Empathy is wasted on people who purposely do stupid things, amirite?

Empathy is not a decision. It is a feeling. You cannot shut down your empathy just because someone was an idiot. You either feel it or you dont feel it.

by lemkejaden 6 months ago

Is this an unpopular opinion, though?

by Anonymous 6 months ago

Empathy isn't logical. Said people probably just think that empathy should be given to all.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

Yeah the real problem with the world is too much empathy for our fellow man.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

Feeling empathy for our fellow man is not the problem. The problem is feeling bad for people who purposely do something wrong and complain when they are finally struck down. For example, a teen dancing in a thunderstorm, despite the fact it is common sense to not do that, but he gets struck by lightning and complains at how much it hurts. Why should I feel empathetic? It's not my fault he did something he should already know not to do.

by Adorable-Handle 6 months ago

I think acknowledging people's humanity is important regardless of how stupid or bad they are. Like if someone robs you and shoot them in the back as they are running away, you have disregarded their humanity because you're angry not because you were in danger at that point. I do believe in the win stupid prizes type thing but I still tend to feel bad for people even if their actions were really dumb

by Adventurous-Boat7964 6 months ago

Even better is when people try to generalize in order to minimize the idiocy, e.g. "We all do stupid things." No. No, we don't. Some of us are just better than others when it comes to doing fewer stupid things, especially dangerous ones.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

That's a very literal interpretation of that phrase though. I think usually what people mean is: "Most of us have made some stupid or shortsighted decisions in our life."

by Anonymous 6 months ago

The problem is that people lie expansively about how they never did anything stupid when, like everyone else, they've done stupid stuff. They're just from a socio-economic where acting like that won't ruin your life at age thirteen. Won't even ruin your life at twenty seven.

by Anonymous 6 months ago