The Myth of Liberal Empathy

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Be Kind

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In 2018, Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand Prime Minister, gave a speech on US soil at the United Nations general assembly. Occasionally glancing at the first-man, Clarke Gayford, carrying their newly born baby in his arms, she shared her vision for her leadership of New Zealand.

If I could distil it down into one concept that we are pursuing in New Zealand it is simple and it is this. Kindness. In the face of isolationism, protectionism, racism – the simple concept of looking outwardly and beyond ourselves, of kindness and collectivism, might just be as good a starting point as any.

Ardern became a pop-star politician, idolised by all those with a warm heart, who regularly listened to mainstream media charts, like Stuff, NZHerald, and now, the New York Times. She was dubbed the ‘anti-Trump’: A woman, an anti-racist, and importantly, authentic - she wasn’t just another narcissistic politician out there for self-interest alone.

‘Jacindamania’ took hold of my country, and much of the Western world. Reasonable men and women realised they couldn’t disagree with a such an inclusive message, and took her request of ‘be kind’ in their stead. We had reached a civilisational age where harsh competition was unnecessary, a prosaic and regressive mentality. In institutions, both public and private, we were to be accepting of all types, of all abilities. We were to ‘be kind’, despite the outcome.

A year later, in a speech condemning the atrocity of the Christchurch mosque shooting, Ardern epitomised solidarity, by wearing the hijab. She helped listeners understand that Muslims were people too, and Islam was a loving religion. Calls that wearing the hijab was misogynistic and that radical Islam was hateful were judged as ‘unkind’, and dismissed.

In 2021, she had a decision to make. Although she had ‘valiantly protected’ her populace from the viral infection called COVID-19, by locking down the entire country, it wasn’t enough. A significant minority were resisting Governmental requests to get Pfizer’s vaccine, and apparently ‘killing’ the citizens ‘doing the right thing’ and conforming. Even so, in September, she proclaimed that New Zealand would not descend into a two-state society, that those who refused the vaccine would not be punished. Though I thought much of the response absurd, an opportunistic power-grab of the liberal-global elite, at least, I thought, at least she had the wisdom - the kindness - not to punish those who disagreed with her. I was relieved - I could still continue my post-graduate degree without being injected with an untested vaccine.

Two months later my brother called me to his room. On his computer screen was a replay of an announcement made a few minutes earlier. Jacinda Ardern, in an interview broadcast to the country, had suddenly enforced vaccine mandates, ensuring that all those who refused would lose their individual rights.

She had a smile on her face.

Asked whether this would create two classes of people, she replied:

Yes … yes, that is what it is.

I had just been accepted into a highly selective Clinical Psychology post-graduate program, with admission rates similar to medicine, something I worked for years to achieve. I knew if I refused - like the rest of my family - I would never be able to realise my dream. After much discussion with my parents, I submitted, I got vaccinated.

Of course, my story barely scrapes the surface of the consequences of Jacinda Ardern’s ‘tyranny of kindness’. Early the following year, 2022, my brother’s friend died from a vaccine related injury after my brother had counselled him to suffer the social and professional consequences, and not get the vaccine. He was 26, incredibly fit and healthy.

The story was suppressed in the media.

I had read 1984 many times. But I always viewed A Brave New World as a more accurate representation of the modern West. COVID changed my opinion - clearly, ‘be kind’ was DoubleSpeak.

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The Myth of Liberal Empathy

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To many in my country, Jacinda Ardern’s tyranny was a realisation that her message of ‘be kind’ was only operationalised for when she needed it, and importantly, only for those she thought deserved it. To me, as a student studying psychology, Jacinda Ardern epitomised The Myth of Liberal Empathy - the ‘confounding’ finding that shows it is conservatives, rather than liberals, who show more empathy to their political opponents.

The finding is well documented, but a study in 2023 replicated it:

In four studies, U.S. and U.K. participants (total N = 4,737) read hypothetical scenarios and extended less empathy to suffering political opponents than allies or neutral targets. These effects were strongly shown by liberals but were weaker among conservatives, such that conservatives consistently showed more empathy to liberals than liberals showed to conservatives.

There are many reasons why this might be the case, here’s a list:

1. Many conservatives are ‘matured liberals’ and thus know what it was like to be one;

2. Conservatives are more likely to be Christian and thus view all people, even their direct political enemies, as children of God;

3. Conservatives are less ideologically homogenous, and contain far more disagreement between sub-groups, and may be ‘more trained’ in offering empathy to dissidents;

4. Conservatives are happier on average, and thus are more likely to engage altruistic emotions like empathy and compassion.

The researchers of the original paper found that:

This asymmetry was partly explained by liberals’ harsher moral judgments of outgroup members (Studies 1–4) and the fact that liberals saw conservatives as more harmful than conservatives saw liberals (Studies 3 and 4).

Essentially, liberals believe they are morally superior, and that conservatives are dangerous. This latter belief, that liberals find conservatives dangerous, is supported in another study exploring how Left-wing Authoritarians view men and women.

Men high in testosterone with a strong-face (narrow-set eyes, powerful jaw-line, rolling brow) are more likely to be perceived as formidable, aggressive, and also, conservative (which they actually are). Left-Wing Authoritarians rated images of such men far more negatively than both women and feminine looking men - they were afraid of them.

LWAs viewed the right face more negatively than the left face

The authors speculate that Left-Wing Authoritarians perceive powerful men as antithetical to how they believe wider society should be organised. Such men are more likely to value competitive hierarchies (perhaps in part because they are more likely to rise in them). Left-Wing Authoritarians and modern liberals in general, on the other hand, prefer what I call ‘Participatory Systems’ or ‘Anti-Hierarchies’ - social structures that select against competition … that are ‘kind’.

The left-wing perception of Donald Trump and MAGA is the epitome of this so-called ‘conservative-threat’. Liberals have claimed the movement fascist, its leader a tyrant on par with none other than Hitler. This smear, beside from being targeted propaganda designed to win a political war, is likely motivated by a natural fear of the ‘conservative-masculine’ - or anyone or anything that desires a return to a society organised by competition, rather than participation.¹

LWAs fear this image

However, for a while, the targeted propaganda worked, and alongside the message of ‘be kind’, the liberal-globalist orthodoxy increased its control over the average citizen.

That was until politicians like Jacinda Ardern started doing things that were quite clearly, even to her supporters, the opposite of ‘kind’. The whispers from dissidents that she operated by Doublespeak began to be taken seriously.

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The Domino

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Although it is without doubt that it was the 2016 election of Donald Trump which initially exposed this flaw in liberal morality, New Zealand was arguably one of the first countries that went to the ballots against it.

After being patronised for years on end, being split into citizens and non-citizens, told that while we had lockdowns, opening our borders was akin to murder, and when we opened up, that being against unrestricted immigration was akin to racism; after hard-working people had lost their jobs, had to close businesses, and so much speech had been curtailed online, New Zealanders had had enough.

Jacinda’s Ardern’s popularity plummeted. David Farrar, a pollster who worked for the opposition National Party, replied in an interview by the Daily Mail Australia in 2022:

A government that won the biggest ever majority isn't one you expect to lose office the one after, but Labour have lost about a third of their support.

Many had realised her message of ‘be kind’ was political propaganda designed to get her into power and to keep power, by inviting citizens to be the ‘good guy’ and not the ‘bad guy’. She is a skilful politician, cunning, with much guile, and plenty of strategical nouse. In 2023, the fall continued, and she admitted defeat: She resigned and threw her successor - the arch beta-male Chris Hipkins - a hospital pass of an election. He was demolished, with a right-wing coalition marching into power.

New Zealanders were thoroughly sick of ‘be kind’. Finally, they had seen through the lie.

Across the world, the people of other Western countries began seeing through the same lie. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, froze the bank accounts of those who were suspected of helping fund the peaceful trucker’s march, a deeply tyrannical act; Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany, followed through on Angela Merkel’s plan in 2011 to close down their nuclear power plants, which exploded the cost of energy, was catastrophic for the working class, and made them subservient to Russia; Kamala Harris, first achieved leadership of the ‘Democrat Party’ un-democratically, and campaigned like Jacinda Ardern - a loving message for all, except … that men weren’t included.

Arguably the lie where the consequences were the most horrific, was the one told in the United Kingdom for over twenty years. After limitless immigration from third-world countries, in particular Africa and the Middle-East, groups of radical Islamic men began grooming and raping young girls. In concerted collusion on a damning level, this reality was hidden from the common man and woman. Those who attempted to expose this tragedy with nuance, noting that the vast majority of immigrants do not behave like this, were scolded as far-right racists - of course, they were not ‘being kind’ to Islamists.

(I wrote this all before the Los Angeles fire debacle, from what I’ve heard from individuals living California, who are well-read on criminal negligence of not just this fire, but previous fires, State officials viewed the outside perception of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ - or ‘kindness’ - as more important than preventative and reactive measures against such natural and social disasters.)

All these leaders behaved in ways that made the ‘be kind’ lie unsustainable, like Ardern. Under their reign, common citizens have got poorer, lost their rights, told they were horrible individuals, and more. The hypocrisy has been revealed. The common citizen now intuitively understands The Myth of Liberal Empathy.

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The Delinquent Academic

1. Natural is not quite right - for some it may be natural as in ‘biologically-predisposed’, but I suspect most of this fear is due to educational brainwashing from an early age, at school then at university.