Empathy Epidemic
It stuns me that ~50% of people under 30 say that Mangione was justified in that murder. (The best take on this: An Astonishing Level of Dehumanization, from Peter Wehner in the The Atlantic .)
25 Predictions for 2025 (Part II)
(Someone recently described the act of making a phone call to me as “aggressive.”) Dozens upon dozens of human touch points have been erased from each and every day of our lives.
But the secondary problem is American individualism, which compels bourgeois Americans to focus what small amount of energy we have either on optimizing ourselves (exercise, skin care, “self-care”) or on our very close familial circle (that amorphous, ever-expanding activity known as “parenting” that includes everything from making Spirit Week... See more
The Loneliest Decades of Our Lives
Yes, you could argue that many Trump fanatics lack basic human empathy (or at least, are ambivalent to the suffering of others). But let’s be honest — the rest of us have been struggling with empathy for some time now.
We have manicured out of our lives and our feeds and our day-to-day existence the need for any and all interactions with anyone who has not been hand-picked by us, who is not of the same class or race or political position. We have found more and more ways to avoid engaging with others of our species. And in doing so, we have eroded our empathy.
There’s clearly something in the air because The Atlantic just published Derek Thompson’s cover story on “the anti-social century,” which explores why Americans are spending more time than ever alone. And last week The Guardian published a piece about the rise in flakiness, with one person interviewed saying, “I have adjusted my mindset so I almost... See more
It’s me. I’m the person you’re canceling on
How emotionally healthy are we, as a people, when, in moments of profound and painful tragedy, we feel compelled to insert our political opinions or policy positions? Can we not, just for a moment, feel for the victims?
It’s like a competition who is suffering more - you can’t be sad because I’m sad about this, and it’s worse. It’s the suffering olympics
In his first press briefing back in the White House, President Trump, who has long been criticized for an “empathy gap,” quickly moves from mourning the victims to political attacks. He assails former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as “a disaster,” blaming him for diversity objectives at the F.A.A. The inference is that diversity by... See more