If anything, Kirk wouldn't meet either criteria and I don't care to know the context of what he was saying. Not only that, people should respect his wishes and not show his family any empathy.from what I've seen, Kirk didn't believe in sympathy. He was just too dumb to understand it. Even if you removed the racist shit, he was still a piece of shit. Not saying you are really trying to defend him.
The rest is longer even for me but....
To me, empathy is the ability to understand someone's situation.you can imagine yourself in that situation , maybe had a similar experiencec or can relate to the situation in some way. However, you don't necessarily have any type of emotional experience/expression. You never had to come remotely close to a shared experience; the ability to imagine ( walk in their shoes or view from their perspective) is enough. You aren't likely to actually do anything to help. You recognize something bad happened, but you are highly likely to go about your day. Think seeing a homeless person on the street and walking pass them.
Sympathy is where there is some form of emotion or action attached to the person event and is expressed. You see the homeless person and give them money or an opportunity/help of some sort. If nothing else, you genuinely feel bad for the person; not just recognize the situation is bad.
If someone kid is shot and dies, I can relate because I have kids and I can imagine the pain i would feel if that happened to me. Empathy. However, i don't know that id have an emotional connection to the parents or kids to show Sympathy. I don't know that id try to comfort a stranger going through that. Im not going to say kids or people have to die for the sake of gun rights like Kirk.
Im not going to nitpick how/where underprivileged kids get a meal from and say the country has an obesity problem ( Kirk again). As if they are being taken to a high end restaurant for a steak dinner. Ive never starved, but I've been hungry. I can imagine not regularly eating enough (empathy). Although I wouldn't express it emotionally outwardly,I show sympathy by not bitching about my tax dollars going to programs to give kids food for breakfast and lunch. Possibly even donating for causes around the issue. (sympathy). Saying no one dies from hunger is dumb. That extreme case may be rare, but the situation still impacts society. The student that seems more violent than other students maybe suffers from malnutrition. His body made the decision to keep his heart beating instead of developing the part of the brain to better regulate his emotions. Let's not take it that far. People are more irritable snd less likely to make the best decisions when hungry.
If my 10 year old daughter got raped, im not going to force her to have a child. Even if she physically survived the pregnancy, she'll have a child as a constant reminder of the trauma or guilt for not having the child with her (adaption). The abortion would be me showing sympathy to my daughter. Empathy would be relating to the idea of being raped to begin with and being forced to raise the child. Kirk claimed his kid would have the child of a rapist.
Im not Christian or follow any religion, but apparently im a better person than an alleged child of God. These people aren't even smart enough to understand that starving kids potentially turn into criminals. Or they grow to do other things (sex worker) they consider immoral. You are potentially creating the mindset of someone who will survive by any means. A kid who is hungry can't focus in class. Which increases the likelihood they won't qualify for skilled jobs later in life. The person who was raped and force to carry the child may grow to be ok with taking part in this happing to others or worse assisting in the act.
These types of Conservative's thoughts are counterproductive to the society they claim to want. The idea that the government shouldn't have social programs is idiotic. The government has a responsibility to its citizens in part due to the taxes we pay. A country that doesn't reinvest in its people will die slowly. More importantly, helping others in need and taking care of the community is a pillar of their religion. In my opinion, Charlie Kirk wasn't a Christian to begin with. The same applies to all White nationalist and any minority person that supports the ideals of White nationalist.