this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2026
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[–] AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

Oh awesome. I'd love something like that, and do think we need to kind of train every person to understand and analyze others empathy better. Because this is a major problem when selecting, voting or promoting people into position of power. Every time there is a competition for a promotion, the ones that care the least about anything but more power or money or influence will be statistically more likely to advance. The more self serving the better. So at the top end you have function sociopaths who are very adept at lying about themselves or even to themselves.

Detecting purely self-serving or greedy people would be awesome and should be taught and trained for in school as basic political education. You know like math or PT is taught and trained. And candidates for political power should be put through some kind of "psychological gauntlet" to make it at least more likely they show they care or believe in something besides gaining more power.

It might also be possible to create a kind of AI models to evaluate and analyze people seeking power. Like some sort of lie detector test observing every reaction and every word and tonal shift in a conversation with the machine. Something like the interrogation in Blade Runner or "The Expanse" Season 1. Of course a bit of a ludicrous idea.

Might be better to just pick someone at random, quite likely to get better world leaders like that.

But this remains a fundamental problem of any hierarchical system, no matter if capitalism or socialism. We are now in an age where humanity can easily destroy itself, and we have collectively chosen, or proven unable, to save ourselves from the existential danger of climate change. And despite our "advances in ethics" in general, we're still ruled by total shits. And no matter what system we choose the problem will persist. Lack of empathy is a very strong indicator for that.

Sorry for the long rant lol

FYI, I believe you use narcissist wrong, because generally they "weaponize empathy" to manipulate people. They absolutely need to maintain a false glamorous mirror image of their own ego (or they die) and will use all sorts of rationalizations or delusions to keep that up. From a young age they need to pretend and for that they need to read people very well. And as long as they see you as one of the awesome people they'll charm you, but if they see you as one of the shit people they'll flip and treat you like dirt. And no amount of time will change that lol.