Author’s Intent
This work, by Allie Beth Stuckey, is directed toward the church with a particular focus on discerning emotional manipulation in politics. As a Christian who initially struggled with responding to the appeals to emotion, she hopes to share with brothers and sisters what she eventually learned as a public speaker and debater about going beyond the surface.
What to Expect
This book is easily accessible. While she does back up her claims with citations, she tells the story in her own words as to what she’s referencing. Therefore, it reads more like a story than a textbook.
She starts each topic with an example story designed to tug on the same heartstrings that the Progressive narrative does to demonstrate how easily these stories can be used to manipulate a person. Then she goes into the topic and explains how very wrong those first impressions can be.
I could see the format being frustrating for some close-minded Progressive readers as they may feel almost mocked when presented with something that validates them only to have it deconstructed. However, it seems like this would be a great read for those who feel storm tossed by every story. Initially being convinced by the manipulation, then suffering cognitive dissonance as the facts come out.
Topics Discussed
This book covers most Progressive causes.
She begins with the sexual revolution. It covers abortion and how the hardships of parenting are used to cover over and avoid addressing the cost of the life of the child. The next topic is transgender ideology and she exposes the cost to both society as a whole (men in women’s spaces and destruction of family and gender concepts) as well as to confused individuals (the medical horrors and increase suicide). This leads into the harms of homosexuality.
The final chapters cover the toxic empathy narratives which are responsible for much of the racial animosity that has become commonplace in the twenty-first century. She discusses the way in which law enforcement has been villainized as well as the unjust weight placed upon people through manipulation for wrongs with which they have nothing to do.
Objections
The only objection I have would be that the immigration issue seemed a bit “unresolved” as presented. When she is speaking on abortion she does a great job of pointing out that unplanned pregnancies aren’t the end-of-life sentence the pro-abortion side attempts to present it as. She directs people to consider pregnancy help centers and other opportunities, plus stores of scared mothers who overcame the challenges and now appreciate the blessing that children are.
However, when it comes to immigration the “sob story” she didn’t pick one like “Maryland Man” where a lifetime criminal is given a shiny coat to try to hide the fact that he was a major red flag well beyond not having the paperwork to be here. Instead, she covers the story of Maribel Truillo Diaz who was here illegally but otherwise largely lived as a functioning member of society.
While she deserves credit for certainly not straw manning these stories, this one in particular illustrates the harm done by our long-term inaction on illegal migration which is only incurred now that we are getting serious about it without (in my opinion) making that point clear.
She even admits that stories like this leave her wondering “what’s the harm?” in leaving women like Maribel in the country. Then she goes on to speak of the horrors caused by unchecked immigration. The point that we need checked immigration is well made but what prevents a “case by case” deportation policy from protecting people like Diaz from being removed?
The only place this seems somewhat addressed is at the beginning of the section “Bad for Everyone”.
When immigrants know they can easily cross the boarder with little consequence, they’re incentivized to make a dangerous trek from their home country to the United States.
Toxic Empathy
This sentence could have ended after “incentivized”. It’s not only that immigrants are incentivized to take risks to come here that often end badly for the person making the trip. It’s that a lack of consequence for remaining here illegally incentivizes people to be indifferent to our insistence that they follow any sort of procedure at all to be here.
If we do everything we can to try to keep people from breaking in but do nothing to anyone we find already here unless we can prove they cause some additional harm, we’re essentially advertising to the world that our security is a game to be beaten and then the onus is on us to prove they don’t get to stay. In short, it’s a sort of invitation to try to best us.
Rather than escalating the penalties for getting caught sneaking in endlessly to try to create adequate deterrence “up front” (a practice that would most certainly reach inhumane practices well before it is even remotely effective) it makes more sense to extend the available window of enforcement so that there is a constant risk every moment our laws are no observed as a deterrence instead.
Praise
There is much to praise in this work. First, her approach of strong-manning the case for toxic empathy first before proceeding to cross-examine it will be a great help to those who still find themselves vulnerable to these tactics. This tends to be the pattern of information in life. As Solomon observed:
The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.
Proverbs 18:17
We almost always hear the stories designed to pull on our heartstrings well before anyone has considered any well-reasoned perspective on the matter.
She also does a good job of addressing the ways in which certain verses, devoid of context and a broader Biblical wisdom, can be used to make rushing to emotion fueled fits of action seem almost righteous. She does so by pointing to other verses which lend more balance to a Christian’s perspective.
That doesn’t mean that the entire case depends upon one’s acceptance of scripture as authority (though that ought to be enough!) Allie addresses both specific examples as well as statistical trends and studies which make the point that these “empathetic” approaches to the topic are causing massive harm to our society and individuals.
She even has personal examples of people she has met while travelling in circles where debate on these topics takes place, including some who have reached out to her personally to tell the story of how her standing firm against those who would call her “heartless” have helped the hearer.
I would encourage anyone who struggles with feeling like they must remain constantly uncertain and floundering on issues of truth in order to avoid being unloving to read this book. It is very likely that you are falling prey to manipulative schemes designed to make you feel exactly that way.
