this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2025
663 points (95.9% liked)
Leopards Ate My Face
9796 readers
403 users here now
Rules:
- The mods are fallible; if you've been banned or had a post/comment removed, please appeal.
- Off-topic posts will be removed. If you don't know what "Leopards ate my Face" is, try reading this post.
- If the reason your post meets Rule 1 isn't in the source, you must add a source in the post body (not the comments) to explain this. If the reason is in the source but is tedious to find (e.g. in a lengthy video), you must add an explanation for where it is.
- Posts should use high-quality sources (for a rough idea, check out this list), and posts should retain the title (if one exists) from works like news articles, videos, etc. You may (but need not) edit your post if the source changes the title. Other types of posts should have a title which accurately, relatively neutrally describes their contents.
- For accessibility reasons, an image of text must either have alt text or a transcription in the post body.
- Reposts within 1 year or the Top 100 of all time are subject to removal. Within moderator discretion, this doesn't just include reposts of the exact same media but also includes e.g. a secondary source telling basically the exact same story as another that was already posted.
- This is not exclusively a US politics community. You're encouraged to post stories about anyone from any place in the world at any point in history as long as you meet the other rules.
- All Lemmy.World Terms of Service apply.
Also feel free to check out:
Icon credit C. Brück on Wikimedia Commons.
_portrait.jpg){kind=link}
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Oh, are we doing eugenics again?
Empathy can be taught. Some are better at it than others. Like literally everything else.
The exception might be with psychopaths, but that is such a small percentage and wouldn't swing an election.
No its not eugenics. Its keeping unsafe people from harming others. I didn't say they can't breed. Pretty telling statement from you that you went there first. You cannot teach empathy if the person doesn't have it naturally. That is just plain stupid. You can of course teach them to lie about it. It will be imperfect and they will only use it to manipulate people.
Most psychopaths are productive non violent and non victimizing citizens. Its apples and oranges. Many doctors have clear psychopathic tendencies. It doesn't make them pedo rapists or abusive. Like a clear lack of empathy does. It doesn't cause them to play games with peoples emotions for nothing more than their own entertainment. The two are nothing alike and like all human mental conditions there is some overlap.
The lack of empathy mostly overlaps with a cluster B diagnosis. Particularly NPD. Those are the people who say empathy isn't real or its learned.
Ok, let me clarify.
You don't "learn empathy". Almost everyone (except some seriously broken minds) has empathy, even if only for their immediate family. Even Republicans. You can see this in the way they care about family and realize things are bad when it affects them.
What you CAN learn is that empathy shouldn't apply just to your family. Or just to your race. Or just to your species. It's a skill you can grow and refine. You weren't born caring about people you've never met. Your mind couldn't conceive of it. Now it can. You learned.
Plus, doing all the things you mentioned would lower those people's chance of mating. Eugenics. Or "eugenics light" if you're feeling particularly offended.
Yup, super naive.
Maybe republicans are all psychopaths? Maybe not so rare?
Studies show they have larger amygdalas which contribute to their enhanced fear and "fear of other" responses.