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A comment on The Perils of Private Provision of Public Goods. Parent comment

Re:The Perils of Private Provision of Public Goods by jacobriis on Saturday March 07, 2020 @04:03PM (#22514036)
When you say empathy, what do you mean?

I'm not a native English speaker and I am confused when I see this word used in political conversation a lot in a way which is not clearly related to the dictionary definition.

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Re:The Perils of Private Provision of Public Goods by drongoking on Saturday March 07, 2020 @04:08PM (#22514073)
The word is commonly misused. What they probably mean is sympathy, but that isn't really right either. The correct word would be compassion or altruism.

But /altruism/ is a word that sometimes sets people off.

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Re:The Perils of Private Provision of Public Goods by chrisseaton on Saturday March 07, 2020 @04:17PM (#22514143)
Sympathy is when you feel the same as someone else is feeling. Empathy is when you only understand how someone else is feeling. Corporate Starbucks people would be empathic but not sympathetic - they have access to the bathrooms anyway.
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Re:The Perils of Private Provision of Public Goods by EpicEng on Saturday March 07, 2020 @04:06PM (#22514060)
GP meant the dictionary definition

>the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

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Re:The Perils of Private Provision of Public Goods by keiferski on Saturday March 07, 2020 @04:06PM (#22514051)
It is often used as a synonym for “sympathy.”
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