Yeah, I definitely did not do a step here of “actually seriously empathize with Hitler” (because, in fact, I have limited bandwidth, and the fact that Hitler seems, uh, pretty bad, means that I don’t especially want to prioritize* making a serious-effort-to-empathize with him over all the other people across history who I’d like to empathize with)
The thing at the end is sort of my sketch of “well, here’s the sort of thing it might look like”, but yes in the eventual future where “actually follow through on actually doing the work to love Hitler-in-particular” rose to the top of my priorities, it’d be a necessary step to actually really empathize him, and make an honest effort to learn as much about him as I can so I’m engaging with the real him and not a cartoon I made up.
(* though, note there are other reasons I might want to empathize with Hitler sooner, that aren’t about love)
((That all said, I think I had read the Sarah Constantin post before, and may have had it, or things similar to it, vaguely in the back of my mind when I wrote the text at the end))
Yeah, I definitely did not do a step here of “actually seriously empathize with Hitler” (because, in fact, I have limited bandwidth, and the fact that Hitler seems, uh, pretty bad, means that I don’t especially want to prioritize* making a serious-effort-to-empathize with him over all the other people across history who I’d like to empathize with)
The thing at the end is sort of my sketch of “well, here’s the sort of thing it might look like”, but yes in the eventual future where “actually follow through on actually doing the work to love Hitler-in-particular” rose to the top of my priorities, it’d be a necessary step to actually really empathize him, and make an honest effort to learn as much about him as I can so I’m engaging with the real him and not a cartoon I made up.
(* though, note there are other reasons I might want to empathize with Hitler sooner, that aren’t about love)
((That all said, I think I had read the Sarah Constantin post before, and may have had it, or things similar to it, vaguely in the back of my mind when I wrote the text at the end))