Some of that is dumbfuckism. Constitutional republics are democracies, for example.

Some of those sentiments have always existed & come across as though you were born yesterday.

While socialism is a broad term, communism usually refers to communist states, which are authoritarian regimes that even in theory reject universal individual rights/liberties. Non-authoritarian socialism is something else.

People have a duty to beneficence. However, plenty of people lazily toss empathy around as an argument from outrage fallacy instead of bothering to build a more credible & persuasive argument. Listeners get sick of that fast & don't mind if you think of them as monsters: they certainly don't care about your poorly argued opinions.

So, that could be deprogramming or it could be ineffective discussion breakdowns. I don't think empathy requires programming. I'd think its rejection require reprogramming.

Individualism doesn't necessarily mean selfishness. As pointed out elsewhere, collectivism can also lead to oppressive injustices.