Jeff Sessions Claims He Doesn’t Know What Empathy Is

[Matariki]

I KNEW this about Conservatives! Seriously, I believe that the inability to have empathy is a form of mental illness. These people need help and intervention. Interestingly, he really *doesn't* know what the word means - the ability to identify with the emotions of another - and instead interprets it to mean personal prejudice. :shrug:
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http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/07/jeff-sessions-claims-he-doesnt-know-what-empathy-is/

<snip>
Republicans still don't know how to respond to Obama's empathy requirement for the Supreme Court. Sunday, Orrin Hatch took the rather weird position that only partisan liberals possessed the ability to understand other people.

Now, check this interview with Jefferson "The KKK Ain't That Bad" Davis Sessions:

Q: When you hear President Obama talk about nominating someone to the court who has empathy and real-world experience, do you understand what he means?

Sessions: I don't know what he means. And it's dangerous, because I don't know what empathy means. So I'm one judge and I have empathy for you and not this party, and so I'm going to rule for the one I have empathy with? So what if the guy doesn't like your haircut, or for some reason doesn't like you, is he now free to rule one way or the other based on likes, predilections, politics, personal values?

[Mike 03]

1. Having observed his performance on committee hearings, I believe it. NT

[DS1]

2. "I believe that the ability to have empathy is a form of mental illness"

Type slower

[Matariki]

5. oh jeez

THANK YOU! Exactly what happened!

[depakid]

6. That would be inability- and it underlies many dysfunctional personality disorders

including sociopathy, which I have little doubt that Sessions and other Republicans like him suffer from.

[DS1]

13. I was correcting the OP, hence the quotes, and suggesting to type slower

[villager]

3. Doubt no Republican, when they tell you they don't know what empathy is

Even if they've heard the word, they've never experienced it...

[Matariki]

10. Clearly. Or the issue of torture wouldn't even be an idea they would toy with

much less defend. And whether water boarding is actually torture wouldn't even be a reasonable question.

[madaboutharry]

4. He doesn't know what it means because he has none himself.

Jeff Sessions is a confederate. He is a hateful man with bigotry buried deep within him.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

7. Lack of empathy is

one of the prime characteristics of a sociopath.

Yeah, that would explain it.......................

[baldguy]

19. Lack of empathy is

one of the prime characteristics of a Republican.

They see it as a weakness to be used & exploited.

[county worker]

8. That's why the right relies on religious dogma and political ideology.

They need everything to be black and white and free from emotion or interpretation.

I know that I have read of a few studies into conservatism that point out that most conservatives lack the ability to have empathy.

I had a conservative co-worker once who was mean and cruel to those she supervised. I asked her once if she ever cared about how they subordinates felt when she did those things and the question went right over her head. It had never occurred to her to think about how the workers felt. She was incapable of feeling empathy.

[JerseygirlCT]

9. Not in the least surprising, and perhaps one of the few true things

out of his mouth!

[Sebastian Doyle]

11. This is a guy whose ONLY problem with the Klan is that too many of them were stoners

So burning crosses is fine, burning a fatty, not so much. Not exactly a prime candidate for empathy.

[angstlessk]

12. all of my life my first question was.."I wonder what it feels like to be...."fill in the blank..

till one day when my sister had cancer and had to undergo chemotherapy and I wondered and was truly riven with fear..since then I have tapered off..."I wonder what it feels like.." I fear I might really find out and it scares me at times.

[Kitty Herder]

14. I'm not at all surprised that Sessions doesn't know what empathy is. nt

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

15. Sessions himself defined empathy in his answer and he got it all wrong

Empathy is not SHARING "likes, predilections, politics, personal values".
It is UNDERSTANDING "likes, predilections, politics, personal values"

Empathy is the ability to emotionally relate to another person and their experiences, even when they have no overlap with your own personal experience.

I think a good example has risen recently in the news - the Somali pirates.

The non-empathetic people say "They are pirates, they are breaking the law. Hunt them down and kill them"

The empathetic people say "They are pirates, they are breaking the law (because they live in a lawless, violent society with no hope for economic survival and they see piracy as the only option) They still need to be punished but perhaps we could do that AND address the reasons becoming a pirate is so attractive in Somalia."

[rucky]

16. This should be a standard question of any conservative.

The clumsy responses tell-all.

[lunatica]

17. Obama's biggest weapon is his vocabulary!

Throw a few words in that Democrats understand but that leave Republicans bemused and stand back and watch the dizzy it creates.

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. The man acts like an ossified asshole.

That is all.

[DainBramaged]

20. Jeff Sessions is an ossified douchenozzle

[cpompilo]

21. There is an empathy gene. You either have it

or you don't. In general, republicans don't seem to have that gene, so it doesn't surprise me that Jeff Sessions doesn't have a clue as to what empathy feels like.

[Matariki]

22. I wonder. Is that true, that it's genetic?

Or are you speaking metaphorically? Can empathy be learned? I've often wondered that.

I've also realized that it's been one of the biggest communication problems I've encountered, especially with conservatives.

I used to just assume that *everyone* was empathetic, and consequently would try to make someone understand something by asking 'how would you feel if...?'. I assumed that everyone could understand that question and come to a reasonable conclusion based on something other than their own perspective.

I've since come to understand that many people aren't empathetic at all and if I want to communicate something important to them I have to frame in a way that refers to their own self interest.