Empathy as a Weapon: Why We’re Spending $100,000 to Fight Cruelty
Like in the movie “A Clockwork Orange,” it feels like we’ve been strapped to a chair with spreaders on our eyes, forced to watch a looping video of the dream of democracy being murdered in its sleep, over and over again. Every day brings a fresh new wave of hateful rhetoric, bigotry, racism and physical torment against the very people who were chasing that dream the hardest.
Simply put: we are witnessing a crisis of cruelty.
ICE agents are using Latino children as human shields so they can arrest their parents. Viral videos frequently circulate of federal agents shooting American citizens and brutalizing protestors in our streets. They’re threatening our allies, violating our rights and treating the Constitution like toilet paper – that they seem to worship and willfully ignore in equal measure.
Worse, there is a coordinated effort by the radical right to brand empathy as a sin and a weakness. The intention here is obvious: they want us isolated and cynical. They want us to believe that looking out for your neighbor is suicidal. They want us to comply in advance.
We say what humanists have always said in the face of inequality and injustice: We will not yield.
Since 1941, the American Humanist Association has firmly stood on the progressive side of history. Humanists stood up for suffrage, we marched for civil rights, we rallied against unjust wars and we fought for the right to bodily autonomy. When the government has failed to treat our neighbors and allies with dignity, we’ve stood fast to say, WE WILL.
Introducing The American Empathy Project
On May 2nd, 2026, we are hosting a nationwide counter-offensive of defiant joy through service. The American Empathy Project is putting $100,000 directly into the hands of humanists and our allies to fund 100 community service projects across the country. You can learn more about the project and apply for a grant at americanempathyproject.org.
We’re looking for 100 people who are as angry as we are to take a stand for goodness. We will give you a $1,000 grant, a toolkit and the support you need to organize an event in your zip code.
Defiant joy means helping our neighbors and friends who this corrupt administration is otherwise trying to leave behind.
We have created project templates to get you started, including:
- Food Over Cruelty: While they cut benefits and use hunger as a weapon, we will organize massive food drives to keep our neighbors fed.
- Care Over Cruelty: While they treat healthcare as a luxury, we will coordinate Medical Debt Jubilees to buy up and forgive crippling debt for local families.
- Affirmation Over Cruelty: While they demonize our identities, we will partner with LGBTQ centers to provide gender-affirming gear and a safe space to exist authentically.
- Welcoming Over Cruelty: While they raid homes and tear families apart, we will conduct supply drives and assemble welcome kits to support our immigrant neighbors.
- Conservation Over Cruelty: While they sell off our future for quarterly profits, we will get our hands dirty cleaning up and restoring the communities they’ve neglected.
- Respect Over Cruelty: While they treat our elders as expendable human capital, we will facilitate Joy Drives to bring connection and dignity to isolated seniors.
This is Humanism in Action.
Humanism has always centered on the conviction that we are responsible for this world because it’s the only one we have. There is no one coming to save us. To us, that is the most empowering idea in the universe—because it means we have everything we need to save each other and zero reasons not to try.
We aren’t asking for your thoughts and prayers. We are asking for your sweat, your creativity and your receipts.
Save the date, May 2nd, 2026. They preach hate. We practice humanity. Let’s show the world that empathy is not a weakness, it is a weapon aimed straight at the heart of their cruelty.