this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2026
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Some people are just born evil. Or they're born with something broken in their brains that can never be fixed.
Go talk to some teachers. Ask them about the worst of the worst. You'll hear some stories.
You hear a lot about "the school to prison pipeline," but there are some kids that you can just look at them and say, "that kid is going to die in prison." I'm talking about kids that assault their teachers and other students. I'm talking kids that steal, lie, and manipulate people in cruel and vindictive ways. In some cases they make a game out of deliberately creating false allegations of inappropriate behavior on the part of their teachers. They actively seek to destroy lives. I'm talking about kids that go through every program and intervention, that receive every form of support and counseling imaginable. Kids that receive nothing but compassion, caring and understanding...and respond by treating other human beings as disposable garbage fit only for their amusement. It's a rare kid that is truly this evil, but there are some real monsters out there. Some people are just born evil. There are some people that will simply never see the humanity in other human beings. There is no amount of counseling or coaching that can fix such profoundly broken souls. The best we can do is to warehouse them, to lock them in a place with their own kind, where they'll never be able to hurt an innocent person ever again.
You cannot teach someone to have empathy. You cannot teach someone to care for other people. You either do, or you don't.
If they can't help it, the proper response to them is definitely NOT to treat them like bad little boys who need to be locked away and punished forever while we joke about them getting SA'd in prison.
Evidence for your assertion? Research including meta-analyses of multiple studies shows that empathy is a trainable capacity that can measurably improve through structured education, practice, and social-emotional learning. Schools, workplaces, and medical institutions use specific programs (such as role-playing, active listening exercises, reading literature, and film-based discussions) to boost emotional literacy and perspective-taking. Schools in Denmark set aside one mandatory hour per week for a dedicated class called Klassens Tid (Class Time) for students aged 6 to 16. Problem-Solving & Listening: Rather than focusing on grades or traditional academic subjects during this hour, students sit together to discuss personal or group problems, practice active listening, and find collective solutions to issues like bullying or social exclusion. Around 60% of schoolwork in Denmark is group-based, emphasizing teamwork and supporting peers rather than individual competition. Finland treats empathy as a core competency woven into daily school life rather than a stand alone subject. Students analyze characters' emotions during reading, mediate their own peer conflicts, and practice emotional resilience through hands-on projects and peer mentoring.
I don't believe that. Yes, I'm sure you can academically define some quantitative measure of empathy. I'm sure you can put together a scale that will allow you to perform a statistical test on it. But I'm not talking about slightly increasing empathy among normal people. I'm talking about people who are truly psychopaths, those with something broken in their soul.
And the Denmark educational system sounds exactly like the US educational system. We do all that same stuff. If you think K12 education is students sitting in rows listening to lectures, you're comically out of touch.
I think you replied to the wrong person. I was quoting them.
I'm talking about people who get absolutely every opportunity to learn compassion and empathy for other human beings. Some folks will go through all the trainings you give them, ignore them, and laugh in your face. Some people just don't give a fuck about you or anyone else. If you can't recognize that other people have innate value, there's no helping you.
You say that about unrepentant criminals, but your attitude demonstrates a lack of recognition of their innate value as people. Really this is an inconsistent, hypocritical worldview to have and I reject it categorically.
No. I don't reject anyone's value as a person. But I can also recognize that some people simply do not want or cannot learn to play nice with others. Beyond a certain point, when someone just doesn't want to change, the best you can do is to keep them from hurting innocent people.
People like you are why teachers end up getting assaulted. Violent kids end up staying in classrooms long past the point they are objectively a threat to everyone around them. Administrators resist expulsion because they think like you do. You recognize the innate value of criminals, but you fail to recognize the innate value of their victims.
Yes, I understand that. My issue is with what seems to be our best solution, which is to consign these people to essentially torture. If they are truly incapable of learning any better, there's no point in doing anything to them except keep them from harming others, yet we get off on making them suffer.
Go fuck yourself.
And what is your solution, oh wise sage? Some people don't want to be helped. There is no program or intervention you can do to reach these people. Again, at some point the best you can do is put the needs of the many over the needs of the few and keep the psychopaths from hurting innocent people.
Empathy is the ability to recognize, understand, and share the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of another person while keeping them distinct from your own.
Defining empathy doesn't even begin to teach someone empathy.