Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on FoxNews.com.

Empathy is under attack lately. 

The all-important ability to see the world through another person’s eyes is now being recast as something corrosive.  

The argument goes like this: if you’re empathetic, you’re being manipulated into accepting all manner of ideas, behaviors or policies that you would otherwise reject. Empathy, in this view, is a Trojan horse for weakness. 

But that’s a dangerous distortion. 

WWII VET BECOMES PUBLISHED SONGWRITER AT 101 WITH 'IF FREEDOM WAS FREE'

True empathy is not agreement. And it’s definitely not surrender.  

It’s the refusal to reduce another person to a caricature. It recognizes that the people we disagree with have reasons for their choices. And people are intrinsically valuable, even if we’re on opposite sides.  

Far from weakening conviction, empathy actually strengthens it by grounding our beliefs in humanity, not hatred. 

A story from World War II illustrates this. It reminds us that even in our darkest moments, empathy must triumph. 

On Dec. 20, 1943, in the frenzied skies above........

© Fox News