Empathy (piefed-media.feddit.online)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/comicstrips@lemmy.world
 
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[–] 14 points 10 months ago (1 child)

I feel like people with the "kindness is weak! Dog eat dog" attitude have this distorted vision of human nature where if you removed all of the societal constraints, people would just start opportunistically killing each other. Empathy is the reason we didn't go extinct at the peak of the afro/eurasian bottleneck when we numbered less than 2,000 individuals. Sure, we find neolithic mass graves with skulls piled upon skulls. Cracked limbs, gnawed bones, maimed hands, you name it. All kinds of cruelty.

But if human nature is entirely self-serving, why do we find evidence of aincent surgeries? Of healed femur marrow, removed parasites, and makeshift stints? Why do we see marked burial sites made for individuals who aren't necessarily even related? Wouldn't it serve you better to let your competitors die? Empathy was * literally* a prerequisite for the emergence of civilization. It was "let's stick together, and make a better future for everyone" not "hey, let's fly this guy to Mars so he doesn't die"

But you know what. I'm sure the hebephilic misanthrope will do a wonderful job improving the human condition with AI generated child pornography, and over priced cars.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago*

    Empathy is the reason we didn't go extinct at the peak of the afro/eurasian bottleneck when we numbered less than 2,000 individuals.

    True, but it'll the current manosphere chud-driven narrative around this it's also worth mentioning that empathy is not itself an emotion. It may result in an emotional response, but empathy itself is an cognitive process through which one person considers the perspective and emotions of another. Consciously turning off your empathy literally just makes you dumber and less rational.

    You see this all the time with prominent Republicans who suddenly become pro-gay rights as soon as their own kids come out. Bruh, gay people didn't suddenly start deserving rights just because your kid happens to be gay, so you were either being irrational before or you're being irrational now. The cognitive process by which you could have avoided irrationality was by engaging in empathy - consider the perspectives and feelings of others, consider how and why they come about, and incorporate that into your thinking.

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