this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2025
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What is the "I'm an empath" card?
Are there people who try to make out like they're Deanna Troi style empaths?
Or do you just mean people who claim to have particularly strong empathy / be particularly empathetic?
As an aside, emphasize isn't related to empathy, and I didn't think empathize is a word, although my spell-check apparently thinks it is?
As an empath, I'm really in tune with other people's emotions, and I cry all the time, so I know that you're super broken up about not knowing about the empath card - even if you can't stand to admit it to anyone but me, who's more in tune with your emotions than you are... Because I'm an empath.
No shit Susan, getting sad at the commercials for starving children doesn't make you an empath.
It was half-facetious, but I think a lot of conservatives hear the word "empathy" and think of means this. (Watch the first 60 seconds and tell me you didn't cringe.)
Empathize is a word. It means" to feel or experience empathy", or "to be understanding of".
When I say Charlie Kirk was arguing in bad faith, I'm saying ~~he's~~ he was pretending only the first definition exists and that it sounds like the Jubilee video, when most people use the second definition in real life.
I think it's even simpler than that. Certain words just make them go "Are you calling me a nutcase/soyboy??!!" (or sth like along those lines)
Or the suggestion that therapy is actually a good thing and not a stigma.
Empathize: to feel as you imagine others feels. Sympathize: to understand/relate to others' feelings.
When I read about empathy & compassion in Daoism, Buddhism, various Hindu traditions, etc, they're referring to your 1st definition. The most important part is not to merely feel or understand, but to respond with support, ie, act with compassion.
Your 1st & 2nd definitions are typically understood as going together: to feel as we imagine others feel, we try to liken them to ourselves & understand their experiences vicariously. If you want to separate feeling from understanding though, the word sympathize exists for merely understanding or relating to.
I remember as a child getting upset and someone telling me they sympathize, explaining the difference with empathize (eg, they say that means they understand but they don't feel), which just infuriated me further
Empathize is definitely a word.
It's weird you haven't figured out dictionaries.
LOL. Super witty. I hope you're having a great day chief.