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DESCRIPTION:Discussion of Bob Avakian’s article:\nFascist Cruelty and Attack on 
 Empathy vs. the New Communist View on Empathy\nJuly 24th Friday 
 7pm\nRevolution Books 2444 Durant Avenue Berkeley\n\nIt is not just the 
 cruelty of Trump MAGA Fascism, they are attacking even the idea of empathy, 
 as Bob Avakian points to in this article,  The Fascist Attack on 
 Empathy:\n\nAs a significant “philosophical rationalization” for this 
 cruelty, a number of fascist Trump supporters, including Elon Musk as well 
 as Charlie Kirk, have directly attacked the whole concept of empathy: the 
 character (or ability) to understand and identify with the feelings of 
 another. Such empathy, they insist, will lead to a situation where people 
 who (according to these fascists) have no legitimate place in this 
 country—people who represent “alien” cultures and ways of life—will 
 be sympathized with and allowed to remain in this country and destroy the 
 white, masculine, Christian way of life and “superior Western 
 civilization” on which this country must be based.\n\nThe new communist 
 view of empathy is fundamentally different:\nThe ability to empathize—to 
 understand and identify with the feelings of another—is a capability that 
 human beings develop at a relatively early age, and is one of the defining 
 qualities of human beings as a species. In an overall sense, empathy is a 
 quality, a positive moral good, that should be encouraged in any decent 
 society—and in any society where empathy is not encouraged, but is 
 vilified and attacked, this will lead to a situation where people’s basic 
 humanity will be suppressed where it is not fully corrupted.\n\nAt the same 
 time, empathy cannot be separated from, and posed in opposition to, 
 fundamental social relations. In a system based on slavery, for example, 
 one cannot empathize with both the slave-owners and the slaves, for the 
 basic reason that the conditions and the basic interests of the two are in 
 fundamental and antagonistic conflict. It is possible, even important, to 
 understand scientifically the outlook and interests of the slave-owners, in 
 order to most effectively struggle to eliminate the system of slavery; but 
 it is not possible to identify and sympathize with slave-owners without 
 failing, in reality, to empathize with—without actually betraying—those 
 who are enslaved.\nThe same is true with regard to the relations between 
 the exploiters and exploited, oppressors and oppressed, in all systems 
 based on exploitation and oppression, including capitalism. Only when the 
 historic objective of the communist revolution has been achieved—the 
 abolition and uprooting of all relations of exploitation and oppression, 
 everywhere—can empathy be applied with regard to people 
 generally.\n\nRead the whole article here. 
 https://revcom.us/en/bob_avakian/fascist-cruelty-and-attack-empathy-vs-new-communist-view-empathy\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2026/07/21/18887609.php
SUMMARY:Discussion: Fascist Cruelty and Attack on Emppathy vs. the New Communist View of Empathy
LOCATION:Revolution Books\n2444 Durant Avenue\nBerkeley, CA
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2026/07/21/18887609.php
DTSTART:20260725T020000Z
DTEND:20260725T040000Z
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