this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
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[–] TokenBoomer@lemmy.world -4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Empathy for one group, but not the other, isn’t empathy. It’s confirmation bias and sociopathic.

[–] betheydocrime@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Then that means they don't lack empathy-- that just means that, by your estimation, they misallocate empathy.

The thing about allocation of empathy is that it is subjective. Some people will allocate more empathy to some groups of people than they will others, and that's just part of the human condition. I care more about homeless people and transgender rights than I do men's rights in divorce and tax breaks for the middle class--not because of a lack of empathy for the second groups, but because of an abundance of empathy for the first.

It's the same way here--some people support Israel with all its benefits and flaws over Palestine with all its benefits and flaws, or the other way around, because they have more empathy for one group than the other.

Don't get me wrong, there are definitely people on both sides who have no empathy for enemy civilians, and frustratingly both of those groups of people have somewhat reasonable arguments informing that lack of empathy. But saying that an entire group of people has no empathy is painting with far too broad of a brush and somewhat ironically shows a momentary lapse of empathy from the person saying it.

[–] TokenBoomer@lemmy.world -3 points 1 year ago

But saying that an entire group of people has no empathy is painting with far too broad of a brush and somewhat ironically shows a momentary lapse of empathy from the person saying it.

Maybe, but I don’t think the generalization is misplaced considering the overwhelming support for Israel without understanding of the Palestinian situation. I think the confusion is between sympathy and empathy. I don’t think if people actually empathized with the suffering of Jews, they could easily disregard empathy for the Palestinians.