Look how far we’ve come in health care. There are hot 95 year olds in my area. People live to 70/80/90/100. We’ve eradicated diseases and almost cured cancer until America abandoned science. Sorry about your family, thoughts and prayers and ribbons and crowdfunding.
A huge portion of the population is part of this. It’s not just nurses (who are hospitals) and doctors, but everyone from porters to trauma leads (if they aren’t fired by DOGE). From bystanders calling 911 to pharmacological researchers. Study participants to search and rescuers with wives in labour.
It’s our crowning achievement. Especially since we blew the information revolution by giving it to our bully lords.
Are there people involved in care with primarily selfish motivation? Of course. But we built this on empathy. It runs on empathy (and caffeine). Billions care for you because they have empathy.
It’s not our flaw. It’s our feature. It’s a deficiency to lack empathy. A deficiency of humanity.
Studies show again and again that people tend to attribute their wins to skill and ability even in a completely rigged game. Likewise, they tend to do the opposite when looking at their fellow man: “they got lucky, while I worked my ass off to get here”.
When wealth is regarded as a proof of skill and enterprising spirit, poverty must perforce be the opposite of that. And once you start regarding lack of wealth as a moral failing, true empathy dies on the vine.
From the APA’s “Journal of Experimental Psychology”:
“Empathy is hard work: People choose to avoid empathy because of its cognitive costs” (2019)
(Abstract) or (Full Text PDF)
Further reading on this subject:
“How resource sharing resists scarcity: the role of cognitive empathy and its neurobiological mechanisms” (2022)
“Empathy moderates the relationship between cognitive load and prosocial behaviour” (2023)
“Cognitive load and moral decision-making in moral dilemmas under virtual reality: the role of empathy for pain” (2025)
(Abstract)
“The Influence of Cognitive Load on Empathy and Intention in Response to Infant Crying” (2016)
There’s a growing body of research from behavioral neuroscience which indicate that wealth, power, and privilege have a deleterious effect on the brain. People with high-socioeconomic status often:
- Have reduced empathy and compassion.
- Have a diminished ability to see from someone else’s perspective.
- Have low impulse control.
- Have an extreme sense of entitlement.
- Have a hoarding disorder.
- Have a dangerously high tolerance for risk.
When you don’t need to cooperate with other people to survive, they become irrelevant to you. When you’re in charge, you can behave very badly and people will still be polite and respectful toward you. Instead of reciprocity, it’s a formalized double standard. When you have status, you’re given excessive credibility, and rarely hear the very ordinary push-back from others most of us are accustomed to, instead you receive flattery and praise and your ideas are taken seriously by default.
Humans have a strong need for egalitarianism; without it our brains malfunction and turn us into the worst versions of ourselves.
Some sources:
Hubris syndrome: An acquired personality disorder? A study of US Presidents and UK Prime Ministers over the last 100 years
Does power corrupt? An fMRI study on the effect of power and social value orientation on inequity aversion.
Social Class and the Motivational Relevance of Other Human Beings: Evidence From Visual Attention
The Psychology of Entrenched Privilege: High Socioeconomic Status Individuals From Affluent Backgrounds Are Uniquely High in Entitlement
Hoarding Disorder: It’s More Than Just an Obsession - Implications for Financial Therapists and Planners
On the evolution of hoarding, risk-taking, and wealth distribution in nonhuman and human populations
Aren’t those signs of sociopathy?
I think we need to forbid people who qualify as sociopaths from holding any office with any degree of power. They can’t be trusted with power.
That literally sounds like the local rich kid that was a bully but then got a DUI and killed someone but because his parents are rich didn’t even serve a day.
Wealth accumulation as a mental disorder makes so much goddamn sense.
Empathy is the cornerstone of a successful society.
By helping people who needs it, society as a whole will grow stronger.
Lack of empathy only causes cracks to form and will sooner or later ruin any society built from it.
Musk has once again shown himself to be an utter idiot.
Don’t treat Musk’s words as if they were coming from an intelligent source.
I feel like someone told Elon that he’s autistic and lacks empathy, and his reaction was to get all defensive about it and start claiming people who lack empathy are actually superior.
I think empathy is misunderstood. Especially this notion that having empathy is a proxy for being a good person.
Consider the sadist. You cannot enjoy someone’s suffering if you can’t recognize it. Being manipulative would also be difficult without a grasp of someone’s inner life. A confidence artist must be an empath. A “cold read” psychic must be uniquely empathetic.
In 1921 Hitler gave a speech where he promised to put Jewish people into camps to see “how they like it”. (he was upset about WWI German POWs and blamed Jewish people for their long internment). So Hitler did recognize Jewish people as human and capable of suffering; that was the point.
There’s a big difference between academically knowing how a person feels–in a disconnected way–and actually being able to relate to that feeling as if you were experiencing it yourself.
Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings and emotions of another person.
You’re right that it’s trivial to find examples of bad people who understand the emotions and feelings of others, but it’s a lot harder to be a bad person when you can share those emotions and feelings yourself.
Like being mean to an NPC in a video game
I know rationally they are just a bunch of pixels and code, but as soon as they have plausible human dialogue, and I say something mean, and they act hurt… something triggers in my brain and I feel that hurt. And I immediately want to stop
I literally struggle to be mean to a bunch of pixels, just because they mimick a living creature. It’s also interesting because often it promotes a sort of dissonance, “I know this isn’t real… and yet I cannot help but feel what they feel… Even though they feel nothing”
something triggers in my brain and I feel that hurt
Are you familiar with mirror neurons? We are social beings. We are built from the ground up to feel each others pain.
Yes indeed. Mirror neurons are directly related to empathy I believe
Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings and emotions of another person.
This is what makes the sadist argument so interesting, if still a red herring. They do share the feelings, and it gets them off! The issue with this line of reasoning is that level of sadism is a mental health problem and not something people should strive for or encourage; so in the end it’s not much of an argument against empathy.
Also, I don’t know that I agree that Hitler “did recognize Jewish people as human and capable of suffering.” I don’t think he cared either way. Their suffering & extermination was politically useful for him. I think that’s a pretty good argument against any empathic feelings he may or may not have held.
I hope that empathetic people temporarily suspend their empathy when approaching musk
You know, “its a weakness” he says, don’t be weak when you have to eliminate a nazi
this is exactly what i came in here to say. it’s a sort of paradox, but only for those who can’t see the big picture. in order to save humanity, we have to become as ruthless as they are.
our children can learn to love after we’ve won the war.
The social contract grants governments and their leaders authority in exchange for protection and guaranteed rights for the citizens.
When those in power violate the contract, it no longer applies to them. Trump, Musk, and the rest of the fascists are no longer covered by the social contract. We do not have to tolerate them, respect them, or have empathy for them.
This is a realization that I’ve come to:
that humans survive (and thrive) when there is a genuine organization based in part on empathy. When a human tries to disrupt this organization for their own gain then it’s in the best interest of the group to ostracize and remove that human from the group.
He does deserve empathy. That means he deserves a speedy trial, no torture, reasonable accommodations, a sentence that fits his crimes and is not primarily punitive, minimally restrictive confinement, a break every few hours from mandatory labor (building public transit, for example), and a non life sentence.
Rights are protected by a democracy, but fought for by a resistance. I hope you’re right about which one of those we’re at.
When did the West have more empathy than other cultures? Elon’s mistake is not only the conclusion that empathy is a weakness but also the observation that the West is empathic.
This seems to be in the context of the other quote that only somebody with the ability for violence can be peaceful. If you are unable to stop destroying your opponent, are you going to win? Sounds like rage, which is not good to win wars.
