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A lot of politics is about whom people include in or exclude from their moral universes.
Sometimes people substitute "empathy," but that isn't the same as moral inclusion, and it becomes a basis for moral exclusion.
Sometimes people have a principle of trying to include everyone. Sometimes people have a principle of excluding “those people.” Sometimes people have a principle of accepting what they can’t change, which tends to narrow their moral universe, especially in authoritarian regimes, and makes it harder to make things change. Sometimes people have a drive, that is "empathy," to include people, but that often weakens with distance.
Sometimes people make a habit of inclusion or exclusion, making it easier to include or to exclude.
Now empathy has become another reason to exclude people: If we’re autistic and other people can’t understand us, then we “lack empathy.” If we’re autistic and we don’t understand other people, then we “lack empathy.” If someone is sociopathic then they also “lack empathy,” in another sense… true some do hurt other people… But the people who connect with their friends and families and neighbors while supporting war or closing the borders to refugees or the like, they “have empathy,” and what do they do with it?
Sometimes people substitute "empathy," but that isn't the same as moral inclusion, and it becomes a basis for moral exclusion.
Sometimes people have a principle of trying to include everyone. Sometimes people have a principle of excluding “those people.” Sometimes people have a principle of accepting what they can’t change, which tends to narrow their moral universe, especially in authoritarian regimes, and makes it harder to make things change. Sometimes people have a drive, that is "empathy," to include people, but that often weakens with distance.
Sometimes people make a habit of inclusion or exclusion, making it easier to include or to exclude.
Now empathy has become another reason to exclude people: If we’re autistic and other people can’t understand us, then we “lack empathy.” If we’re autistic and we don’t understand other people, then we “lack empathy.” If someone is sociopathic then they also “lack empathy,” in another sense… true some do hurt other people… But the people who connect with their friends and families and neighbors while supporting war or closing the borders to refugees or the like, they “have empathy,” and what do they do with it?
