“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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I get saying it’s wrong what he said (you would be right) but imo it’s kinda missing the point. The most important thing to see imo is it’s extremely pathetic. This is the same mf faking Path of Exile and diablo accounts so he can seem cool (he kept saying he was a top player so he would get kudos from the gaming community).
This man is probably the most thin skinned idiot I’ve ever seen. So it must be extremely convenient for him to see himself as the bad guy with no empathy whose cold rational calculation leads to emotionless decisions or whatever huge cope he tells himself every day. The reality is he’s got more money than God and is running the current US administration and yet is still so mentally weak he is posting on Twitter hundreds of times per day about how he’s being persecuted and actually arguing in the comment sections
#shitsociopathssay
Well, that’s the only thing I agree with him! Empathy IS a weakness!
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.
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.
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?
They key issue is to treat oligarchs, their lackeys, their polemicists as individuals that lack empathy and thus lack humanity. Never forget what they are. Only certain types of incentives will work with such individuals.
Thank you for pointing this out. We indeed need to remember that oligarchs lack empathy, and therefore, humanity. You stated it so excellently.
The lack of empathy, however, has been linked to psychopathy by study after study after study.
Wasn’t it the other way around? Psychopathy is the inability to empathy.
No, as a lack of empathy isn’t the only defining characteristic of psychopathy. There is also a lack of remorse, disinhibition, and egocentrism amongst other traits.
A lack of empathy alone doesn’t make someone a psychopath. For example some people on the autistic spectrum can exhibit a lack of empathy but are not psychopaths. (Should be noted a lack of empathy is not a defining feature of autism - its variable and a lot of people on the autistic spectrum do have empathy).
So its true to say a lack of empathy is a feature of psychopathy but not true to say that psychopathy is the inability to be empathetic.
Are there empathy possessing psychopaths?
No, I think another way to say it is that lack of empathy is a necessary, but not sufficient, criterion for it.
Cognitive empathy, yes, absolutely, affective empathy, no. Difference between flinching when someone gets hurt and understanding that someone gets hurt, including the theory of mind to understand that they don’t like that. Which is why the well-adjusted ones (mostly a function of nurture) make damn good surgeons. Maladapted ones will use that (very acute) cognitive empathy to do the usual dark triad stuff.
Yep. They can’t even comprehend the notion.
yes, the problem with having an ignorant idiot of a host/presenter have all these hugely influential people with their half baked ideas as guests is that he can’t/won’t point out basic facts like how a lack of empathy is indicative of anti-social personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.
so, you’ve got how many bros who think “empathy is a bug” is a statement that doesn’t need to be challenged out there… repeating it in their heads.
Roegan just lets them talk, its a forum for everybody!
That’s because he’s not the brightest guy tbh
Billions of years of evolution leading to this. Tons of research with the same result. Nope, says narcissistic sociopath, you’re all wrong and I’m right.
“4 billion years between our ears, still hatred brings us many tears”
Removed by mod
He’s really leaning into the villain trope. So many sci-fi villains claim that empathy and/or compassion are weaknesses. Their lack of it is usually their undoing.
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.
Just linked this in the comment I left as well. Perfect timing on this comic!
Wow such virtue signaling /s
Aw, did me signaling a virtue hurt you? Are you so weak you can’t even be confronted with common virtues? So sad.
Edit: /s
The /s means sarcasm
Blerg. Fine.
I guess it closes the debate about Musk being autistic. Autistics are more likely to be hyper empathetic.
Narcissists can display similar traits similar to autistic people. You’re right, he’s not autistic, just a narcissist.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder, perhaps?
Speaking as someone who is autistic, autism is rarely a one-size fits all diagnosis.
While Hyper Empathy can be a side-effect of Autism, another is the exact opposite where your sense of empathy is limited to “So what have you done for me lately?”, in this case the person has absolutely no understanding of interaction outside of it being transactional.
Musk is definitely this kind
And adds another chapter to the debate about him being a psychopath.
Wasn’t the opinion of my psychologist about me. She told me I’m mildly autistic and that I show little empathy.
For example I saw a dead pigeon on the bike lane and my concern was: my wife behind me might ride over it and be distressed.
And it’s not that I care about her being distressed if I’m saying the truth. It’s that her distress would be a pain to handle. That the bike would be dirty which would cause further distress to my wife.
Her response to seeing the dead pigeon was that she thought it was sad.
Empathy is tricky 🤷🏻♂️ the only thing I feel about this truly, is guilt. But that’s all.
I mean, that seems empathic to me - you are relating to her (potential) feelings.
So when he crashes and burns, or dies of a drug overdose, I’m not supposed to care?
Cool. I think I can manage that.
Hell, I can manage to celebrate
Huh…an admitted psychopath
Greatest thing I did with my life was to increase my understanding of other people’s lives. He is toxic, whether he’s trolling or not
Empathy is a skill and he doesn’t have it.
There are a lot of skills he doesn’t have.
It’s a useful skill if you’re trying to cultivate a popular following. The funny thing is that he used to have it and was quite good at feeling people out for a popular vibe. Now he’s too ketted out to feel anything. Just a rolling ball of Id, bouncing between hungry, cranky, and horny.
Empathy is an ability not a skill. It’s not a mundane tool to get what you want.
you’re right, it’s not a tool to get what you want
it’s a tool to not be a horrible person
It is a inbuilt limit that prevents (most of us) from doing harm to our fellow humans, and to shun from society those that do. It is the very core of why humanity has reached the modern society with a high quality of life.
I wonder if he was ever good at it, or if before he got a pass on being a weird guy because his goals seemed positive (save the planet, push tech forward). Now that he’s fixated on manosphere/nazi shit, more people are less willing to overlook his idiosyncrasies.
Some such people are really good at pretending to have empathy. I used to be with a narcissist who was a nurse. She could put on a good face, but in actuality she just got off on the sense of power over people who needed her help. In areas where being an awful person didn’t threaten her job security, she had zero qualms about hurting or taking advantage of others, and she did so without hesitation when she felt it would benefit her.
He’s gone too far with special k and needs to come back. Many such cases observed in the scene during my youth.
