[yesenadam]

Maybe. In Australia, 'bleeding heart' used by people on the right to describe people on the left who act with conscience, ethics, compassion or recommend a course of such acts. It's a term of abuse, because they think such actions and desires must be pretense, as the right doesn't feel those things themselves. (The right has and doesn't want others to have, a position that hardens the heart.) I took the phrase in that sense.

[AlexB138]

> Maybe. In Australia, 'bleeding heart' used by people on the right to describe people on the left who act with conscience, ethics, compassion or recommend a course of such acts. It's a term of abuse, because they think such actions and desires must be pretense, as the right doesn't feel those things themselves. (The right has and doesn't want others to have, a position that hardens the heart.) I took the phrase in that sense.

That is a laughably bias interpretation. The phrase "bleeding heart" is used as an insult, suggesting the targets lack reason and are completely guided by their feelings. Your descriptions paints those you disagree with as mustache-twirling cartoon villain caricatures and comes off about as genuine as "They hate us for our freedom".

[yesenadam]

Well, you disagree with me, and call my opinion 'bias', i.e. 'biased'. (Leaving aside the gratuitous 'laughably'.) You presumably see yourself as 'not biased'. (Nice work if you can get it.) I think 'bias' used like that doesn't make a lot of sense. Every person speaking their mind can be called 'biased' by someone who doesn't agree, but that doesn't really get us anywhere, does it. It's primarily a way of disguising (to yourself) that you're saying "You're wrong and I'm right".

Yes, 'suggesting the targets lack reason', which if they had it, I suppose, would make them more in agreement with the criticizer. (In this neo-con-ruled world people who use the term 'bleeding heart' see themselves as 'realists', i.e. follow the pronouncements of the local economist, think-tank, party-back-room guru etc without much considering the actual effects on people or the world. Money, or votes, is the prize. Everywhere is obsession with 'efficiency' and 'growth'. It's hardly noticed how many people hate their work, or that growth is unsustainable, or what's happening to the planet. We have no idea where we're going but are obsessed with getting there efficiently. But that's rant for another place..)

[mensetmanusman]

Don’t have data about the right in Australia, but in the U.S., the term arises due to the prevalence of virtue signaling by left leaning Hollywood that doesn’t align with the reality of all the statistics pointing to far greater levels of charity as a percentage of income/wealth exhibited by those on the ‘right’.

This mismatch results in some of this derisive language in the U.S.

[ionised]

> due to the prevalence of virtue signaling by left leaning Hollywood that doesn’t align with the reality of all the statistics pointing to far greater levels of charity as a percentage of income/wealth exhibited by those on the ‘right’.

Gonna need numbers on that mate, because everything I've read suggests conservatism is correlated with reduced amount, degree and frequency of charitable behaviour.

[spacemanmatt]

Also, virtue signaling is common among self-described conservatives. I don't know what a MAGA hat is, if not a tangible virtue signal.