by 
Linda Joy
ANSWERS: 2
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Empathy is a naturally occurring emotion for someone's unpleasant circumstances. Sympathy is a tool to manipulate people's thoughts and behavior in support of something they may not think too much about as a natural response. A good example is the "Homeland for the Jews" campaign early in the 1900s. At that time, antisemitism was commonplace even among political leaders - no one wanted the Jews in their country. Yet, there was this huge "Homeland for the Jews" campaign that exploited Jewish hardship in some Eastern European countries. The actual "campaign", in truth, was "Establish a Political State for Zionism" but sold to the world as the "Jewish Homeland" claim. The media propaganda turned into a hate campaign against Germany. People, in general, had empathy for the Jewish situation where they were suffering in the countries of Eastern Europe, but among the countries of the rest of the world, Jews were leading fairly normal lives. But thanks to the media and the Zionist campaign, exploitation of sympathy generated support even to the point of boycotting businesses that didn't go along with it.
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I think the many differences are exactly as described in the dictionary. In a nutshell (and NOT referring to the dictionary), sympathy is based on pity, while empathy is based on an (assumed) understanding of the person's feelings. *** The sympathetic person says, "I feel sorry for you." The empathic person says, "I know exactly how you feel."
Army Veteran 
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