Comment by averageRoyalty

There's a lot of anger at this choice in wording here, but it seems very clear to me his mindset. He lacks empathy. There's a scale from sociopath to "I need to sit on all the cushions in my house an equal amount of time so they don't get sad", and it's clear he's further to one end.

If you can't empathise with someone and understand (to some extent) their world view, it would be very easy to see them as alien, programmed NPCs. Not everyone can easily train their empathy muscle.