Ben Sheehan!

Ben Sheehan said this after the events of Oct. 7.  Sad and profound:

Of you have less empathy towards victims because of how you feel about their government, propaganda is working on you.

The goal of propaganda is to dehumanize.  It works to dehumanize Israelis and it works to dehumanize Gazans.

Propaganda is everywhere.  It seeks into us over time.  It seeks to block our empathy receptors.  So when we see violence, we rationalize away our human response.

I like to think most of us are above propaganda.  But this weekend reminded me how widespread it is.  Because a lot of people reacted to this violence with justification, not empathy.  I guess it's not surprising, but it's still heartbreaking.

Killing innocent Palestinians is horrific.  Killing innocent Israelis is horrific.  If you don't feel the same, I think you should ask yourself why that is.