Readers of The Guardian have written letters responding to an article by John Harris, who argues that virtues such as kindness and compassion are gathering dust around the world, according to the newspaper's letters page. The letters are headed "Compassion is the antidote to the politics of cruelty."

The letters cite a Harris article published on 3 November. As the letters describe it, that article holds that from the US midterms to the hard right in Britain, empathy has become "a dirty word in politics." The letters page presents this as the basis for the readers' replies.

One reader wrote that the article exposes a growing assault on empathy in politics. The same reader went on to ask why empathy has become such a threatening quality. The excerpt available for this report does not include the answer the writer offers.

The letters page summary does not say how many readers wrote in or whether all of them share the same view of the article. Harris's full article is not part of the material used for this report, so his wider argument is reported only as the letters describe it.

The readers' responses thus focus on two points: the claim that kindness and compassion are being pushed aside in public life, and the question of why empathy has come to be seen as a threat. Neither point is developed further in the available summary.

Sources: The Guardian: Compassion is the antidote to the politics of cruelty | Letters.