The Power of Empathy
Hey friends, welcome.
You may have read this week that a currently influential and remarkably nervous billionaire said, and demonstrated, these things about empathy across the past week or two. He said: "The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit. They're, it's, they're exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response." He also said that he learned that empathy is a bad thing when playing a favorite video game. That empathy has been weaponized (an interesting turn of phrase to say the least). That much-needed, cross-generationally embraced U.S. programs and great ideas such as social security, Medicare, Medicaid, USAID, scientific research, and national public lands and parks, for example– programs and ideas that we all pay in to so that we can have income, access to useful healthcare, neighbors who love us, and relaxing spaces when we need them the most– are "ponzi schemes" that are only needed by "the parasite class" of planet earth. And that powerful, visible others that he doesn't personally like are all NPCs (non-playable characters, pre-programmed and entirely controlled by a video game, not other human beings at all).
Oh, honey. No.
How in the world did you manage to get to the age you are now without learning more about individual and collective empathy from your fellow human beings? Or from the trees and birds and the sky and soil beneath your feet? Your abused and isolated child's take on empathy breaks my always expanding and powerful heart. Make that our hearts.
Let's talk about empathy.
I'm an empath. That means that I'm a human being who has enough real and loving community that I can usually connect to and lean on the empathy innate within all living beings present. That's not just 8.2 billion humans I can lean on. Empathic beings can connect with all of life on earth. Humanity makes up just 0.01% of life on earth. Thanks to empathy, we've got a whole planet and universe of connections, love, wonder, curiosity, history, humor, ancestors, and energy to lean on. And we are never alone, unless we want to be.
With empathy comes sensing and knowing your true place in the universe and being surprised by your place in things again and again as you grow and change. With empathy comes knowing how remarkably important you are and how remarkably important everybody else is too. And with empathy, gratitude isn't just an occasional visitor or an empty, meaningless word, she's a life-long companion. I was loved so deeply and held so well by my community, and by my family, and by the earth herself as I grew and became an adult– despite the waterfall of pain that attends modern life– that even here, today, I am me, and I am loving. Here as a human witnessing and holding immense cruelty daily– much of humanity's pain directly being caused by you now, Mr. Anti-Empathy– I can still be fully human. Still be curious. Still be loving. Still be warm. Still be generous. Still be full of empathy and wonder and humor too. Still be powerful. I can still be the real me.
And I'm not alone. Not by a long shot. Because all living beings hold empathy, and humans full of empathy get that we are not gods, not evil by nature, and not here just to suck as much money and joy from others as we possibly can. How sad is that? We are so much more than that, and humans who hold empathy know it. Here's a refresher for when we forget.
We who embrace our innate empathy can do all of this
Wow. I just re-read this. Earthlings are so cool! We who embrace our innate empathy can...
Deeply love being alive and fully present on earth, almost all the time, and almost every day.
Even during the most horrible days I've lived, when losing people we loved, I still deeply loved being alive. Even on days that contained moments I wasn't sure I wanted to even be alive anymore, such as when I watched daily genocide for months 16 months straight, I still loved being alive. I love life! Because even in my worst moments, some part of me can always still feel the connection, energy, love, empathy, generosity, wonder, curiosity, and support of others. Always. This same spark is alive and well in all living beings– I can see that too– even when chronic abuse and self-abuse hides it from the most isolated beings.
I don't think that the anti-empathy brigade can say the same. We've watched them have bizarre, almost daily public temper tantrums, directed at both specific people and total strangers– all of whom they're hurting or trying to hurt. Still spreading around that childhood abuse and self-hatred that they can't quite shake. And we've seen even that not be enough pain-spreading for them. We've more recently seen them call millions, possibly billions, of people "the parasite class" while they bully and fire (possibly illegally) civil servants and veterans in the U.S., end aid that will pull billions from the pockets of U.S. farmers and will directly contribute to the suffering and death of millions abroad, give and accept even more government money to/from anti-empathy colleagues, sell off public land like it's nothing, and intentionally download generations of government data onto their own private servers like thieves in the night. Even with their billions of dollars, and their paid lackies and fake accounts and bots to back them up, and their current power to harm millions, they're still angry, still suffering, still blaming, and still miserable. Despite having social media platforms and empathy-draining bots and fake accounts to help them out too, they're really not making the case against empathy that they think they're making. The rest of the free world isn't fooled. I mean, even some of their own adult children regularly get online and tell them to go touch grass. It's heartbreaking and absolutely horrifying witnessing what a lack of empathy + billions of dollars can do.
Love almost anyone present.
Definitely whenever we can create the time to breathe and learn each other's back stories together, we can love, or at least respect, almost anyone. We empathy-holding beings spread understanding, trust, and love– across language barriers and cultural barriers and time and space. People with empathy do this naturally, all the time. We also naturally step away when we know that we can't hold another's pain or a whole planet of pain on our own. Now and then, we step away forever from someone, to heal. Often, though, we step away for recharging and/or reinforcements. Some things take a loving community or many loving communities to hold and heal.
Someone needs to tell Mr. Anti-Empathy that just because he didn't need to do this to survive or win in a violence-centered video game doesn't mean he doesn't need this to truly thrive in real life. Humanity is leveling up! I see it every day now. Join us.
Love those who've caused harm to others– both unintentionally and intentionally– while simultaneously helping hold people accountable for their actions that hurt others.
Eventually, the anti-empathy brigade are going to be really, really happy that people like us exist. People who fully embrace their own empathy, their people's empathy, and what that teaches us. There are a lot of humans out there now itching to inflict a bit of pain on them because of the pain they're haplessly inflicting globally now. Lucky for them, empaths have more interesting options than an endless loop of blame, hate, and spreading the pain you can't shake to everyone you touch, so we don't have to work like that anymore. Intentionally hurting other living beings hurts me to the core– no matter who they are. We want unlearning and learning and joy for you and for our communities, not constant, unshakable pain.
We are holding their cross-generational pain for them now. All of us who know we are and all of us who don't. We hold their pain for them, together, like we hold pain for each other. That's who we are.
I can promise the anti-empathy folks one thing. They won't think empathy is a weakness when an empath steps between them and a real, livid, and desperate man with a gun who is determined to end them. Maybe they'll notice that we're not the parasite class or NPCs then. Every human being willing to give their selves, their careers, or their lives to save or improve the lives of others knows the power of empathy inside and out. Healers, teachers, land and water protectors, parents, devoted loved ones, true spiritual leaders, fire fighters, animal lovers, artists, musicians, farmers and gardeners, minority communities, dreamers, and protectors of the law and the constitution too when they're fully aware that living beings are always more valuable than property, unlike in video games. Most of us are strong enough now to do this work unarmed. Many empaths actually have to do all their living and work unarmed to remain their real, loving, fully sensitive selves. Empaths, and community and global empathy, make most of today's weaponry and many old fears obsolete. The trick now is getting cross-generationally abused men who trust no one to stay present and listening with their whole being.
Find people– across all of humanity's old differences and fear-erected barriers between us– who can do the same.
Beings who love life, who love the living, and who help hold each other accountable for personal and community growth and hurtful actions are my people. If I don't find them, then they find me. My people are everywhere now. In 2025, we're already out-influencing the bots and paid bad actors, and very soon (possibly already), we'll be out-influencing even the angry billionaires. This may scare you if you fear empathy. But you don't have to fear empathy. You don't have to fear life herself! You only have to move carefully with those so completely disconnected from humanity and from the earth herself that much of what they see and believe about themselves and others is pure delusion. Like believing real human beings are disposable and should be treated as NPCs.
Feel when someone near us is holding deep pain, abuse, and shame that they can't yet share out loud.
As someone who can feel the impacts of words on others, I know that publicly calling out or yelling at chronic-abuse holders/perpetrators often just makes things worse. Harshness reinforces a belief in humanity's harshness. Being a safe sounding board, or even better, a safe group, to share deep pain with almost always makes things better. Highlighting and celebrating our shared humanity together as a people or a community or region or country or planet is another way to go, and helps many too. Group empathy helps pull us together and keep us together long enough to heal many emotional wounds ourselves. When that doesn't work, great professional therapists can work wonders too.
Be super gentle with people who deeply need super gentle right now, even total assholes.
Being gentle with strangers who are total assholes is typically easy for empaths, especially in person and as small groups. Online this gets easier quickly with a bit of time and practice and the full realization of our power as empathic beings. We can choose "gentle" or "super gentle" as the best responses in a moment because we can feel the pain behind all words and actions. Being gentle with ourselves, our friends, and family members being total assholes isn't as simple as it can be with strangers– because you have to sort out whose emotions you're even feeling and that can be tricky with our closest others– but this does get easier with time and practice and sometimes with much needed distance and breathing space.
Process some* difficult emotions quickly, as needed, and without spreading them around or lacking awareness that we're doing so.
Fear and hate within me now, for example, have roughly 30-second shelf lives. They ask me to move or take action on behalf of someone or something I love, and I do it. Once I'm moving or taking action as community or as family and even usually as an individual, I don't need to feel fear or hate anymore. Here we can also shift "I'm mad at them." to "I'm sad for what brought them to this horrible place." lightning fast. Not for them (or, not only for them), but for us. To stand in our full power. This perspective shift gives us so many more options for responses to choose from. Offers us powers that those regularly trapped in their own fear and anger and stuck in their own hate can't even see.
*Grief, though, takes her time. Nobody is the boss of grief, much like nobody is the boss of when forgiveness shows up. Some emotions take time no matter what community you're part of, or who you are, or what you believe, or how much money you have, or who you pray to, or which distractions and drugs you use to try to escape pain that you could not possibly escape alone, because we are connected, collective beings too, not just individuals. Some emotions were meant to be held as community.
Read people's emotions and energy and offer them what they need. Most days.
Not in some fancy, exclusive, or manipulative way– but in a very similar way to what almost anyone tapped into their innate empathy can witness dogs doing at a dog park. For example, I can give ample space to people, including strangers, who need ample space today, and I can give loving presence to people who need loving presence today– without any of us ever speaking a word on the subject. I do this for myself, too. When I need ample space to breathe, I take it now, without apology. And I allow everyone around me to do the same, without any expectation of an apology or even explanation. Because I've felt what not doing that does to people. Wow does that keep many Americans, and too much of humankind, trapped in a lot of misery.
Dogs are still better at this than a lot of people, at least where we live. Some people are getting really good at this now, too, though. I recently heard about a woman who told her male colleagues that she was going to start banging her fist, just once, on the conference table whenever they interrupted her during meetings. They quickly learned just how often that was, and they adjusted their behavior without having any long conversations about it. That's dog-level-empathy in action, friends, by all involved!
Move more freely in the world and with less fear for our individual physical bodies than many other people do.*
Some of my own freedom of movement and freedom to be playful more than fearful is because I've embraced being a sensitive and empathic being. Embraced being myself. Think about the way a wild bird or deer moves through the world. They have instincts of self-preservation, yes. They also know the world around them really, really well. And they lean on other beings' strengths around them without guilt: here jays or flickers will announce when seeds or fruit have been scattered in wintertime and all types of birds will show up in response. They also know the power of their own highly sensitive natures and bodies, too. They don't live in fear. They move often, and they don't allow fear to get a foothold so that they're constantly depressed or guarded or angry or anxious or picking fights or self-medicating or snapping at loved ones. They live playfully most days. So do those of us who tap into empathy most days– whether that's naturally and all the time (go kiddo, go!), or when we feel safe enough to, or when we're exhausted enough that we have to.
Now that I've learned the power of being sensitive and have more fully embraced who I am– being empathic feels like a superpower. One that some people don't even remember that we earthlings possess. When you can sense the energy and emotions and love and pain of others, your intuition is remarkably spot on most days, and your loop becomes one of trusting yourself and others more and more, and you can improvise remarkably well as groups and individuals, and you take the time you all need to be fully present and feeling safe, and most of your responses feel surprisingly right to many others so you often receive less push back than the anti-empathy folks, and your response times as individuals and as groups can often seem unbelievably fast or even magic to others without feeling rude, arrogant, unwelcome, or violent. With empaths, what people feel is always up to them. With loving community, all stories and pain can be held and heard.
If you have ever offered somebody something out of love, or playfully, before they themselves even knew they needed it or had yet to even speak about what was bothering them, then you know what I mean. This is in us. All around us. Even if your own family sucked at this. The earth herself holds empathy. Empathy is a power that nobody can take from us. Nobody. Not even an ugly tangle of billionaires, bullies, bad actors, bots, and elected officials not working for those who elected them.
*Yes! Some of this kind of freedom I speak of is absolutely white privilege and male privilege and cis and hetero privilege and able-bodied privilege and even religious privilege too, here in the U.S. for sure. My light-skinned, straight-appearing, middle-age body falls into an imaginary cultural norm at the moment, so it isn't instantly questioned, feared, touched, or attempted to be controlled nearly as often as many others' bodies are. As a woman, though, older men especially still make creepy control moves– strangers' commands to "smile" or "cheer up," and talking over me, and talking down to me are the tip of that now rapidly melting old iceberg compared to what other women face daily.
Stand with billions of others fighting remarkably similar fights to those we now fight.
When we're holding empathy, anyone or any group or any region or any country on earth can be our neighbor or our emotionally local community. We can and do have each other's backs across space and time and all other real or imagined boundaries. Empaths stand with those who love the living and who love giving– those holding empathy– and we don't need anyone to agree with us on everything as long as we can feel your intentions, know that you're working for the good somewhere, and not so delusional that you're dangerous. Well-loved dogs do this too, we've seen this in all our dogs. They can sniff out bad actors/bad intentions and also real danger in person and make friends with almost everyone else immediately. That's what it takes for humans, too, BTW. We need to be well loved, with our people, and drop all pretention/illusion that we don't need and love others.
Spread the ability to love ourselves and others– and hold space for those who really just need to vent about the unfairness of life (aka, people being total assholes)– almost everywhere we go now.
Not every day, yet, but most days.
When the world feels more painful than ever to you now, that's often because you're holding the pain of more abused, difficult, pain-spreading others now.
The human world as a whole isn't getting worse: we're getting better at collectively holding the pain of others. We've leveled up to group empathy, regional empathy, and global empathy almost daily. Most of us are holding the cross-generational pain of our own families, our friend's families, our people, other people, and the horror-show pain that the anti-empathy brigade are spreading all over the place.
Are you feeling stretched into new levels of empathy right now? I am. It's so hard some days that life here feels impossible. The key word there is hard. When I'm feeling hardened by life, the world feels hard. An hour in the woods or with a friend and I've softened into me again. I've noticed that the softer I get, the better I and humanity's current stretching can feel, and the easier our days here can feel even when we're doing difficult things. Like a river through stone, soft and fluid wins in the end. Prioritize whatever makes you softer and more loving now. Double down on empathy for yourself and on all the ways you stay in touch with your own empathy. For me, that's returning to writing this year and hosting writers here at home, and selling my herbalist business to someone who can give it the love I gave it for six years but can't anymore. Whenever it's safe to do so now, try offering empathy to the undeserving. I know it's hard. Just experiment. See what happens. Empathy is necessary for fully seeing what's happening and for appropriate accountably for harmful actions. PS, I only give advice to myself. This paragraph was for me. I needed it.
We're holding levels of empathy now that some people's ancestors prepared them well for, but for many of us, our ancestors didn't fully prepare us for this. Either because they couldn't or wouldn't speak about what they went through (I'm thinking here of my always gentle grandfather who wouldn't speak about his experiences in a war– believing he was saving his kids and grandkids from pain.) or they couldn't imagine holding a whole planet of pain and joy, like we often try to do today. A lot of us feel like we have to be our own elders now, which both sucks and is wonderful, because this returns us to leaning on elders we tend to forget about in modern life, such as forests, trees, soil, oceans, rivers, sky, sunsets, the moon and stars, wild life, and ancestral music and poetry and art and craft and stories and recipes and ways of being.
Imagine the remarkable new by deeply connecting to the remarkable present.
I've come to believe that empathy isn't an individual emotion or characteristic or ability at all. I've come to believe that when enough love is poured into us and felt by us then we can easily and fluidly tap into the heart field of this lovely planet of ours. Or at least tap into the heart field of our communities, families, and loved ones. And we can become doorways back to the heart field for each other when we lose our way. For Star Wars fans out there, empathy is like the force. A flowing power all around us and within us and there to assist those of us curious enough to study and learn about it together.
Does that sound weak, or too woo-woo, or too woke to you?
Gentle humans, times have changed again. I could ask that same question this way today...
Does who I am here and what I'm saying now sound weaker or more dangerous to humanity than a grown ass man who is 1) a billionaire trying to become the world's first trillionaire to one-up other billionaires while millions of his fellow human beings are suffering, struggling, or starving, 2) throwing Nazi salutes for fun for the world's children to see, 3) running around with a chainsaw on stage while clearly high as a kite, 4) calling powerful people he doesn't like NPCs (non-playable characters, pre-programmed and entirely controlled by a video game, not other human beings at all) in an effort to get others to hurt real human beings, 5) calling non-billionaires and possibly non-humans "the parasite class," 6) having daily temper tantrums and yelling at strangers on social media and in person, and 7) shilling his cars in front of the White House while almost the whole country and world protests against his remarkably selfish and dangerous actions?
We empaths can occasionally be intense, or reclusive for a while to rest, or wandering and wending to and away from the point it takes us a while to find together, and now and then we can be deep to the point of confusing, but we're not delusional. Not about ourselves. Not about others. Empathy-holding beings are the only ones present in a space who know what everyone else really feels and believes. Logic is lost, abusive, and easily trapped in destructive patterns without empathy.
Talk about an asset in the chaos of right now.
Level up, gentlemen.
Recharge anywhere and know exactly who and what truly recharges us.
Being full of empathy* is who we naturally are as earthlings and who we easily are as part of loving communities and families and organizations and regions and countries. When we allow ourselves to be full of empathy– and the empathy of others in our communities across generational and cultural boundaries– we more easily move with the isolation, depression, anxiety, frustration, and horrors surfacing in modern life here at the end of the age of violent stubborn denial of who we truly are.
We empaths can recharge anywhere. We can hug a loved one or text a friend, or put our face in the grass or hands in the dirt, or see an apple blossom out our window, or hear a baby laughing on TV, or dance, or watch a cat pushing a water glass off the counter a continent away on our phone and be immediately tapped back into the global heart field. Recharging. Does that sound like you, friend? I hope so. We know who and what truly recharges us. Empathy helps with that too. Empathy for ourselves and those who have to be around us helps us let go of what drains us. Without empathy the drain of modern life would be constant, and deadly.
*Or being empathic or an empath if you prefer, which comes naturally to kids and dogs and trees and cats and birds, and with just a bit of practice for adults who made the mistake of letting go of their natural sensitivity somewhere along the way.
Be grateful, be generous, and enjoy life– almost all the time.
Life on earth can be hard and painful and sad even when grown men aren't so deluded that they're committing genocide or stooping to calling most of humanity the parasite class and NPCs while attempting to destroy the real work of generations of countless loving beings. Without empathy, they don't realize that WE are the real work of generations of countless loving beings. Us. This land. Our humanity. Our empathy. Our courage. Our connections across old boundaries. Our giant, generous hearts. Our willingness to keep learning and keep helping each other. And our need for each other, which doesn't make us weak, it makes us real living beings. Data that sits in servers is important, but it's not what they think it is. That data isn't humanity. We are.
Those of us tapped into empathy get to live this life full of gratitude, and generosity, and humor, and courage too– almost regardless of what else happens or what those who deeply hate themselves and the living do. Because here in real life, we're deeply connected to our most loving ancestors, and to the earth, and to each other, and to those who come next too. We love them, and they love us. Individual empathy, community empathy, regional empathy, and global empathy (Thanks Canada, thanks Mexico, thanks Gaza, thanks Ukraine, thanks France, thanks Los Angeles, thanks all those currently re-devoting themselves and their people to loving life right now and stopping the spread of fascism*) make that crystal clear.
*Fascism has been defined a lot of ways by men. Here's an empath's definition. Fascism is a lone adult's internal devotion to self-hatred and subsequent chronic abuse of themselves and other life on earth. It shows up when chronically abused children believe the chronically abused adults responsible for them that they can never fully trust themselves or others, and that life on earth can only ever be brutal, painful, and abusive. Fascists may be drawn to other fascists because their brutality is at least familiar, but they're always alone and untrusting, even when together. A close and loving community can stop fascism before it starts or in its tracks within the community. Overlapping loving communities can stop fascism when it's spreading, typically because too much generational wealth keeps some families trapped in horrific cycles of abuse. If fascism is spreading near you or draining your energy, spending more time in loving groups and as loving community– so you have access to even more powerful and loving responses and ways of being– is the answer.
Trust our own body's responses
Believe it or not, I cut six paragraphs out of this essay this morning, because I knew in my body when I woke up that they didn't belong here. They weren't me. I could feel it in my stomach and chest and neck. They were petty, angry words about Mr. Anti-Empathy. Words I don't want to speak to you. Not because he doesn't deserve them, but because we don't. And because they're not me. I am not petty, nor am I ever angry long enough to put angry words to paper here unless I'm 1) overtired, 2) alone, and 3) unaware that I'm being intentionally manipulated.
I got sucked into fear last night. By fake accounts online and those who fall for them (last night, that included me). I read a local news social media post about some swastikas being painted on Te$la trucks at a nearby dealership. There was no evidence presented about who did this or why they did it. I know a lot of people across the country who've been at the global Te$la protests this month. Good people. Of all ages and from all backgrounds and political parties. The story itself didn't scare me at all. What scared me was the comments section. Comment after comment after comment said things like "That's how libtards solve all problems." and "Democrats can only solve things through violence." and "Terrorists!" and "How dare they damage the property of hardworking regular people!" and "Lock them up!"
Not a lot of "hardworking regular" people I know can afford a $100,000 truck, let alone want the one that almost everyone returns or quickly sells after they get it, but I digress. I was tired when I read the article, and I got sucked in by the anger and the outrage directed at people like me. It's so easy to be filled with fear, angry, and outraged these days. Especially when there are so many fake accounts and paid bad actors and bots helping us feel that way. In the light of day, it usually comes clear that all outrage-provoking comments sections on stories like this are absolutely overflowing with fake accounts and manufactured outrage now being directed at anyone who would dare question what the anti-empathy brigade are doing. They're coming for the living. They're coming for empathy. Don't fall for giving yours away like I did.
How did I know this time when I was momentarily fooled? Because my own body told me. The same body that always holds empathy. The same body that is fluid and moving and highly sensitive and gentle by nature, and not easily fooled or trapped in the muck of manufactured hatred for long. On my good days, I go into those comments sections and offer lifelines to all frightened humans present. I only wish I could bring my dog with me.
Sort out real fears from manufactured fears, look at real fears together, and put our real fears into proper perspective
In the global world we live in today especially for those of us who spend a lot of time online, without empathy keeping us in touch with each other, and our own bodies, and the earth, it would become almost impossible to know which fears are real, which should be addressed by us, which should be addressed by others, and which fears are being intentionally manufactured by extremely wealthy bad actors and their paid lackies to manipulate us as individuals and as global citizens.
Today our empathy has brought us here together:
Real: The unprecedented level of outright theft of money, data, and land from the public/taxpayers by bad actor billionaires currently happening in the U.S.– fully supported by the executive branch and not being stopped by the legislative branch– is so obvious and so horrifying to the world at large that soon all Americans will see it too. That's why these guys are in such a rush. The U.S. is now a global beacon for what not to do as a nation and as a neighbor. Billionaires may own corporate media and most social media here, but they don't own it everywhere. Only intentionally provoked hatred of neighbors and prolonged violence against each other– against our neighbors on the ground– would keep U.S. citizens so preoccupied that we would continue to ignore the billions of dollars changing hands right now and making billionaires into trillionaires this year while more and more of our children go hungry, veterans and other civil servants are fired, elders are kicked out of care homes and stripped of health insurance and access to healthcare, national parks are logged or sold or closed, and all research for the future put at risk.
Our fear of those stealing billions of taxpayer dollars, data, and land is real, and urgent, it should be addressed ASAP by every loving community and loving person in the U.S. and by loving people and communities around the world that we're connected to who still care. Do whatever you can, wherever you are.
Not real: The fear of your neighbors on the ground is being manufactured night and day online now, and daily in the media, with an especially large push right now in the fake-accounts and fake-pages heavy, and fake comments sections, of billionaire-owned social media (such as X, Truth Social, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads), by billionaire-backed paid bad actors, fake accounts, and bots. Absolutely, positively do NOT believe the worst of your neighbors. Don't do it. Do whatever it takes to snap yourself out of believing this nonsense about humanity.
Trust your body. Trust your experience. Trust your loving community. Trust your neighbors. Trust your schools. Trust your community centers. Trust your voice. Trust love-centered churches, synagogues, and mosques. Trust your libraries. Trust your loving local organizations and small businesses and book stores. Trust your empathy-centered instincts in person and online. Trust your most loving ancestors and artists and musicians, and their advice. Trust the earth herself. Trust humanity learning, humanity working together, humanity fighting for love and for justice across history, even as we inevitably get some things wrong.
The vast majority of real humans on the ground are loving, giving, and kind now. We don't lack empathy. That's a lie. And most of us now can work with almost anyone who is not a billionaire (completely out of touch with lived experience on the ground), a paid bad actor (present only to be cruel and wear good people down, and doing so for the money), or a fake account or bot or news.
Healthy adults work together to help make each other stronger and more informed to minimize the chances of bad things happening again to all of us. We also work together to figure out and remedy what's actually wrong here– in this case, billionaire bad actors' actions and the fact that the legislative branch as a whole cannot currently be a check to a bad-actor-filled executive branch at the moment.
Real: A handful of the most isolated, chronically abused humans will fall for the ridiculous anti-empathy (which is really anti-life) bullshit and neighbor-hating nonsense that the latest drug-addled billionaire dictator wannabes are spewing. Filled only with lies about humanity and about themselves, these men can be dangerous. Grow closer to neighbors and strangers, spend a lot more time with those who feel vulnerable and alone in your community, and do what you can to support those literally being physically attacked by misguided others or by legislation now. They're attacking almost all of us now. It doesn't take much action to feel connected to neighbors when all your neighbors are suffering too.
Most of humanity is already on to the scheming of the billionaires in the U.S. determined to become the world's first trillionaires at all costs. Empathy-holding beings are wildly underestimated by those who've spent most of their lives abused, angry, and alone. The fact that these guys are billionaires who can hire paid lackies and push empathy-draining jerks, fake accounts, and bots out across social media makes no difference whatsoever. The anti-empathy brigade can cause damage, but they never win in the end. And apparently, they learn almost nothing from history. It's time again to demonstrate the power of lion-hearted humanity.
Let's wrap this up.
Empathy isn't a weakness, friends. This final story of empathy is my own.
It was my own, and my people's, empathy for Palestinian friends in and near Gaza and the West Bank that kept me watching and fighting against genocide the past few years, even with the costs of fighting fear and hatred online, and potentially losing some friends, and potentially losing business for my small herbalist business. I actually gained friends and my global empathy helped the business grow faster than I even wanted it to grow– good signs about we earthlings, don't you think? It was empathy from those around me that kept me sane while I was watching unbelievable horrors wrought on millions of civilians, daily. Empathy that said "Don't you dare look away." from within me. Empathy that connected me to new friends and neighbors around me when witnessing so much needless suffering broke all our hearts. Empathy that kept me connected to Gaza long enough to notice this: even at the heart of horrific genocide, we real human beings– children, adults, and elders together– are overflowing with empathy. Together we're fully capable of love and joy and magic, on the ground, with little to nothing, and against all odds, and even against the worst of violent and cowardly leaders of men and against the best funded militaries and advanced technology on earth.
Human beings are pure fucking love and joy and magic!
We can't unsee what we have seen or unfeel what we've felt for ourselves. I was emotionally present for the pure love and joy and magic pouring forth from the people of Gaza in the middle of a genocide against them. I am shaken and humbled and changed for the better, and so grateful to them now that even the thought of them makes me tear up with joy. We are grateful beyond measure, my people and I. That's everyone I touch now. We don't fear shadows anymore. Don't fear ourselves. We can see and feel this love and joy and magic in almost everyone now. Almost. We humans are pure love and joy and magic, that bears repeating. Our empathy keeps us present long enough to see and feel that for ourselves, and it helps keep us moving when we can't. Without empathy, we'd never stay present long enough with others to witness this about ourselves as earthlings. Never take the time to share what we've learned with others. Never take the time to hold each other's pain.
Empathy isn't destroying Western civilization, big guy. It's currently helping us destroy the delusion that average human beings are separate, small-minded, self-centered, petty, angry, violent, powerless, or dangerous beings who must be controlled from an imaginary, abusive, and uncaring top. Humanity is waking up and noticing that we are loving, connected beings who are far better together than the worst that's been done to us as individuals. We're now far stronger than the remaining too-wealthy, too-powerful, too-greedy men we once looked up to but now mostly just pity as we stand together, giving more than we knew we could give, to bring them down to earth and hold them accountable.
We heal one another daily now. Still. We always have. We're just healing together on a larger playing field now.
Empathy within the living is a superpower we've had for generations, and it's getting stronger within us every day. Just ask those who can hear forests or speak with dogs and cats or vote for women or be led by their daughters and granddaughters or notice brilliance in teenagers or stop genocides with their generous and smiling faces or laugh with elders they don't always agree with but whose pain they've finally fully heard and so now they fully understand.
There is no abuse and pain so horrible that global empathy cannot surround it and hold it. I can feel that now. We'll all see that in action soon enough. We aren't witnessing the start of World War 3. We are witnessing the end of human-on-human abuse and violence as we give the last of it up within ourselves, for our people and our planet.
