this post was submitted on 20 May 2026
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me_irl
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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.