Sunday Smiles

David Strom 2:00 PM | May 24, 2026
meme

Is it suicidal empathy, or excessive white guilt?

I am reading Gad Saad's book on suicidal empathy, and he makes a compelling argument that Western liberal elites have elevated empathy for victims to the highest virtue, leading to what he calls "suicidal empathy." Victims, or people who are perceived to be victims, are elevated to the highest rank of privilege in society, while the stronger, happier, and more successful are demonized as oppressors responsible for the suffering of others. 

Advertisement

That's how you wind up with decarceration movements, defunding the police, open borders, homeless encampments where drug addicts run wild, and rapists getting kid glove treatment. 

Others argue that empathy is not the salient variable; white guilt is. The claim is made that our societies are rigged to benefit heteronormative whites, and especially straight white males, and hence we have to rebalance society to extend privileges to people who don't fit the social norm. 

In this Guardian article, a new migrant to Australia complains she is not entitled to welfare.

In the same article she says she doesn’t want to give up foreign citizenship to obtain Australian citizenship: “We have ancestral property, houses, land. We’d have to give that up.”

Can someone explain how that’s Australia’s problem? 

If you have “ancestral property, houses and land” in your home country, why should Australian taxpayers be expected to support you? 

Maybe somebody can explain this to me.

You know who they are: they are the people who inhabit the rungs on the intersectional ladder of oppression, and the more letters of the alphabet you can claim, the more victimhood points you can claim. 

Whichever theory you choose—I happen to think both are in play—there is a fundamental sickness that leads to sob stories about relatively wealthy migrants with property and wealth back home not being able to take advantage of welfare in their new home. 

Advertisement

When Deepa Chaudhary’s newborn slept, she used the time to find out what support she could get as a permanent resident in Australia. The answer was: not very much.

Chaudhary moved here from India four years ago and worked until her baby was born in January last year. She describes the stress and mental health issues of being a new mother in Australia.

“You’re supposed to get a maternity payment, but I didn’t meet the residency test so I didn’t get it,” she says. She does get the Family Tax Benefit now.

In his budget reply speech, the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, said people got welfare “as soon as they arrive” in Australia.

But refugees, international students, those on temporary visas and permanent residents all face various waits for – and varying access to – any government help at all.

For example, there’s a four-year wait for the parenting payment, and 10 years for disability support.

“[Taylor’s] proposal would mean that people who are living, working and paying taxes in Australia would be excluded from accessing the very supports they help fund,” says the Settlement Services International chief executive, Violet Roumeliotis.

Deepa doesn't want to become an Australian citizen because she has all sorts of reasons to remain an Indian citizen, including having wealth and government benefits that derive from her Indian citizenship. She wants to double dip. 

That means migrants wanting to become an Australian citizen also have to give up their homeland citizenship. That could make it harder to visit friends and family, and could rob the new citizen of property, investments and pensions in their homeland. In many countries non-citizens cannot own property or assets and won’t get pensions.

Chaudhary says it would be an emotional and economic blow to give up her Indian citizenship.

“I have my roots there. I have my parents there. My husband has his parents there. We have ancestral property, houses, land. We’d have to give that up.”

Quizzed on what he would say to those permanent residents, many of whom have worked and paid taxes in Australia for years or decades, Taylor told the ABC they were “not forcing anyone to give up anything”.

Advertisement

The point of the Guardian story is just how mean, nasty, and ugly the Australian right is in its opposition to "mass migration." And the Guardian doesn't believe that term is fair, even though one in three people in Australia is not native to the country. 

Apparently, merely setting foot on Australian territory should entitle one to the full suite of government benefits accorded to all Australians. 

That is, of course, completely insane. No country could do that. It would become an instant welfare magnet for every person in the world who makes less than what Australian (or American, or UK, or German...) benefits could provide. 

Opposing the impossible (and unfair) makes you bigoted and "far right."

Do the people who agree with this idiocy suffer from "suicidal empathy" or "white guilt?" It is an interesting question, and worthy of discussion. 

But only after we defeat these dangerous people in the public sphere. 

























































BEST OF THE BABYLON BEE:


Advertisement
Advertisement


BEST OF THE REST OF THE INTERNET


Advertisement
Advertisement


AND FINALLY....


Editor's Note: Do you enjoy HotAir's conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.

Join HotAir VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.

Tags:

BORDER SECURITY ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION SUNDAY SMILES DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement

Trending

The Language of Love: Sunday Reflection
Ed Morrissey 11:00 AM | May 24, 2026
Saturday's Final Word
Ed Morrissey 8:00 PM | May 23, 2026
Advertisement
Shots Fired at 17th and Pennsylvania Ave - Secret Service Take Gunman Down UPDATES
Beege Welborn 7:37 PM | May 23, 2026
Iran Deal? Reports Say 'Yes'
David Strom 4:45 PM | May 23, 2026
Advertisement
Starship Test: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
David Strom 3:30 PM | May 23, 2026
America's Love Affair With the Road Endures
Salena Zito 2:30 PM | May 23, 2026
Advertisement