I'm sure when the rest of the tech world wakes up this will be flagged which might be ironic as it might show that that happened due to a lack of empathy - the two responses that the featured article recommends - and instead represent a denial or an opposition to discussion. (I'm being flppant here - most flag killing happens because the discussion turns into a flame war, which I can see happening here too!) but...
Empathy is pretending to feel what its like as another person. It's not the same thing as sympathy. It is possible empathise with an angry hateful person as much as with a happy loving person. For me, it's a good tool to use to help understand what the other person wants, and how they are behaving.
How many times do you read something which says "I don't understand why they would do this thing / act this way / vote for that / like this thing"? How many times is that person you? Those statements are true statements about the giver - that person literally doesn't understand the other person. But the question they ask is not actually asking for understanding - they are telling you that their target is The Other - that it is impossible to understand. And they haven't tried empathy. Sometimes that person might be disgusted even thinking about using empathy on the other that they disagree with.
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I'm sure when the rest of the tech world wakes up this will be flagged which might be ironic as it might show that that happened due to a lack of empathy - the two responses that the featured article recommends - and instead represent a denial or an opposition to discussion. (I'm being flppant here - most flag killing happens because the discussion turns into a flame war, which I can see happening here too!) but...
Empathy is pretending to feel what its like as another person. It's not the same thing as sympathy. It is possible empathise with an angry hateful person as much as with a happy loving person. For me, it's a good tool to use to help understand what the other person wants, and how they are behaving.
How many times do you read something which says "I don't understand why they would do this thing / act this way / vote for that / like this thing"? How many times is that person you? Those statements are true statements about the giver - that person literally doesn't understand the other person. But the question they ask is not actually asking for understanding - they are telling you that their target is The Other - that it is impossible to understand. And they haven't tried empathy. Sometimes that person might be disgusted even thinking about using empathy on the other that they disagree with.