What he's getting at is "pathological altruism". You'll notice a pattern where people act on their empathy (declaring said action objectively good) and failing

What he's getting at is "pathological altruism". You'll notice a pattern where people act on their empathy (declaring said action objectively good) and failing to appropriately reflect on it's consequences. Such is the case with many government programs like war or welfare programs. If you define a program as empathetic and virtuous, you have no null hypothesis with which to disprove it, no metrics with which to calibrate it. In such respects, empathy can do a lot of harm to yourself and others.