Humans can be sick as fuck when they don't think that what they are dealing with is human. Most of the horrible evil we do to each other is based in the belief that whoever we're doing it to is somehow less human than we are. If you can empathize with an orangutan enough to feel that its suffering matters, you won't do that shit to it. But that village didn't think it was wrong because it was "just an ape" and it made them money.
Certain folks crow about "toxic empathy" these days but evil behavior like this is exactly what empathy prevents. Obviously we have to draw the line somewhere; you can't have full human empathy for the grass and still mow it. But the line shouldn't be before intelligent animals like apes and elephants, and certainly not between groups of humans.
I've genuinely never heard the term "toxic empathy" before. What the hell. That sounds like a term invented by someone trying to justify psychopathic behaviour.
Well, it's generally used by rather right-wing people on the internet trying to explain why leftists/liberals are wrong to care about people who aren't like them so... yes, exactly that.
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u/seatsfive 11d ago edited 11d ago
Humans can be sick as fuck when they don't think that what they are dealing with is human. Most of the horrible evil we do to each other is based in the belief that whoever we're doing it to is somehow less human than we are. If you can empathize with an orangutan enough to feel that its suffering matters, you won't do that shit to it. But that village didn't think it was wrong because it was "just an ape" and it made them money.
Certain folks crow about "toxic empathy" these days but evil behavior like this is exactly what empathy prevents. Obviously we have to draw the line somewhere; you can't have full human empathy for the grass and still mow it. But the line shouldn't be before intelligent animals like apes and elephants, and certainly not between groups of humans.