemies too. And the reason is that it is not the economics or taxes.
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Also, speaking about empathy, why is there consistent expectation that empathy flows exactly one way? You are demanding that I am emphatetic to people who see empathy as weakness on an ideological level. And who are never ever asked to return the favor.
> Also, speaking about empathy, why is there consistent expectation that empathy flows exactly one way? You are demanding that I am emphatetic to people who see empathy as weakness on an ideological level. And who are never ever asked to return the favor.
You don't have to if you don't want to. I only bought it up because it'll probably help you feel good about life; it makes it easier to tolerate people who are disagreeable. You seem to be boxing with phantoms.
The issue here is not really that someone is "disagreable". It is actual real world harm that goes on.
> You seem to be boxing with phantoms.
Not really. I am just listening to what the people we talk about say or do. You want me to pretend their motivations and ideologies are something they simply are not.
On the other hand I recommend you work on improving your empathy even if you don't use it for debating. That is ridiculous and you don't have the excuse of an upcoming election to get away with bad behaviour.
The pro-DOGE people generally want to pay less tax. That is a much better motivating theory. Will they get that? Probably not. But the emotional response (if any) is going to be much more on the greed or fairness aspects.