LITEROTICA PODCAST
LIT CAMS (200 Free Tokens)ADULT TOYSVOD MOVIES

Is empathy a thing?

My brother claims to be an empath...not the dead one...the other one. I use to be. Fixing people is nasty, unappreciated work.
 
Saint_Ann said:
I've seen several posters bandy the term about...one in particular...and then see them behave in a manner that makes me think their empathy has an I/O switch. I suppose it could be a nuisance having that thing running full time. Distracting to say the least.

Having my feelings broadcast over some ethereal radio waves to be detected by someone with special powers is disconcerting at best, or an invasion of privacy at worst.

What do they do with this information? Like that scene when Buckaroo Bonsai stops the song to ask if someone is crying. "Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean." Then says, "No matter where you go, there you are."

Which of course is super cool but does absolutely nothing to help Penny Pretty.

Does empathy pretty much do absolutely nothing?
Click to expand...

In reality no one can walk an inch, let alone a mile, in another persons shoes.

The more a person lacks empathy the more a person tries to overcome that lack by projecting publicly.

Like Butters.
 
Lancedalot said:
In reality no one can walk an inch, let alone a mile, in another persons shoes.

The more a person lacks empathy the more a person tries to overcome that lack by projecting publicly.

Like Butters.
Click to expand...

I can't prove that empathy exists, but I can think of examples where empathy is obviously lacking. There's probably a book name for that. :)
 
Is empathy a thing?


Of the past? Yes.



Now phluck off.
 
Saint_Ann said:
Declaring that "you" have empathy is similar to declaring "you" are a nice person. That's not a title one can hang on themselves. :)
Click to expand...

Only people that are not very "self-aware" which I have been tolds that i am to a surprising degree.

Ha! Doesn't mean I always do something about it... or care to.
 
From the TL;DR crew

If this turns out to be a long response, consider not giving me shit for it. Describing things as they truly are is much simpler than the ways we misunderstand them. Clarifying confusion and cutting through poetry and assumptions is hard work and takes some time.

Debates that revolve around words like empathy, love, God, or life, very often slide sideways in circular fashion. The reason why is that the terms themselves are representative of complexities with many different facets, and people will likely have very different interpretations of their meanings. Those interpretations almost always include other loosely defined terms making the whole thing futile as far as clarity is concerned.

You get a lot of poetry in conversations like this, for instance, using “heart” as a quality instead of an object. The truth is there’s no consensus for what that really means. And it’s the same for words that are foundational in life philosophy - emotion, mind, soul, god, life, I, you, me, and so on. Words with just a few letters carrying infinite implications. We say them so often we assume everyone looks at them the same way, but in many cases there’s no understanding or consensus. Poetry is great for generating feeling, but it’s not a terrific aid to understanding.

Dictionary says this about empathy:
the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

The first part makes pretty simple sense, I think we’d all have to agree there’s such a thing as understanding. Sharing feelings? Pretty fuzzy actually.

My take on empathy is this- it describes the capacity to create a reasonable facsimile of another’s subjective experience within the confines of our own, and effectively relate to it. You put yourself in the “virtual shoes” of someone else. It allows us to successfully imagine what it must be like to be in someone else’s situation.

That doesn’t require anything supernatural or invasive; just a fully functioning brain and an awareness that isn’t plagued by tons of pathologies, emotional triggers and repressions. Sharing subjective experience isn’t something we can do directly, so we have to infer it based on what one says and does, shows and doesn’t show both consciously and unconsciously. There are more subtle things at play too, resonance, for instance, is a real physical phenomenon, and it can definitely occur between individuals or groups in ways that might seem fairly spooky. Pluck an E string of one guitar sitting next to another, and the other instrument’s E string will vibrate sympathetically. Energy resonates, and people are expressions of energy.

A lack of empathy as stated can inhibit one’s ability to relate to others or recognize how their actions might affect them. Someone has something you want, so you just club them on the head and take it, problem solved. No issue, no guilt, because no empathy.

Having empathy is different than claiming you have empathy. That might be bragging and it’s probably an indication that you’re lacking it and just compensating instead.

Like anything, empathy’s only useful if it’s demonstrated. Talking about it is just that, talking. It’s similar to love, which is another term we define poorly then twist around ourselves until we can’t walk. My definition for love is this: caring more for other than self. My favorite quote about love states that, “there is no love, there’s only proof of love.” Empathy must be the same.

Ok, go ahead and give me shit for the long post.
 
avecvous said:
If this turns out to be a long response, consider not giving me shit for it. Describing things as they truly are is much simpler than the ways we misunderstand them. Clarifying confusion and cutting through poetry and assumptions is hard work and takes some time.

Debates that revolve around words like empathy, love, God, or life, very often slide sideways in circular fashion. The reason why is that the terms themselves are representative of complexities with many different facets, and people will likely have very different interpretations of their meanings. Those interpretations almost always include other loosely defined terms making the whole thing futile as far as clarity is concerned.

You get a lot of poetry in conversations like this, for instance, using “heart” as a quality instead of an object. The truth is there’s no consensus for what that really means. And it’s the same for words that are foundational in life philosophy - emotion, mind, soul, god, life, I, you, me, and so on. Words with just a few letters carrying infinite implications. We say them so often we assume everyone looks at them the same way, but in many cases there’s no understanding or consensus. Poetry is great for generating feeling, but it’s not a terrific aid to understanding.

Dictionary says this about empathy:
the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

The first part makes pretty simple sense, I think we’d all have to agree there’s such a thing as understanding. Sharing feelings? Pretty fuzzy actually.

My take on empathy is this- it describes the capacity to create a reasonable facsimile of another’s subjective experience within the confines of our own, and effectively relate to it. You put yourself in the “virtual shoes” of someone else. It allows us to successfully imagine what it must be like to be in someone else’s situation.

That doesn’t require anything supernatural or invasive; just a fully functioning brain and an awareness that isn’t plagued by tons of pathologies, emotional triggers and repressions. Sharing subjective experience isn’t something we can do directly, so we have to infer it based on what one says and does, shows and doesn’t show both consciously and unconsciously. There are more subtle things at play too, resonance, for instance, is a real physical phenomenon, and it can definitely occur between individuals or groups in ways that might seem fairly spooky. Pluck an E string of one guitar sitting next to another, and the other instrument’s E string will vibrate sympathetically. Energy resonates, and people are expressions of energy.

A lack of empathy as stated can inhibit one’s ability to relate to others or recognize how their actions might affect them. Someone has something you want, so you just club them on the head and take it, problem solved. No issue, no guilt, because no empathy.

Having empathy is different than claiming you have empathy. That might be bragging and it’s probably an indication that you’re lacking it and just compensating instead.

Like anything, empathy’s only useful if it’s demonstrated. Talking about it is just that, talking. It’s similar to love, which is another term we define poorly then twist around ourselves until we can’t walk. My definition for love is this: caring more for other than self. My favorite quote about love states that, “there is no love, there’s only proof of love.” Empathy must be the same.

Ok, go ahead and give me shit for the long post.
Click to expand...

Yeah...I read it. Really this is about posters who climb up on their high horse and proclaim that their powers of empathy give them some sort of moral superiority, and then in the very next post, shit on somebody's face. :)
 
Saint_Ann said:
Yeah...I read it. Really this is about posters who climb up on their high horse and proclaim that their powers of empathy give them some sort of moral superiority, and then in the very next post, shit on somebody's face. :)
Click to expand...

Oh, that. Sucks.
 
Saint_Ann said:
And highly unsanitary. :)
Click to expand...

lol no doubt. I've learned, by way of painstaking repetition and exhaustion, to identify the early warning signs that someone may be about to shit on my face. Pretty good at avoiding it these days.
 
Not here. I can’t even empathize with Dolf and her period pains anymore. I have TWO heating pads unused and unloved now.
 
When that whiskey warehouse blew up a while back I thought I felt a twinge of empathy. But it may have been horror instead. :)
 
You know, Ann, people with no empathy tend to be terrible at insults. Like toaster, they always fall far short of a zing because they can't empathise enough to understand what will hurt the other person. Their insults are generic and toothless.
It takes good empathy skills to really skewer someone in the heart.

Fermina_Daza said:
Not here. I can’t even empathize with Dolf and her period pains anymore. I have TWO heating pads unused and unloved now.
Click to expand...

That's pretty cool. May you never need them again!

I find it's the bitching itself, not the resultant empathy, that helps me deal.
 
dolf said:
You know, Ann, people with no empathy
tend to be terrible at insults. Like toaster, they always fall far short of a zing
because they can't empathise enough to understand what will hurt the other person. Their insults are generic and toothless.
It takes good empathy skills to really skewer someone in the heart.
Click to expand...

Interesting one.
But I think they miss the mark because
1. either they're not intuitive 2. or are a bit 'Asperger-iish'.
Others who are just as unempathetic as they are, have a knack of sensing what hurts or gets you going.
 
Last edited:
dolf said:
You know, Ann, people with no empathy tend to be terrible at insults. Like toaster, they always fall far short of a zing because they can't empathise enough to understand what will hurt the other person. Their insults are generic and toothless.
It takes good empathy skills to really skewer someone in the heart.
Click to expand...

I always get muddled by such discussions.

The lay use of empathy is "narcissistic/antisocial or asshole who sees people as merely promoters or obstacles to his goals" or "sadistic asshole"

But then there is the other use, about intuitive or body language reading abilities, Asperger/neurological spectrums and such.

Other people use them together, I too vacillate and can't tell when I'm using what.
 
sundries said:
Interesting one.
But I think they miss the mark because
1. either they're not intuitive 2. or are a bit 'Asperger-iish'.
Others who are just as unempathetic as they are, have a knack of sensing what hurts or gets you going.
Click to expand...

Neurotypical bigotry now? Twat :rolleyes:
 
More proof that the world sucks.



As if more proof was needed.
 
dolf said:
Neurotypical bigotry now? Twat :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

lol
I'm not the best communicator indeed, but I think I Am onto something here.
Trying to rephrase it better:

==============

Scenario:
1. You have two, equally mean-spirited people address the same target:
2.-- one asshole hits the mark and causes lots of hurt with their attacks (directly through slurs or sideways through PC passive-aggressive ones)
-- the other asshole's attacks cause no damage, because they missed what makes the person tick.

So how do you use the term empathy in this situation?
-- 1. both people are equally lacking in empathy if you go by intent (part 1 of my statement)
-- 2. But they have different levels of empathy if you go by perceptive abilities translated into results (part 2)

==============

I think that the term is nowadays often used interchangeably for slightly different situations: heartless asshole versus soft Aspie who can't easily sense others' emotions or where they're coming from. (not that one can't be both an asshole, and a soft Aspie).
Psychologists need to coin another term(s) to help us out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

WeWeeOui
A funny thing happened......
Replies
3
Views
747
ShyestCougar
ShyestCougar
Rexxxist
Is doomer misery erotic (enough)?
Replies
4
Views
321
Britva415
Britva415
MOFFUSA
I'm submissive male seeking an American dominant woman (Mistress) for BDSM marriage
Replies
0
Views
115
MOFFUSA
MOFFUSA
W
Variations on the Evil Overlord Rules
Replies
1
Views
247
Wilson23
W
X
GIVING and/or Getting (the story of me)
Replies
1
Views
478
xXxplorher
X
Back
Top