I’m pretty sure you are not really reading or listening because it’s obvious that you and I are in many ways on the same page.
See empathy is not the end state. You don’t just listen have empathy and then stop. That’s just the start of the conversation to get to solutions to problems. I thought that was obvious but maybe i should have been more explicit about that.
I think you are exhibiting the same very understandable behavior that a lot of this electorate has where they feel so aggrieved that they lash out even against people that are trying to understand and help. It’s a sign of just how frustrated they are. What FEMA recently experienced in rural Tennessee and Kentucky responding to the hurricane is perfect example of this.
The “other” side has become so othered by the political rhetoric that it becomes inconceivable that anyone who isn’t in lock step agreement with every political idea could possibly understand or have anything in common with you. We now reached the point where for many as soon as someone challenges anything we already believe we begin to assume they are on the other side without even confirming what their beliefs actually are.
Even your attempt at what was supposed to be a put down of some kind (I guess)calling me “professor” is perfect example of this. Completely unnecessary, adds nothing to the conversation, doesn’t advance toward solutions, it just really emblematic of our now ingrained need to troll the other side to “get a rise” out of them. I mean, it doesn’t bother me but you might want to think about why you felt the need to say it. I get it having beliefs challenged even by someone who might agree with you can be difficult to handle.
Ultimately that kind of thing is self-defeating because it doesn’t accomplish anything on either side it just further entrenches people in already held beliefs. In that, that way of thinking, is just a tool for the politically powerful to maintain their power. Keeping people divided helps entrenched powers like our current political system. It doesn’t help actual people,
