“The fundamental weakness is empathy,” Musk recently told radio podcast host Joe Rogan. “There is a bug, which is the empathy response.”
As Musk has established himself as at least the second most powerful person in an administration seeking a wholesale remaking of institutions, rules and norms, what he said matters, because it encapsulates a political plan. What the Project 2025 report set out in over 900 turgid pages, Musk’s remark captures in a simple pithy mantra for the social media age.
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Empathy is one of the foundational blocks of the society he abuses.
Empathy is a weakness for sociopaths, and only sociopaths can be billionaires. So it’s not a universal weakness, but it is a weakness for him.
You know who lacks empathy? Psychopaths.
This paper says this about it:
Importantly, empathy is such an essential component of healthy human social interactions that absence of it may lead to severe social and cognitive dysfunctions. A personality structure often marked by a lack of empathy is psychopathic personality.
Musk is once again pretending to know about things he’s clueless about.
Lack of empathy is how I characterize Republicans or conservatives in general. It explains every single one of their policy position.
there also very good at pretending to have empathy, which is another key trait. hence why we seen “so many people” become super right wing as time goes on.
Musk: “The fundamental weakness is empathy” Also Musk: “Why are people so mean to me”
Oxy, meet moron.
Wow such virtue signaling /s
Just linked this in the comment I left as well. Perfect timing on this comic!
If empathy is the weakness to my species, I’m glad we’re committing suicide by capitalist made climate change.
Without empathy, we have no redeeming characteristics and nothing of value will be lost.
I thought we were finally over the fact that it is no longer a “bad thing”-to show publicly. I still remember high school days days, where showing any kind of a fear or other emotion, was seen as a weakness.
My hope is is that the youth does not copy-cat this psychotic behavior too much.
Musk is a little childish. Probably some developmental deficiencies going on there.
Ohh now it all makes sense.
Dude got bullied, felt miserable and couldn’t deal with that. So he convinced himself to try and not feel feelings. Spoiler: doesn’t work and often ends in drug addiction.
Basically he has mommy daddy issues and wants to take it out on millions of other people. It’s like punching someone in the face but then washing their car and acting like he’s a saint.
It’s like punching someone in the face but then washing their car and acting like he’s a saint.
So the Biff Tannen comparisons work on more than just Trump.
Huh…an admitted psychopath
His Mom didn’t show any empathy when she raised him. This is why he is a weirdo.
I think, even a psychopath understand the usefulness of empathy at the conceptual level, both to the individual and society as a whole. Elon is just fucking stupid, insanely out of touch, drugged out of his gourd.
Calling empathy a “bug” in human psychology is just so, so strange.
Empathy as a weakness is exactly what I’d expect to hear from a sociopath. If everybody thought this way, we’d have no civilized society.
Sweet. So we shouldn’t feel empathetic towards him, and if we feel he needs to be out of politics, we should do what is necessary and without empathy or emotion. Just as he is non empathetic as he kills, rapes and steals just so he can fill that empty void his parents not loving him left.
Empathy is Weakness. In almost all movies they tell about that. Well not the good guys. Hell Emperor Palpatine.
Well, that’s the only thing I agree with him! Empathy IS a weakness!
Not all weaknesses make us weak; and not all weakness is to be feared, mocked, ridiculed, or scorned. Admitting weakness can provide you with help from others; admitting weakness can free you from unrealistic expectations you’ve placed upon yourself; and being weak is a natural state of affairs in reality, in comparison to the titanic forces of nature under which we all strive to thrive.
Weak cannot survive.
“Weak” regularly survives, and thrives. Do you expect everyone on Earth to always be “strong” at all times in all situations? Are all moments of weakness to be shamed and scorned, even if they follow many days, weeks, or months of strength?
it says a lot about the alt right wing of society… they demand empathy when they feel slighted, but don’t feel an ounce of empathy towards others.
This is also the reason why the alt right wing only balks at problems when it directly affects them personally. If it doesn’t affect them, it’s not a problem, because other people’s experiences don’t matter/count/exist. And there’s no need to learn from other people’s mistakes.
atrophied empathy will doom our species as surely as any other existential crisis we currently face.
that is all.
I would argue that empathy is one of the most critical advantages we have, as humans. It is fundamental to the super tribe effect. That allowed us to bypass the Dunbar limit and form societies larger than a tribe.
It’s also not soft. Endurance hunting relies on it. When your prey flees into cover, you need to follow. You need to put yourself into its head, to figure out where it went. That is empathic.
Your life must be cold and distant without empathy.
What allowed us to grow larger than a tribe was our will to kill those who are weak and empathetic.
That happened, until 10+ tribes got pissed off, got together, and wiped them out. Eventually those tribal groups grew into villages, towns and city states. Many tribes, united in a common purpose.
So, you agree that empathy doesn’t work.
Soldiers fight together out of empathy, as much as orders.
The super tribe effect allows for nations and fandoms. If you’ve ever seen a hyped up group of football fans, you’ve seen super tribe empathy in action.
It also allows for mutual support. We support the weak because we know what it feels like to be weak. I have been helped by the empathy of others. I have chosen to let my empathy help others in turn.
Empathy ties us together. It allows us to reach FAR beyond what we could alone. Empathy is both the glue that holds society together and the oil that stops the whole construction seizing up.
