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# The Current "Longest Strawman Argument Article" of 2022 is…
- URL: https://birchtree.me/blog/the-empathy-racket/
- Published: 2022-06-22T11:00:37.000Z
- Updated: 2022-06-22T11:00:37.000Z
- Author: Matt Birchler
- Tags: Links, #Import 2023-06-01 22:41, #Import 2025-03-29 19:29

[Alice Gribbin: The Empathy Racket](https://alicegribbin.substack.com/p/the-empathy-racket)

> Asking artworks to teach people lessons means asking those who engage art to see themselves as morally wanting. As a circumscribed expectation of an art encounter, empathy burdens the mind. The imperative that one corral one’s feelings in a single direction is spirit-smothering, tyrannous.

There may be some elements of truth in this piece, but this article is my current leader for Longest Strawman Argument Article winner of 2022.