What passes for “Republican outrage” these days is not outrage at all. It is theater, a cheap and cynical performance designed to conceal the party’s real project: the abolition of empathy and compassion from public life. Strip away the phony indignation, and what remains is a cold-blooded attempt to produce a citizenry incapable of identifying with anyone outside their own reflection.
Take their unrelenting campaign against books. No one who has ever been moved by a page of literature can fail to understand the purpose of this war on thought. Books make people think, yes—but worse (for the GOP), they make people feel. A novel about slavery, a history of Jim Crow, a first-hand account of the genocide of Native Americans: these do not merely instruct; they awaken empathy. And empathy is precisely what the reactionary mind cannot abide. Why else the grotesque attempt to whitewash history? It is not, as they claim, to prevent children from “feeling guilty.” It is to prevent them from feeling at all. A child who understands the lash marks on the backs of slaves or the dispossession of indigenous peoples might develop sympathy—and sympathy is poison to the authoritarian project.
Universities, once sanctuaries of critical inquiry, are likewise targeted. To learn to question, to analyze, to argue—these are intolerable skills in a society that demands obedience. Better to replace the seminar with the sermon, the professor with the preacher. The ambition here is unmistakable: a Christianized madrasa state, where thought is not cultivated but crushed. In this respect, Republican fundamentalism has far more in common with the Taliban than with Jefferson or Madison.
The tactic is not unique. It is the same psychological sleight of hand that keeps slaughterhouses out of sight. Do not look at how your steak is made, or you might stop eating it. Do not look at famine abroad, or you might demand that your government do something about it. Do not look at mass shootings in your schools, or you might start to question the sacred cow of the Second Amendment. The principle is always the same: avert your eyes, close your heart, and carry on in cultivated ignorance.
Meanwhile, misdirection becomes the daily sacrament. One day it is Epstein’s files, the next day it is “traitor Biden,” all to ensure you never pause long enough to notice the contradictions. Inflation is “up” when it is down, and “down” when it is up—whatever serves the moment. Truth is not a fixed reality but a disposable prop, swapped out as easily as yesterday’s headline. It is the North Korea model with a red, white, and blue paint job: a citizenry kept in darkness, fed only the lies that sustain power.
And so empathy withers. It does not collapse in a dramatic act of violence; it is starved to death quietly, over time, until nothing remains but a shell of a people, obedient and unfeeling. Without empathy, without compassion, we lose the only qualities that make life bearable. What remains is cruelty, sanctimony, and the slow march toward barbarism—cheered on by those who have mistaken their own moral amputation for strength.
Why It Matters
Empathy is not a luxury—it is the foundation of democracy and shared humanity. A society stripped of compassion becomes easier to manipulate, easier to divide, and easier to control. The systematic destruction of empathy is not accidental—it is a deliberate political strategy that threatens freedom itself.
Key Takeaways
- Republican outrage is performance, not genuine conviction.
- Book bans target empathy, not “guilt.”
- Universities and science are attacked to enforce obedience.
- Propaganda misdirects public attention while truth is disposable.
- Without empathy, society slides into cruelty and barbarism.
Further Reading
- The Authoritarian Personality – Theodor W. Adorno; classic study on the psychological roots of authoritarianism. https://civilheresy.com/auhoritarian personality
- On Tyranny – Timothy Snyder; twenty lessons from the 20th century on resisting authoritarian politics. https://civilheresy.com/on tyranny
- The Age of American Unreason – Susan Jacoby; examines the cultural forces fueling ignorance and unfeeling politics. https://civilheresy.com/american unreason
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