When accused of being a socialist, Kamala Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, was quoted as saying, “One man’s socialism is another man’s neighborliness.”
On the surface, this folksy retort seems harmless and even a bit inspirational. What’s wrong with being neighborly? Shouldn’t we all strive to embody such ideals? It is the Christian thing to do, after all — love your neighbor as you love yourself.
However, this is actually a clever manipulation tactic known as weaponized empathy — and it is a favorite tool within the progressive socialist toolbox.
Weaponized Empathy
It is reminiscent of the “Think of the Children” fallacy, where one attempts to win an argument purely through emotional manipulation, using children to garner pity, rather than by using facts and logic. A good example of such a tactic is often seen in debates around illegal immigration, where children of illegal immigrants are used as props to stir emotions to avoid confronting the problems surrounding the large number of immigrants still sneaking over our borders. The implication is that if you disagree with illegal immigration, you do not care about the suffering of immigrant children.
Weaponized empathy may be the most common (and often, the only) defense of progressive policies, and it serves as rationalization for all manner of government intervention.
During COVID, if you refused the experimental vaccine, you were told that you didn’t care about others and wanted people’s grandmothers to die.
If you didn’t support Black Lives Matter during the riots of 2020, you were called a racist and told that you didn’t care about black people.
If you are pro-life, you are told that you don’t care about women — or worse, actively want to control their bodies and make them suffer.
Many people even take up progressive positions, not because they deeply believe in them, but simply because they want to avoid the social ostracization that comes with rejecting them. The tactic is effective. The message is that if you don’t believe in or actively support progressive policies, you don’t care about others. If you don’t support the means, you don’t care about the ends.
Now, Tim Walz wants us to believe that if we don’t support socialist policies, we are not being neighborly. If we don’t support expansive government programs and interventions, we just want our neighbors to suffer. Socialism is the only solution. Think of the children!
MORE:
https://stream.org/neighborly-socialism/