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Empathy is like sight. Some people have poor sight or none at all. There is little you can do for that. The difference between to two though is people have made an effort to identity problems with sight and improve them. No one is making an effort to understand why some have no empathy.
Or I should at least be able to donate some of my excess empathy.
What was that one quote about Einstein’s brain?
“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.”― Stephen Jay Gould, The Panda’s Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
that’s what did it for me.
Oh yeah, that’s a powerful one. So much talent has been wasted and never given a chance to shine.
We’re an an incredibly “inneficient” species
I feel like no matter how angry you are at the state of the world or at other people, how outraged you are at the injustice and self-destructive trajectory humanity is on, empathy is a solid foundation for radicalization.
Definitely. I am very angry though. Or disappointed, I guess. I expected more empathy from the average human in 2025.
the world has always been on fire, thats why we cant give up our empathy
A poly sci class I took in college. Prof is talking about PACs and super PACs and how much money they can just dump into an election. That was it, I was calling myself a socialist within a few days.
It’s not life or death for life on Earth. It’s life or death for the current life on Earth, specifically humans and most multicellular organisms. This has happened before, it will happen again, unless we learn to stop the cycle.
You are missing the point. It is life and death for so many living organisms on Earth. It is the empathy towards towards those specific organisms that is the point. Thinking, “life will just go on” is the opposite of empathy.
I heard the WHOOOOOOOSH from over here as the point went over that other person’s head. Holy shit lol
Nope. I got that point. My point was that life in general would probably be better off without humans around, and will continue once we kill ourselves. Shame that so many other species have to suffer, but hopefully many of them recover when we are gone.
The irony of using a meme featuring John “the CIA is really cool, actually” Krasinsky for this message.
it was before the turn
Had to look up what you’re talking about here and all I could find is that people are pissed he was in the Top Gun sequel. Is that really it?
No, he starred in the Jack Ryan series that glazed the CIA like crazy. On the press tour, he claimed the CIA had nothing to do with the series despite filming scenes at the agency headquarters in Langley. (Federal agencies generally don’t let you film at their buildings without a lot of influence on productions.) He’s also argued that the CIA are the real heroes of US foreign policy.
Climate change is not directly about life or death, life will continue, both humans and animals. But SO much will go to shit, THAT is the problem. It can indirectly cause (massive) death for example when there will be conflicts due to mass migration. But the main group of people that cause climate change simply turn up their AC, they could not care less about the direct consequences around them.
the number of times I’ve heard “you won’t be here so why do you care?” or even “you don’t have kids so why do you care?” is very telling
these people literally cannot give a fuck about something that does not directly and obviously affect them.
I want the world to not suck when I’m 80. I want the world to not suck for the grandchildren of my friends and family and neighbours.
While I agree I hate the example of 'turning up AC because it implies it’s us as end consumers as opposed to corps doing stupid shit. Like the AI slop war and container ships that create more emissions in 1 second than a normal human can create their entire life.
Container ships are by far the most efficient way to transport things we have. What is you problem with them? You can not transport things from A to B with less CO2 emissions per distance. Please do the math for the 1 second = more emissions than a human in his entire life,
They are the most efficient when moving shit accross the globe. But the shear volume of ships moving things accross the globe is problematic. It would be more efficent to produce goods locally. And only use ships to move raw goods that cant be produced locally. Corporations dont because labor in poorer countries can be easier to exploit…
Sure it is a lot, but not even nearly the scale to what was suggested in that comment. Heating, for example, causes an order of magnitude more emissions.
It’s not that they aren’t efficient it’s the idea of guilt and responsibility being laid on the end consumer as opposed to corps who have the capital to invest in research to develop cleaner and more efficient technologies as opposed to runaway greed, CEO bonuses, stock kickbacks, etc. This is again not saying end consumers are not responsible at all, it’s more stating that corps are in a much better position to do much more, whereas end consumers can only do so much.
That does not mean you can make up stuff.
Yeah but it is up to all of us. The moneymakers at the top or more responsible for the shit we’re in, but we are all responsible
It is definitely directly about life or death for the majority of living organisms on Earth. That some other organisms will survive is a different matter, it still means suffering and death for trillions of living organisms.
It is, but the dark side of our incredibly adaptable nature as humans is you can also learn to suppress your empathy. And that can also be a contagious idea.
Experiencing the pain of others hurts. People are cowards. But while they have been taught to turn off their empathy three times a day, they are rarely taught how to engage it.
