Smugness being the most empathetic response, of course!
But hey, when you're right, you're right. Honestly, it rather pains me when others speak of empathy as if it is some sort of cudgel.
Okay, for our conservative friends: empathy is not some kind of box that gets checked off, and once you have it, it's all good. It's not like ... I mean, consider it less a noun, than a verb, kind of? It's less something you
have and more something you
do ... as for an example, I do practice empathy when interacting with and even thinking of my few random conservative friends/acquaintances. I even have really old friends who support Trump.
Having empathy for that is a continual process.
I don't know, I kind of can't think of a better example, because these folks support politicians and policies which ... well, ffs, as people have shown over and over on this thread, MAGA=white nationalism, and as both a POC and gender/sexual minority ... I mean yeah, I would
love to "insist" that they understand they're supporting a political party that wants me meek and disempowered at best, and literally dead at worst. I mean, I honestly have no idea how they're able to ignore all the violence; or to somehow buy that "Antifa" or Black Lives Matter are somehow greater threats.
But whatever, again just for the right-leaning: please, please consider the possibility that use of empathy is actually an unambiguous good. That shouldn't be controversial in the slightest.
How best to practice empathy is again a continual process, but we seriously have to at least start at a point of understanding that empathy is not ... like an evil philosophy or something?