Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

What is empathy? It's a word that was only made up in the early 1900s and has found a lot of traction because it's subjective, so anyone can say there isn't enough of it, whatever it is? According to dictionary.com, empathy is "the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another." That seems ludicrous on its face; no one can know what or how another person is feeling, and to think they can is hubris in its own right. For example, Progressives harp on empathy but exhibit none themselves. They confuse empathy with being self-righteous and indignant, and find it difficult to believe that there are people who think other than they do; people who have different values, goals, and ambitions.

Physicians are taught to empathize with their patients. In fact, they are tested on it, so next time you go to the doctor and they ask, "how's your parents' health," and you say, "my mom died at 80 about 20 years ago," the doctor will say, "oh, I'm so very sorry to hear that," in a soothing, monotone pitch, that is completely insincere. That's what they are taught empathy is, but most people use the word “empathy” as code for envy, spite, avarice & resentment; a politician that empathizes with his constituency appeals to to their base motives. The real meaning of empathy, not the venal distortion, is to NOT feel envy, NOT feel superior nor self-righteous... To be sincere. To overcome those feelings, that is true empathy.