Something that bothers me about a lot of people’s sense of empathy is that they’re only able to employ it by directly relating events to themselves. It’s like a stereotypical “How would you feel if this happened to your daughter?” thing, where people can only extend empathy as far as a situation that it’s possible for them to get into.
I also hear this a lot around disasters, whether they be natural, terrorist attacks, etc. If you’re around somebody who has been anywhere near the location of the event, get ready for the “Gosh, that’s so awful. I was only there six years ago, it could have been me.” Can’t you just fucking care about the wellbeing of things that aren’t you? Feel bad because a bad thing happened, not by making it about yourself.
I lost most of mine during Covid. The amount of selfishness by people during that time has made me want to never be empathetic towards them… and there were A LOT of selfish people.
I think overall, most people are just too dumb. I mean you could always say that, regardless of how smart the population actually is in absolute terms, simply based on variability. But still, so many things can be traced back to this. Of course, smart people also do really dumb shit, just less often.
If everyone is the same, why do some consistently do far less stupid shit than others? That is not something the society defines. Some are literally too stupid to see how their actions directly lead to their own harm. No need to look at “complex” things like voting trump as an immigrant with the wrong skin color and then getting deported.
Not being good at everything is something completely different.
Dumb is when someone says things like “English is God’s language because the Bible is written in English”.
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Something that bothers me about a lot of people’s sense of empathy is that they’re only able to employ it by directly relating events to themselves. It’s like a stereotypical “How would you feel if this happened to your daughter?” thing, where people can only extend empathy as far as a situation that it’s possible for them to get into.
I also hear this a lot around disasters, whether they be natural, terrorist attacks, etc. If you’re around somebody who has been anywhere near the location of the event, get ready for the “Gosh, that’s so awful. I was only there six years ago, it could have been me.” Can’t you just fucking care about the wellbeing of things that aren’t you? Feel bad because a bad thing happened, not by making it about yourself.
I wonder if there is a distinguishing term for this.
Empathy = The ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes (no matter how different they are from you)
? = The “ability” to imagine yourself in a situation that someone else, who’s very similar to you, experienced.
Sympathy?
Compassion?
Eskimo brothers?
I don’t see what’s wrong with that. That’s also empathy, just not everybody follow the same way to feel it.
God this is true, there’s a staggering amount of people that lack it. So much selfishness as well
Selfishness can be trained away, lack of empathy not very much it seems.
Happily we store all these non-empats in position of power.
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Well yes that was what I was meaning, if you don’t have empathy as an adult it seems it’s impossible to acquire.
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I lost most of mine during Covid. The amount of selfishness by people during that time has made me want to never be empathetic towards them… and there were A LOT of selfish people.
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It’s akin to a skill, after all. Like humor. Having either one does not make someone good or bad. They’re just gimmicks in the end.
I think overall, most people are just too dumb. I mean you could always say that, regardless of how smart the population actually is in absolute terms, simply based on variability. But still, so many things can be traced back to this. Of course, smart people also do really dumb shit, just less often.
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If everyone is the same, why do some consistently do far less stupid shit than others? That is not something the society defines. Some are literally too stupid to see how their actions directly lead to their own harm. No need to look at “complex” things like voting trump as an immigrant with the wrong skin color and then getting deported.
I believe it was Einstein that said “don’t judge a fish by its ability to ride a bicycle”, I’m probably misquoting somewhat.
Anyway, I think what the person you are replying to was trying to say that everyone has things that they are stupid at.
For instance, I can’t dance other than either specifically spelled out instructions like waltz or like an epileptic on crack cocaine in a rave.
I have a lot of other things I’m bad at but that’s just the squeakiest wheel to grease.
I honestly feel like these people are trying to say something and don’t have the skill needed to say it.
Not being good at everything is something completely different. Dumb is when someone says things like “English is God’s language because the Bible is written in English”.
I think we’re both saying the same things in different ways.
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i wouldnt call empathy a skill
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I think they’re looking for compassion?