"Empathy, by encouraging the interchange of selves, tends to suggest that selves are interchangeable. It frames other’s experiences as inhabitable...that mainstream commenters can just inhabit the marginalized rather than, for example, talking to them."
It’s just a poor argument. Empathy is more general, like anguish at the death of a loved one, joy at the birth of a child, hope for a better future, etc. Zoom out. The universal is found in a larger, more abstract picture. Empathy is about emotion, not activity.
You’re confusing things that happen to everyone with being able to know, understand, and embody how everyone thinks, feels, and reacts to things that happen to everyone.
Comments