3 ms·
It's funny that you chose the word "blasphemous." The conspicuous fervor around "empty" in recent years does feel like it shares some traits with religious bel
by forgottenpass 10y ago
It's funny that you chose the word "blasphemous."
The conspicuous fervor around "empty" in recent years does feel like it shares some traits with religious belief.
When a religion promotes a virtue, they don't invalidate the virtue. It can still be a positive. But they just tie a lot of baggage to the virtue. The ways it can be held, and forms in which it can be practiced are constrained, prescribed, and sometimes even contradictory. It makes people on the outside raise a suspicious eyebrow.
The meme around "empathy" is not religious in nature, but is tied to (broad) social groups. And "having empathy" often means more than simply being empathetic.
It should be treated with cynical suspicion. Articles like this give me hope the meme is about to pop.
- droopybuns 10y agoMy impression is that you are highlighting phoney empathy as a problem. If I'm wrong- I'd love to know it. I agree with that idea. But I'm coming to the realization that empathy is critical and most people do not practice it. This last election educated me about the number of people who espouse empathy and then follow it up with tantrums about how if you don't also hate $Candidate, then you are a racist sexist homophobe. It's phony empathy- or empathy when it's not inconvenient that is dangerous. It leads to moral self licensing- where terrible behavior or failure to do something meaningful is justified by the fact that a) people they disagree with are bad and b) they did that empathetic sounding tweet that one time memes should not pop by the way- they're a powerful indicator of the mental self-reliance and thoughtfulness of the speaker. I don't want them to die. I want them to live on so I know who to avoid.