I agree with everything you are saying *except *the claim that it somehow means Pink couldn't have been "scared" in a proper sense.
Now, obviously, I don't know if Pink *was *scared. You might be right that she probably wasn't. She obviously *might *be honestly confusing some related phenomenon for being scared (like being nervous, or concerned), or she might be engaging in pure performative bullishit. But we don't know for sure that she wasn't. I'm not "empathetic" with Pink, I'm just saying that she might not be lying. The ability of Jewish mothers in particular to be legitimately, debilitatingly, scared over things that most find non-threatening is impressive. Whatever behavioral or phenomenological thing you want "scared" to mean, they can do it. The idea that I might not give my kid a Covid test when they are sick for a weekend can give my mother all the same symptoms she would have if an unknown intruder was rasacking her living room. She is genuinely scared after a synagogue shooting, even though she hasn't been to a synagogue in years, and ditto after the Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally, despite being nowhere nearby. And if she understood half the Nazi dog-whistles that sounded during the last election cycle, those would have scared her as well. Not to go all Nick on you... but... Let's say we have proof that someone *has *"bought into the idea that non-threat triggers like 'Free Palestine' are as threatening as imminent threats" and you and I *agree *that is a false equivalence. Of course, we don't necessarily mean that they can consciously articulate such an "idea", we mean that they embody it. They have a system designed to respond --- behaviorally, cognitively, emotionally, physiologically --- to respond to immediate physical threats, and as a result of whatever screwed up past history they have, it has come to also respond to non-threat triggers. Why wouldn't we describe such a response as "being scared" in either scenario? It is a mistaken response, sure, but that doesn't change what the response is. Best, Eric <[email protected]> On Thu, Sep 17, 2026 at 12:49 PM glen <[email protected]> wrote: > Maybe. But note that I never claimed there was *no feeling with which to > empathize*. My claim is that the feeling is mis-named by "scared". As I > footnoted in my last post, I can easily empathize with in context scared, > being at the place, in the moment. And I can easily empathize with what > that turns into, given some abstraction (e.g. in my friend's evolution from > scared to anger at systemic racism). > > So I *can* empathize with Pink's feelings. But it's not "being scared" in > any normal sense of that word, any more than (e.g.) Effective Altruism > prioritizes the welfare of unborn humans over humans present here and now > ... > > The cynical take is that Pink's bought into the idea that non-threat > triggers like "Free Palestine" are as threatening as imminent threats. > Equating those two things is *false equivalence*. When taken at face value, > what Israel is doing *right now* is more imminent than any abstracted > threat from some musician shouting "Free Palestine". > > On 9/17/26 9:31 AM, Roger Critchlow wrote: > > > > Glen -- > > > > Your inability to empathize seems a pretty flimsy excuse for your > conclusion that there is no honest feeling with which to empathize. You > basically ask us to take your feelings as real and Pink's as fake. Or am I > overlooking some other evidence you presented? > > > > When Trump got into winding up the crowds at his rallies to evict and > punish protesters, I felt scared, and I wasn't there or even in the same > state or even considering protesting his bullshit in person. > > -- rec -- > > > -- > 8647 ⊥ ɐןןǝdoɹ ǝ uǝןƃ > ὅτε oi μὲν ἄλλοι κύνες τοὺς ἐχϑροὺς δάκνουσιν, ἐγὰ δὲ τοὺς φίλους, ἵνα > σώσω. > > > .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / > ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://bit.ly/virtualfriam > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >
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