Did you miss the parts where I repeatedly said that we should have compassion for them? "I believe that every human deserves basic empathy..." I said things like that over and over throughout the story.

The point is, there is no other terrorist group for which there is so much of a bid for empathy. It's a symptom of how deep misogyny runs in our culture - abuse of women is just the way things are, and isn't really much of a cause for concern. In fact, the poor terrorists actually deserve more empathy than the women that they dehumanize and dream of killing. I find that to be both outrageous and reprehensible. And I've never actually seen a single story on Medium written by a man (that wasn't written by Mark Greene) that advocates for support and compassion of women. I'd love to read one, so please link them.

Where are the stories written by men caring about the plight of lonely women? Conversely, I've read far too many stories lately essentially telling women to be nicer (to the men who loathe them) - that is why I wrote this story.

Also, where are the stories exhorting women to have more empathy and care for rapists (because they were probably raped or otherwise abused as children) or domestic abusers (probably also had traumatic lives) or pedophiles (they can't help their attractions)? Because that's what you are essentially asking for and deeming as reasonable. Stop subconsciously supporting misogyny! That fucking attitude is a huge part of the problem and an example of how "good men" allow bad shit to go on at women's expense.

I'll be waiting for your story about how the guys who crashed airplanes into the Twin Towers deserve our empathy.