I'm not sure I agree. Taking this quotation on free speech as a starting point: > "I'll never agree with what you say but I'll defend to the death your right t

I'm not sure I agree. Taking this quotation on free speech as a starting point: > "I'll never agree with what you say but I'll defend to the death your right to say it" The key points are not agreeing, and defending. I'd argue if you can empathize with them, you could agree with them (were you them), so that's not happening here. What matters is that you're both being attacked by a much more powerful entity, so powerful that it requires an alliance of enemies to successfully defend against. Of course that is government (or now corporate) censorship. So I think you can hate someone and still defend a shared right against a common aggressor. And you can empathize with them enough to understand why they'd say the thing you disagree with. It's hard for me to imagine both hating and empathizing with the same person at the same time though.