(Sorry about the name... DA's title size limit chafes sometimes)

Please, stop misusing the word empathy. I know it's a fun word, that most people only have a vague sense of the actual meaning of. And that means that you can get away with twisting it around to suit your personal preferences and agenda. But, y'know, part of the reason that so many people don't actually know what empathy means is that people like you don't bother to use it correctly in the first place. Unfortunately, in this country we learn language almost entirely by contextual use; while many of us filled out vocabulary sheets in grade school, those definitions don't tend to stick with us nearly as well as the way we hear a word used on a day-to-day basis.

Empathy is not "concern for the poor" or compassion, as the liberal side is currently painting it. Nor is it being overcome with emotion, as the conservatives are currently trending. It is quite possible to be empathetic without either of these conditions being true.

Empathy is simply the ability to take on the perspective of another person, to understand how they see a situation. This does not require that you feel in any particular way about their situation, nor does it mean that you will come to view them favorably. And while it is certain that empathetic people are less likely to be aggressive or defensive, this is more because much of interpersonal aggression and violence (though certainly not all) stems from an inability or unwillingness to allow for a viewpoint other then one's own.

So please, media figures and lawmakers, for once stop and actually read up on your newest fad term before putting it into use. Many of you (I'm looking at you, extremist political commentators) already do enough to harm the discourse in this nation without having to actively undermine the language we use to have it.

In short, as Inigo Montoya once said: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.