Charlie Kirk’s quote of the day: “I can’t stand the word empathy. I think it’s a made-up New Age term”
In 2022, late conservative political activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk issued these words about compassion and empathy. “The truth is, I can’t stand the word empathy. I think empathy is a made-up new age term that does a lot of damage. ” Kirk said. But the word “empathy” works well in politics, he said.“When Bill Clinton said, ‘I feel your pain,’ it was a brilliant political move. It was complete nonsense, but it worked. I prefer empathy. Empathy is a better word. Empathy is saying, ‘I’m sorry for what you’re going through, and I’m going to try to help you.’ Empathy is like, ‘I’m going to be you and I’m going to feel what you’re feeling.’ ” It’s impossible, it’s narcissistic, and it’s destructive. “
Empathy and Compassion
Etymologically, empathy is a relatively modern concept, entering English in the early 20th century as a translation of the German psychological term Einfühlung (“feeling in”). Kirk believes that it is impossible to literally absorb and replicate the pain of others. He thinks this is a “New Age” delusion. It is impossible to truly feel another person’s unique pain, and pretending to do so tends to shift the focus onto the observer’s own emotional state, making it inherently self-centered.Sympathy is not about absorbing someone’s pain, but feeling sorry for someone’s pain. Kirk said it maintains healthy, honest boundaries. Sympathy is acknowledging another person’s pain from a distance. It says, “I see that you are hurting, I am deeply sorry for your predicament, and I hope things improve for you.” It does not pretend to exist in the consciousness of others.Citing the example of Bill Clinton, Charlie Kirk highlights how left-leaning political establishments weaponize empathy to create an impenetrable moral high ground.In modern debates, whether the topic is border security, welfare expansion, student loan forgiveness or health care, arguments often revolve around emotional narratives of victimhood and pain. When a political movement builds its platform entirely around empathy, it shifts the debate from the realm of efficacy to the realm of ethics.Kirk considered this a rhetorical technique. Compassion instead of sympathy completely changes the conversation, no longer arguing about whether a policy actually works, but about who is the good guy and who is the monster.
