Both Elon Musk and Christian nationalists call empathy "toxic," "suicidal," and even "satanic."
But what they're really worried about is that empathy is *feminine*.
And in MAGA, a woman is the worst thing a person can be. An analysis.
https://www.salon.com/2025/04/11/magas-on-empathy-exposes-misogynist-fears/
male fragility is so dangerous
@AmandaMarcotte I’d argue their deepest fear is of weakness. Our society tends to (wrongly) view ‘softer’ emotions as weak and (again wrongly) associates those emotions with women and femininity.
Associating with women, emotions, empathy will trigger those deepest fears. Hence the need to repress and control women.
When you really think about who gets to be considered a "man", manhood is nothing more than the externalization of insecurity and mediocrity.
Same with Whiteness.
They demonize empathy because empathy and the arsenal empathy allows one to access are both inaccessible and horrifying to those people.
Empathy builds communities.
Empathy is the foundation of civil rights.
Empathetic groups exorcise demons like these antisocial parasites.
Are some lady justices about to lose their jobs?
"endless rounds of media hand-wringing about the loneliness epidemic among men"
- @AmandaMarcotte
Why on earth should these men who claim that empathy is bad expect anyone to feel empathy for men who are lonely?
If empathy is wrong, then no one should care that men are lonely. Being concerned about men's loneliness is a form of empathy after all.
Because this stuff is also generally not "X is bad" but rather a hierarchical "X for me fine, X for others lower in ther hierarchy is bad."
It is fine and expected for women to have empathy for men, that is part of them being lower in the hierarchy. But, as the article discusses, this justifies for men to not need to have empathy, because that would be lowering themselves below their place in the hierarchy.
@AmandaMarcotte A simple take on this is that these guys have mommy issues.
For the Christians, it also seems to evoke devotion to the antichrist rather than any formal heresy.
@AmandaMarcotte According to Wikipedia, Pope Francis said whoever says the criteria of Christian love is not the Incarnation is the Antichrist.
This empathy-is-a-sin shtick seems pretty close to that.
Sheesh. The "fuck your feelings" crowd is certainly having a lot of feelings, eh?
Looks like they never read 1Peter 3: 8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
Those are fake Christians. The bible is full of empathy for others like "Love your neighbour like you love yourself." Look what the book of Ruth tells. The good Sameritan and many, many more. Empathy means love. And seems that these men do not have any.
I see this completely differently that’s not about it being femme.
Empathy is a critical social species faculty. The definition of empathy encompasses both positive and negative feelings.
I will point out here that the super rich and the far right use empathy all the time.
they persuade people to empathize with their talking points.
They persuade people to amputate their own critical faculty which checks the persuasive power of the far right.
The futurists provided fascists with a similar (tech-centered) misogyny:
"Futurism was constantly concerned and preoccupied with gender relations, […].
From 1919 onwards, German Nazism [...] went so far as to connote all political opponents and projects with female connotations and thus devalue them.
Sexually active, fighting, self-confident women were so hated by the fascist man that even cowardly murder was right for him."
➜📚 "Deutschland als Autobahn": https://mstdn.social/@stekopf/112417348279236834
Attached: 1 image Weiter aus dem Buch (siehe 🔝) "Der Futurismus war beständig besorgt und beschäftigt mit Geschlechterverhältnissen, war sozusagen im heute von ganz rechts bejammerten Genderwahn gefangen. Schließlich ging der deutsche Nazismus […] ab 1919 so weit, alle politischen Gegner und Projekte weiblich zu konnotieren und damit abzuwerten. Allein die Existenz von öffentlich sichtbaren und teils sogar kämpfenden Frauen in den Reihen der Gegner war den Freikorps-Männern Beweis für deren Verächtlichkeit." 1/7
@AmandaMarcotte That may also be why their trans panic is nearly exclusively about trans women. If any “normal” (their language) male can become female, then *their* masculinity is at risk. And also it is clear evidence that people — even some “men”! — find being a woman worthwhile.
It’s instructive, I think, that they aren’t nearly as bothered by trans men. I mean, deep down even we cis men are all performing masculinity, so maybe it’s logical that they don’t want to interrogate that at all.
Yes it's the exact same gender hierarchy that means gay men are a huge horrible threat to society, while lesbians either don't exist or, at best, are cute and will change their mind when the right man comes along.
(Until the lesbians are butch dykes and explicitly appropriating masculine presentation and roles and thus, if they can't be turned into a cute "aw of course she wants to be a man even though she isn't," become a threat.)
EXACTLY what a #SOCIOPATH would say: #ElonMusk has a…diagnosis of what’s *ailing* #America: It’s being destroyed by #empathy. In a long interview w/Joe Rogan, in numerous tweets…, #Musk has argued that “empathy” is a “suicidal” trait that is a driving force behind civilizational extinction. It is time, he believes, for “the West”…to bar its doors to #immigrants of a *certain type* & endure “temporary hardship” so govt can be transformed & “the woke mind virus will die.” https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/04/elon-musk-cant-take-the-heat-wisconsin-supreme-court-empathy-doge/
"But what they're really worried about is that empathy is *feminine*."
Funny coming from a "man" with hair plugs and testosterone treatments and who uses IFV to procreate his spawn
So ironic given their whole schtick is whining about how 'unfairly' treated they've been by everyone else.
There's an unsavoury word they love to throw at normal men for what they are.
They're just too self-involved and stupid to see they're the biggest, loudest, most soiled-pants poster children for it.
Christians against empathy is some seriously fucked up shit 😱
@fishidwardrobe @AmandaMarcotte
Well it's not talking about empathy as an innate characteristic of women, but rather its strong social association (in our cuture) with femininity... which is true.
@hackbod @AmandaMarcotte if "empathy is femine" is not describing it as an innate characteristic of women, what would be?
(I'm certain the OP didn't mean it the way it sounded. My criticism is of the way it sounded, not what was meant.)
@fishidwardrobe @AmandaMarcotte
The wording in the original post is "empathy is *feminine*". Socially associated with femininity. And then in that world, male and female are binaries that can't be crossed and masculinity and femininity are inescapably tied to those two binary biologies.
(And *they* are the ones accusing others of having a "gender ideology." Of course, as usual, it is all projection.)
@hackbod @AmandaMarcotte I just quoted the same thing to you.
I'm pleased you seem to be reading this as, approximately: "in their world, empathy is feminine"; because I'm sure that's how it was meant.
But it's not what was wrtitten. I've said my bit, and won't be saying more.
@fishidwardrobe @AmandaMarcotte
Oh whoops what you wrote was "empathy is femine" which I read as "female".
So the original word used is "feminine" which, like "femininity", is a social construct. The article is talking about the social construct of what is feminine, not an innate biological characteristic. (Which is also why feminine is put in quotes.)
"Empathy is toxic" is something only a person undeserving of emotional investment would say.
I keep wanting to call trump the father of lies, and say the christian nationalists are a bunch of demon worshipers.
Also I keep thinking of the story of the golden calf and how so many "christians" are worshiping a pudgy guy who loves dying himself a golden color and surrounding himself with gold.
Could the world get any more heavy handed with the symbolism?
Jonathan
Amanda Marcotte
Konosocio
samiamsam
Bread80
Antin
RJ
JackPearse
Dopes The Frogman
Aphrodite (recharging)
🟥 Eveline Sulman 🇳🇱🇪🇺🇺🇦
ZoLo 🏴🇳🇴🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️♾️
TL Jordan
Zhi Zhu 🕸️
Dianne Hackborn
Chris Dudley
Daughter of Discord
Cassi
Miranda
quirky_nature4
GhostOnTheHalfShell
Sepia Fan
Robin Barton
curtosis
Nonilex
FinchHaven sfba
I am Jack's Lost 404
Kyle Memoir 🍉🐧
Neil Scott
Ponygirl
Rüdiger Kladt
Elie ايلي 🇵🇸🏳️🌈 (He/Him)
Fish Id Wardrobe ⁂
Jacqueline
decapitae
Justin Free
Diane
Fluffy Kitty Cat