Dutch, I want to respond to this comment that you wrote: "Shackleton writes: “To understand your enemy you must see her not only objectively but also subjectively, as she sees herself”. However, it should not be about an enemy, but about an adversary, as defined by stances on concrete issues. And it should not be about how she sees herself, or about understanding her, but about the facts, and about fairness."
It should indeed be about facts and about fairness - that is the masculine focus on rationality and reason, and it is important. However, my point was that this isn't enough. We should also extend ourselves to empathy for the adversary, into the subjective world as well as the objective, if we are to be able to really see creative solutions to the issues that divide us.
You imply that “masculine reason” does not empathize. However, “reason” may review all relevant aspects, including conflicting views, feelings and interests; it may then decide that it is “reasonable” to focus on a particular issue. The problem, then, with explicit expression of empathy is that it distracts from the core message, resulting in those stuck in feminist propaganda not getting the message. Empathy is fine, but don’t dilute the message.
Dutch, I want to respond to this comment that you wrote: "Shackleton writes: “To understand your enemy you must see her not only objectively but also subjectively, as she sees herself”. However, it should not be about an enemy, but about an adversary, as defined by stances on concrete issues. And it should not be about how she sees herself, or about understanding her, but about the facts, and about fairness."
It should indeed be about facts and about fairness - that is the masculine focus on rationality and reason, and it is important. However, my point was that this isn't enough. We should also extend ourselves to empathy for the adversary, into the subjective world as well as the objective, if we are to be able to really see creative solutions to the issues that divide us.
You imply that “masculine reason” does not empathize. However, “reason” may review all relevant aspects, including conflicting views, feelings and interests; it may then decide that it is “reasonable” to focus on a particular issue. The problem, then, with explicit expression of empathy is that it distracts from the core message, resulting in those stuck in feminist propaganda not getting the message. Empathy is fine, but don’t dilute the message.