The lack of it is not a trend, but a consequence of a deliberate effort to keep it that way.
I want to believe capacity for empathy and sympathy (both for good and bad) are inherent to us all (with some exceptions), even if clouded or even manipulated by the lack of critical thinking, which I do consider a skill one has to train (and not related to being smart/intelligent or dumb/stupid).
I believe, if we all had enough critical thinking (I know I don’t fully have it, even if it has gotten better with time), we would have been working together for each other instead of fighting and fucking over each other for the benefit of people in positions of power.
So, hoping for an “empathy and critical thinking” trend isn’t going to save us the same way hoping for a “cancer suddenly disappears” trend won’t save someone with cancer. It is like this by design, not by coincidence, and we must do a deliberate effort to change it.
As suggestions I know of or have heard of:
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Bear in mind others might have gone through shit that made them the way they are right now (different culture, different conditions, trauma, indoctrination, etc.). To realize that no one is inherently evil, but the conditions we are given (our genes + our enviroment) shape us, has helped me stop hating others for their way of being, and instead wonder what led them to be like that. I never became more or less empathethic, I just changed my POV.
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Read and write more to train the brain to take information, process it, and send it in or out, more effectively. And be more mindful of what you do write. (It also helps train the brain against degenerative diseases. Won’t stop them, but might still slow them).
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Check facts on more than one source to avoid biases, left-out info, or straight up lies or manipulation. Don’t just read headlines and keep scrolling. Helps get a wider view of the world, know what goes on more precisely, and, like reading, trains the brain. (Also, bear in mind some articles are more about giving opinions or uncomplete information, than stating proven facts)
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“More people should think more critically”
Monkey’s Paw Curls
Everyone gets into fights with you because they’re second-guessing every damned little thing
Nobody gets anything done because they’re overanalyzing
Nothing actually improves, because nobody’s priors changed and they all come up the same conclusions anyway
Heuristics exist for a reason. You’re not supposed to be doing deep analysis all the time. It’s exhausting and does not reliably improve your life unless you’re generating real new useful insights.
If you can’t trust anyone else, you can’t rely on common wisdom or instinct, and you’re constantly in positions to make costly errors because of trick questions, critical thinking isn’t going to save you.
Might as well be a geek too!! Lammme
I have never heard a person talk about empathy introspectively. Invariably it has been about how someone else needs to be more empathetic, and almost always, the speaker would hypothetically be the beneficiary of this increased empathy.
I have never heard a person talk about empathy introspectively
Happens more often than you might think, but rarely in online discourse or Internet blowharding.
yep. it’s weaponized and used to shame people into agreement.
people also don’t have general empathy, they have it for specific other persons they identify with and they tend to totally lack it for those they don’t identify with.
people also generally mean ‘feel bad for’ when they use the term. true empathy is more about being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and relate to their experience, it’s not an abstraction. empathy doesn’t make you feel bad, it helps you understand others experiences… but it’s not used that way colloquially and definitely not that way on the internet.
the thing people really do when they go on about empathy, is pity. and when they demand empathy for themselves, they are demanding pity for themselves.
People in the west need to adopt more Buddhist language. One facet of empathy often overlooked is sympathetic or appreciative joy, also known as mudita, one of the four brahma viharas. Empathy doesn’t always have to be about negatives, and mudita is a good inoculant against envy.
people in the west don’t do that. they warp eastern beliefs to suite themselves, and turn buddism into an exercise of ego-building, rather than ego-minimizing that is supposed to be. we are insanely ego-centric and we distort any belief system we encounter to fuel that egocentrism.
It’s why the west like Freud so much, but not so much Jung. Because Jung was about collectivist ideas, and Freud was all about our struggles with ourselves and our struggles as individuals against other individuals.
How do I make a profit from that though?
The funny part is it would be more profitable than what’s happening now as the ultra wealthy have convinced a majority of voters to keep wages low, keep taxes low for the wealthy, higher for the non wealthy, turn the US into a purely service and gig economy, and so now the economic system is slowing and grinding to a halt as fewer and fewer people can participate in all sectors, from necessities to leisure spending.
Exactly, if an economy is an engine then money is the oil; if it pools (by a few people hoarding it) then there’s less flowing through to lubricate the engine turnover and it ceases up.
If the oil ceases to flow the engine could certainly seize up
Need to open those reservoirs and help the gears turn
there are enough rich people to keep it going for generations.
but it’s true that wealth inequality generates slower economic growth than wealth equality does.
Modern hot takes always gotta come with a picture of a rando.
The current global trend of fascism and cheap individualism is not spontaneous. It has been promoted with billions of dollars.
Fuck there’s trillionares now
People actually subscribe to AI. As such, the likelihood decreases daily.
They pay for chatbot? The thing everyone is furious to get when they’re trying to reach customer service?
Well there are currently places where that is indeed a thing. Just not in the USA…
I hope she’s prepared for disappointment
I swear people who talk like this are inadvertently signaling that they are sociopaths
everyone thinks themselves as empathic and thinking critically, in their own mind, it’s everyone else that is wrong…
Elon Musk literally said he thinks empathy is a weakness. So no, the greedy ghouls running our modern civilisation don’t think they are empathic, and they have no desire to be. And a lot of poor temporarily-embarrassed billionaires emulates them in that regard.
Critical thinking must include critically questioning one’s own thoughts and behaviors as well. That’s the only way forward.
Question everything, especially the things you’ve always thought were true. People would be surprised if they realized just how many false ideas and urban legends they’ve been taught by people they thought were credible.
The person who downvoted you clearly doesn’t like to think critically about their own assumptions or be reminded that they should…
In my mind it’s a very specific set of people who are wrong, and I do not have empathetic thoughts towards them.
If you can’t empathize with your enemy, you’ll constantly be surprised by their actions.
Nah, I just have to assume they’re going to do whatever the worst thing is and I’m always right.
No, I guarantee you some people don’t think about those things at all, or are even actively hostile towards them as concepts.
And then there are people who only focus on one at the expense of the other, under the assumption that they’re mutually exclusive.
yep, and if you are wrong, you lack empathy and critical thinking in their mind! and that’s why you are wrong!
almost as if it’s entirely self-serving and circular…
A nice idea but highly unlikely.
I’m skeptical how can i make money off this?
Don’t worry guys I’ll comment something relevant as soon as I find out what’s going on in that picture.
