We Need to Have Empathy for Tea Partiers

[cali]

Published on March 5, 2010





These tea-party folks seem to most liberals-well, to most of us who live in the "reality community," or, as I like to call it, "reality"-like crazy fuckers.

As a recent NY Times article reports, this hodgepodge of people and groups spout frankly paranoid beliefs as received wisdom, e.g. the Federal Reserve is our enemy and should be abolished, citizens should stock up on ammo, gold, and survival food in anticipation of an impending Civil War, states should "nullify" federal laws and even secede, medical records are being shipped to federal bureaucrats, the Army is seeking "Internment/Resettlement" specialists, Obama is trying to create crises in order to destroy the economy, convert Interpol into his personal police force, and create a New World Order. Conspiracy theories involving shadowy elites like the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations have resurfaced. Self-defense and armed resistance are frequently called for. Racist stereotypes, innuendo, and hostility run rampant. The Constitution is its sacred text and Glenn Beck its most beloved prophet. They don't usually wear aluminum hats but perhaps they should.


I hate these folks but I also understand them. And, well, uh, I also empathize with them. They share the same psychology as the paranoid patients I treat every day. The only difference is that the paranoid beliefs of the tea-party movement are political while those in my consulting room are of a more personal nature.

The causes and dynamics, however, are the same. And so just as I have empathy for my patients, I have come to have empathy for the tea-party'ers, even as I despise their influence and work hard to defeat their ideology. It's crucial that progressives do likewise because if we don't understand the ways that decent, god-fearing, and victimized people can come to espouse such a dangerous ideology, we won't be able to fight them effectively.

<snip>

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-is-he-thinking/201003/we-need-have-empathy-tea-partiers

[Warpy]

1. I have a great deal of empathy for them

These are people who know they've been screwed for years without ever getting kissed. Their problem is that they're so stupid they have no idea who they're really angry at and so they tend to be easily led.

I know why they're angry, I'm angry too.

However, I think they'll be led by the very people who have been screwing them for only so long. The leaking of the Republican strategy was just the first step in that process.

[Possumpoint]

2. Guess I'll Have To Add You To

The list of doctors I wouldn't be caught dead seeing. What gives you the right to think you're normal and all these others aren't. That you're rational and they aren't. You know better.

[Taverner]

3. I have no empathy for those who fly planes into buildings

Whether they do it to "stick it to Uncle Sam" or whether they do it for Allah, the "benificent" the "merciful"

[Pyrzqxgl]

4. I'm A COFFEE GROUNDER: "Grounded In Reality"

Join our movement today.

[Laura902]

5. I really don't agree

despite the fact that some of their beliefs are completely delusional and the fact that they easily believe the lies of Limbaugh and friends while ignoring facts doesn't make them mental patients. I have family members who happen to be tea-baggers. They are discreetly racist and believe in the Christian god but that certainly doesn't mean they need any empathy. Indeed as you said they need facts, but many of them feel victimized solely on the premise that we have a black president.

[gleaner]

6. I don't agree ..

First, unless you see them individually as patients you don't really know their psychology. You can only guess. Guessing doesn't translate into hard medical facts.

They do have a paranoid mindset, but I don't think it is to the point of pathology. They are political extremists which is not a mental illness wherever it occurs on the spectrum of right to left. They are vocal, organized and advocate violence. Tim McVeigh would fit right in with them.

They are the people most likely to form militias and stockpile weapons to use where and when they can when they feel that there is no other way. I don't have empathy for any of that. I don't hate them, I understand that they feel wronged and ill used, but a lot of what they are experiencing they have searched out to to control the reality that no one has good control over the outside influences that shape the world they have to live in. I can't embrace that. My life is as out of control as theirs is and for many of the same reasons, but I don't think violence, racism and hatred are going to fix it. I don't have the slightest idea what will. I turn in my hopes to the next Democratic primaries where perhaps we can get leadership more in tune with us than the government we have now.

As a former federal employee who worked for an agency which was routinely targeted for violence by right wing militia groups they lost any sympathy I had years ago, and they are not likely to get it back. They are on their own. They don't need my sympathy. They need to improve their minds and grow up so that they can be more functional citizens.

[MrCoffee]

7. If these bastards ruin my shot at becoming an Army Resettlement Specialist, there'll be hell to pay

That's all I have to say about that.