IHIP News - The Christian Right's War on Empathy

Episode Date: March 16, 2025

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Convicted felon Donald Trump ascended to be president of the United States and the autopsy on this is going to be very, very important. And what people need to realize is that this man uses cult-like practices and he has built a MAGA cult. Don't take my word for it. Let's look at these posts from cult leader on Instagram. How Trump turns accountability into conspiracy. Next slide. By labeling investigations and legal scrutiny as a witch hunt or deep state plot, Trump convinces his followers that any challenge to his power is corrupt. And let's leave that up for a second. Donald Trump has demeaned and diminished the Justice Department by using these tactics. And he witch hunt, witch hunt, witch hunt.

And then these people start believing it. And they don't realize that these witch hunts are actually forces of transparency and forces of accountability that keep democracy in check, that make sure that this man is accountable to somebody. Next slide. Trump positioned intelligence agencies, the FBI, and even election officials as enemies of the people. When institutions designed to uphold democracy become villains, it becomes easier to reject their findings. So let's think about this for a second. Donald Trump riled up all of his supporters to go commit crimes,

to attempt an insurrection. And then after that, he tells them all, the FBI is doing this to me. You can't trust law enforcement. You can't trust these institutions, these institutions that keep them safe. He has dismantled all of these things. And there's never been a better time to be a white collar criminal than right now, because all of these people now have gotten pardons.

You have a lot of corporate criminals that are giving Trump money, full-blown quid pro quos to get pardons. And this is what cults do. They dismantle any aspect of being accountable so that you can only worship the cult leader. Next slide. By branding whistleblowers and investigators as part of a conspiracy, Trump discredits them before they can reveal damaging truths. This creates a reality where only his narrative is trusted. And Elon Musk has done the same thing. everybody that he said during the campaign that if Kamala won, that he would probably go to prison for a very long time, which is why he invested in this campaign so much. Donald Trump was going to

go to prison. Elon Musk was going to go to prison because they're con men, they're criminals. And Americans make a huge mistake with their worship of capitalism and thinking that if somebody is wealthy, that they're smart and successful. And they are successful in terms of capitalism. They crushed it. But these people are not smart, moral, or decent people. Another myth that has got to be dispelled is that government needs to be run like a business. Businesses don't help anybody except for the business owner or the share owner. And this is government is to service the people. So this is such an insane thing.

And that's why you're seeing all of these policies that are so wildly unpopular. Next slide. When truth is labeled fake news and falsehoods are repeated as fact, followers become conditioned to doubt objective reality. This erodes trust in journalism, science, and democratic systems. And this is exactly what we're living in right now. Fake news about every single thing that damages this man. And all of this harms people. When you turn away from science, when you turn away from facts. How are we ever going to advance?

This is the age of unenlightenment. This is the age of stupidity founded and sponsored by MAGA morons. Next slide. Understanding these tactics is key to resisting them. Accountability isn't an attack. It's a foundation of democracy. Recognizing when a leader uses conspiracy to deflect scrutiny is the first step in reclaiming critical thinking. Now, I don't know if some of these people will ever think critically again, because I think

sometimes once people dig their heels in so deep, they cannot admit that they're wrong. An example would be Elon Musk right now with Doge. He's dug in so deep with it. Trump with the tariffs, he's dug in so deep with it. He will not admit that it was a fool's errand, that it was stupid, that it's tanking the markets because you have stupid people leading other stupid people. But those of us that critically think have got to fight this with everything in us. Next up, I want to talk more about this game plan of theirs. Here's J.D. Vance playing the victim and gaslighting. J.D. Vance, some of you may have heard, was out walking his three-year-old daughter. And he tweets this. Today, while walking my three-year-old daughter, a group of Slava Ukrainian protesters followed us around and shouted as my daughter grew increasingly

anxious and scared. I just decided to speak with protesters. He goes on and on. So then somebody else tweets him back and says, your daughter was nervous, anxious, and scared. You fucking imagine how Ukrainian children who were kidnapped, sent to re-education camp, and placed in new Russian families feel. Here's what I think. I think J.D. Vance uses his kid as a prop. Why on earth is a wildly unpopular vice president taking his kids out for a walk where the Secret Service would know, look, there are protesters around here. This was all staged so that they can act like the people that support Ukraine are agitators. And that is the lie. That

is the gaslighting. That is the cult-like stuff. And these men use their kids as human shields. Why do you think X is always on Elon Musk's shoulders? He's paranoid about getting assassinated. He wears a bulletproof vest, and the only area that he couldn't protect is his head. And that's why the kid is always on his shoulders. J.D. Vance is using his child as a prop. He knows, he knows what he's doing with Ukraine is a play into Vladimir Putin's playbook. But he takes his kid out so that he can create this moment and then make the rabid base feel

like, oh, my God, the libs are attacking J.D. Vance's kid. And I want to remind you, J.D. Vance can't even stand up for his kid. People in his own party spout racist statements towards Indians. His wife is Indian and his kids are half Indian. So for him to get on Twitter and act like he gives a shit about his kids when he cannot defend his kids' biracial status and he cannot even defend his wife is rich and it is cult-like bullshit. Next up, we have Musk.

He continues to confirm his Nazi worldview. Let's take a look at this slide. Elon Musk said on Joe Rogan, when you hear Elon Musk tell Joe Rogan the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, you might think, hmm, that sounds just like the Nazis, and you'd be right. Warnings that Germans are too sympathetic to others run throughout Nazi propaganda. So now they are attacking empathy. Imagine that. They are attacking you caring about somebody else because we elected sociopaths, sociopaths hanging out with other sociopaths so that they feel normal and also because misery loves company but I want to play this reel for you guys posted by a former evangelical pastor who now speaks out against the dangers

of cults the dangers of evangelical Christianity. His name is Brian Recker. Watch this clip. Evangelicals so afraid of empathy. Empathy almost needs to be struck from the Christian vocabulary. It does. Empathy is dangerous. Empathy is toxic. Empathy will align you with hell. Absolutely. Absolutely. What? And it's not just this wingnut. A prominent theologian just released a book called The Sin of Empathy. And another popular evangelical influencer just released a book called Toxic Empathy. They are stressed, y'all. They're stressed that many people, including Christians, are becoming more tolerant, more accepting, especially towards queer people and those previously excluded by Christian dogma. And this will be controversial. Women are especially vulnerable to this.

Absolutely. In our churches, women will have empathy for the sinner. They'll have empathy for the rebel. They'll have empathy for the toxic six person. So this straight white man in a church led exclusively by straight white men is concerned about women leading us into more empathy. And he's right. Women do tend to be more empathetic because under the patriarchy, they have experienced marginalization, which is why it's so important to listen to the voices of women as well as queer people and people of color. This is toxic empathy. The thing about empathy is that it can actually blind us to reality and morality. That's why empathy really isn't a good guide in helping us decide what's right.

The truth is the actual truth, then most importantly, biblical truth. So they're concerned that people are changing their minds based on an empathetic response to the stories of marginalized people. They say that's not a good reason to change your mind. Empathy shouldn't get in the way of biblical truth. As a straight white guy, it has been transformative for me to listen to the stories and experiences of marginalized people. It's helped me to see that many of the things I used to consider objective truth, things like male headship or the denial of queer people, these things are not objective. They were actually engineered to lift some people up and keep other people out. This kind of empathy formed imagination is essential if we're going to build a world that works for everybody, not just the people already on top.

So now we have this bizarre intersection where we have Christian nationalists and Elon Musk, who's not religious at all, Donald Trump, not religious at all, all coming together for this message that empathy is toxic, that empathy is the problem. Can you imagine that the leaders of this country are sponsored by all of these right-wing Christian nut jobs that want to wage a war on empathy? Why is empathy a problem? Because they're going to do bad, evil shit. They're diabolical people that are going to do evil, bad shit. And I want to remind you that Trump posts on his lie social a pink triangle with a mark over it, like, we don't want this, which is what Hitler labeled LGBTQ plus people that

he murdered in concentration camps. So we have Nazis at the top of the government who are surrounded by all of these crazy Christian nationalists, and they all oppose empathy. And this is why there can be no daylight. I mean, zero, zip, zilch, none. No Democrats can support anything that these fuckers want to do. They are evil. And we have to fight because people still have agency and we still have power and we still control where we spend our money. We need to make sure Elon Musk brand is tanked into the ground. And we need to try everything we can do to get Donald Trump's flea market offline. And we have to organize. We have to march. We have to promote

these Democrats that are fighting for us. Make sure you amplify their voices. Please subscribe to our channel and I'll see you all later.