Comment by anal_reactor
1 day ago
I think you're giving people too much credit. Quite often they say empathetic things not because they're empathetic, but because that's the socially expected thing to do. They are so well-versed at this that they do it without even realizing it. Actual empathy is rare. Think about the corporate lingo which will kill you with kindness, but when there's an actual problem, you'll get thrown under the bus instantly. That's how people naturally behave.
To add on the point above: the whole panic is overblown. Majority of people have always been susceptible to blatant lies and manipulation. In my country there was an internet meme "Capital's sewer system as a tool of Judaism and quackery aimed at destroying the farming industry and extermination of local population". The thing is, that's a title of an actual essay printed 100 years ago. Someone genuinely believed this. In my father's village local peasants burnt down one guy's house because he used a scythe instead of a sickle on his own field, believing that this would lead to some curse or whatever.
The point is, people are stupid, have always been, and finding yet another way of generating obvious lies won't change anything in the big scheme of things. Reminds me of a South Park quote that goes along like this:
- I'm worried that you won't like me anymore
- We never liked you in the first place
- So... nothing changes?
- Nothing changes.
> I think you're giving people too much credit. Quite often they say empathetic things not because they're empathetic, but because that's the socially expected thing to do. They are so well-versed at this that they do it without even realizing it. Actual empathy is rare. Think about the corporate lingo which will kill you with kindness, but when there's an actual problem, you'll get thrown under the bus instantly. That's how people naturally behave.
I mostly believe the psychology studies that suggest that humans are generally empathetic by default. But then it seems to be fragile. Like you say, stress and culture can inhibit it. And that's without mentioning inborn cognitive biases like tribalism, which I guess works great if you're part of a desperate tribe fighting to survive and where the goal is winning Darwinism, and not so great when you're in a multicultural society at peace and there are a million and one problems to blame on others.
> The point is, people are stupid, have always been, and finding yet another way of generating obvious lies won't change anything in the big scheme of things.
But as we get more advanced levels of delusion (it can always get worse, when the metacognition kicks in), more powerful ways of influencing others, and bigger problems for society to confront, that means all the less capability to address those problems. Although I guess our lack of capability has not changed in the grand scheme of things...