The end of empathy

Kindness is so over. Since Donald Trump re-entered the White House, it has become apparent that America is not simply moving past the excesses of progressivism — the compulsory stating of pronouns, the hawking of anti-racism books for babies, the pretending that "Emilia Pérez" is a good movie — but beyond the idea that it's good to care for others at all.

On social media, people have rejoiced at the slashing of U.S. food aid and medicine for people suffering genocide and famine. "Frankly at this point out of f---s to give about Sudanese babies," read one post that appeared on my X timeline. Vice President J.D. Vance has invoked medieval Catholic theology to justify the shuttering of borders to asylum seekers, saying we have a moral obligation to prioritize our nearest and dearest over strangers. Never mind that do-gooding parable of the Good Samaritan stuff.

Then there's the world's richest man, Elon Musk, who can barely contain his glee as he takes a scythe to federal funding for lifesaving biomedical research ("a rip-off!") and foreign aid. Musk once told his biographer how his favorite video game had taught him the "life lesson" that "empathy is not an asset." We're now seeing what happens when that mantra becomes a governing philosophy.

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Still, Musk is not entirely without empathy. When a 25-year-old engineer with his Department of Government Efficiency resigned last week after being linked to a series of racist online posts —"Normalize Indian hate," read one from last year — the billionaire benevolently declared that the ex-staffer would be rehired. "To err is human," Musk wrote on X, "to forgive divine."

Vance also called on people to show some compassion. "I don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life," said the veep, whose wife, Usha, is Indian-American. So perhaps kindness isn't dead after all; it's just being down-sized, like the government. If you're a starving Sudanese kid, sorry, we just don't have the resources to care. But if you're a racist troll who's hit hard times, don't worry, we got you.

This is the editor's letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.