• protist@mander.xyz
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    14 days ago

    “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.” Elon Musk, 2020

    • stoy@lemmy.zip
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      14 days ago

      I remember being outraged by that, not only by the evilness, but also about how easy it is to disprove.

      As I said back then:

      Empathy is one of society’s greatest strengths, when people fall down, others will help them up, enabling them to keep contributing to society later, this creates a flexible but strong society.

      A society without empathy is a brittle society, it doesn’t bend, when someone falls down, they are left behind, and the society loses their their experience and future contributions, creating cracks. Eventually these cracks will break an unempathic society.

      You can even claim that empathy is a form of selfishness, by helping other’s you make sure that there are other’s around that can help you.


      TL;DR: Elon lacks basic logic.

      • IhaveCrabs111@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        You’re right. People like this are intentionally blind to your point though. They think anyone who falls is dead weight and should be cut loose. They are too arrogant and selfish to answer the question of where they will be cut loose. Anywhere out of sight is probably the answer if I had to guess. But the truth is even out of sight is still in society and society is a connected web. I suspect when this happens over and over and they can no longer be shielded from the horrors they have created by cutting people loose, they begin using the final solution so they no longer have to see what they have created with their hatred and lack of empathy.

        • nocteb@feddit.org
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          14 days ago

          I don’t think it is intentional. Sociopaths are unable to simulate another emotional state in their mind, thus they have problems predicting emotions, even their own future emotional state. All they can do is to project their own emotions onto others.

      • Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        13 days ago

        Elon lacks empathy. If you don’t have empathy it’s like some magic fairy miracle stuff, and you don’t understand it. So you hate it.

        • stoy@lemmy.zip
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          13 days ago

          HE does however claim to be logical, he obviously isn’t, but he claims to.

          • Paragone@lemmy.world
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            18 hours ago

            ideological is a kind of logic.

            So is prejudice.

            So are other “religions”.

            All of them are imprint->reaction programmings.

            _ /\ _

      • edible_funk@sh.itjust.works
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        13 days ago

        I always kind of liked the take that empathy is self serving. You’re kind and compassionate to others because it makes you feel good to do so. People without empathy are just less of a person for the lack of it.

        • Paragone@lemmy.world
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          18 hours ago

          I don’t understand the perspective you’re coming-from.

          True empathy is where one totally-understands another’s experience/perspective, & one “is one with” their condition/experiencing.

          It isn’t that it makes you feel good to do that, or even to be able to do that: it’s just wired in, an innate-muscle of mind ( the mirror-neuron system, which seems to be broken in psychopaths ).

          Why would being pierced by another’s grieving make one feel good to be doing?

          Honest empathy isn’t self-serving.

          It is overwhelming.

          _ /\ _

          • edible_funk@sh.itjust.works
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            7 hours ago

            Empathy is absolutely not inherent. It is a learned skill and not even most people have it. But either way it should be obvious how being able to better relate to those you socialize with would be beneficial to you.

      • Paragone@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        Don’t forget machiavellianism: the WHOLE DarkTriad is selected-for, by politics & concentration-of-wealth-archy, both…

        _ /\ _

    • RagingRobot@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      How would he ever have empathy? He has never suffered a day in his life. He probably can’t even imagine what it’s like

      • snekmuffin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        14 days ago

        well that’s the thing innit. empathy implies the ability to feel and connect to another person regardless of shared experience.

      • Paragone@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        Seriously?

        When?

        That should be on banners, identifying them as being the enemies of their Christian Holy Spirit.

        _ /\ _

        • CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world
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          9 hours ago

          God it was 6-8 months ago I think? Some MAGA pastor ass hat wrote a book about it saying empathy was a sin because it led people to not hate gay people basically and all the the fuck nuggets picked it up

    • nocteb@feddit.org
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      14 days ago

      I think it is more the other way around. The world is a scary place if you cannot predict other peoples or your own emotional state.