this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
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That's gonna be a what from me dawg. I agree that people's empathy is often coopted to let the people actively doing harm get away with it, but holistically speaking shooting a Nazi for example is an act of kindness and empathy.
It is not that necessarily. If the person does it for those reasons it is, but if I shoot a nazis because of anger it is not an action of empathy. Empathy is a motivation, it cannot be brought into an action after the fact.
Empathy is just the ability to see how someone else feels. It's better to take actions based upon their materials outcomes rather than just an imagined emotional response to it. This isn't even self-centered, using compassion, which is not wanting to hurt others, is good way to make choices. but solely thinking about how others would feel or have felt is not great.