Just because people disagree with progressive policies doesn't mean they aren't empathizing with a particular demographic. This particular framing is lazy and frustratingly common. A pretty obvious counterpoint: one can believe that raising the minimum wage drives unemployment among lower class workers while also raising the cost of living--this is an eminently empathetic viewpoint with respect to service workers, etc.

For whatever it's worth, I tend to err a bit toward the "more regulation" end of the spectrum, but I don't feel the need to believe that the world is simple and everyone who doesn't subscribe to my simplistic view is morally deficient.

> A pretty obvious counterpoint: one can believe that raising the minimum wage drives unemployment among lower class workers while also raising the cost of living--this is an eminently empathetic viewpoint with respect to service workers, etc.

Except this counterpoint is not based on real evidence but largely based on purely theoretical arguments which have been shown numerous times to be way too simplistic.

That's irrelevant (and anyway, I'm not sure economists collectively agree with you), the parent claimed that conservatives and libertarians don't empathize. Even if our hypothetical conservative/libertarian is incorrect about the dynamics of minimum wage regulations, the counterpoint still demonstrates empathy.