Re:Arguing from compassion (2021)
by t-3 on Monday July 25, 2022 @10:21AM
(#32224667)
I've become convinced that (most?) people only possess "visual empathy" - that is, they can only empathize with what they can see. I think it explains why arguments on the internet often seem to have manipulative strawmanning sociopaths on both sides.
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I remember seeing somewhere that societal empathy didn't strongly exist as a cultural trait until people started reading stories where they put themselves in other people's shoes. I guess communal storytelling wasn't enough to change a persons mindset. It was in the context of historical greeks were all sociopaths and narcissists and quite different from the average person today.