How is this in any way related to New Ageism ? The word has been around for nearly 200 years. Kirk talked a lot about things he knew little or nothing about and sadly in this case it is no different.
According to the source below, Empathy came into use in 1908. Sounds as if Kirk was close to reality.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/empathy
Sympathy in the sense of commiserating is from about 1600.
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=Sympathy
What he clearly meant was that people use the word “empathy” incorrectly so as to increase the touchy-feely impact, when the proper word is “sympathy”.
The fact that the word has been in common use for years is meaningless because bastardization of word meanings to forward an agenda has been a key part of the left's playbook for years.
It's related to New Ageism because it emphasizes feelings over objective truth, symbolism over substance, and virtue signaling over solutions. This bastardized form of empathy is used to manipulate people and villianize others.