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I’ve been having similar thoughts but in the end it is just bitterness. It is true that there is some poetic justice in it but how is unneccesary suffering ever

I’ve been having similar thoughts but in the end it is just bitterness. It is true that there is some poetic justice in it but how is unneccesary suffering ever justified. Dig deeper if you feel your emphaty dissapearing. It is never a good sign.

timeslip1523 5y ago
Empathy, or rather sympathy, is easily used as a backdoor to control you. There's a reason we have the phrase "harden your heart". Sometimes, for example when faced with a manipulative liar, the right move is to turn off your empathy, like how the fight-flight response turns off pain.
username90 5y ago
We should care as much about lonely old women as we care about lonely young men.
- teachingassist 5y ago
  For several reasons, I believe that people already care more about lonely young men, on the following grounds: 1. Lonely young men are the subject of hundreds of recent news articles, 2. In the reverse situation, on a thread about lonely young men, nobody would comment to remind us about lonely old women - or, if they did, they would be downvoted to oblivion.
  - watwut 5y ago
    I stated on HN that old people suffer from loneliness and was downvoted both times. It did not even had anything to do with gender and I was more provocative with other things. It is more that on in those debates, HN kind of idealized old people as being above human needs or some such.
  - username90 5y ago
    Right, so then we should care more about them. My statement works either way.
    - teachingassist 5y ago
      > My statement works either way. It doesn't. You've replied to a post about older women, adding nothing to the conversation except to remind us that younger men are important, because that's the societally acceptable way around.
      - username90 5y ago
        The only reason HN cares about young men is that most users here are young men. Young women, old men and old women don't care about young men at all. And the fact that the concerns of old women are still brought up here is evidence that society actually values old women a great deal considering how different this demographic is from them.

timeslip1523 5y ago

Empathy, or rather sympathy, is easily used as a backdoor to control you. There's a reason we have the phrase "harden your heart". Sometimes, for example when faced with a manipulative liar, the right move is to turn off your empathy, like how the fight-flight response turns off pain.

username90 5y ago

We should care as much about lonely old women as we care about lonely young men.

teachingassist 5y ago
For several reasons, I believe that people already care more about lonely young men, on the following grounds: 1. Lonely young men are the subject of hundreds of recent news articles, 2. In the reverse situation, on a thread about lonely young men, nobody would comment to remind us about lonely old women - or, if they did, they would be downvoted to oblivion.
- watwut 5y ago
  I stated on HN that old people suffer from loneliness and was downvoted both times. It did not even had anything to do with gender and I was more provocative with other things. It is more that on in those debates, HN kind of idealized old people as being above human needs or some such.
- username90 5y ago
  Right, so then we should care more about them. My statement works either way.
  - teachingassist 5y ago
    > My statement works either way. It doesn't. You've replied to a post about older women, adding nothing to the conversation except to remind us that younger men are important, because that's the societally acceptable way around.
    - username90 5y ago
      The only reason HN cares about young men is that most users here are young men. Young women, old men and old women don't care about young men at all. And the fact that the concerns of old women are still brought up here is evidence that society actually values old women a great deal considering how different this demographic is from them.