[FRIAM] bad covid story

[glen]

Well, EricC's completely wrong that the family "deserves our empathy", but not because of any ambiguity in the concept of "empathy". He's wrong because of the concept of "deserving".

I had an attitude altering discussion with a friend of mine back in college. Some circumstance brought to a head the question: Should you treat strangers with respect until they demonstrate they don't deserve it? Or should you treat strangers with [indifference|non-respect] until they demonstrate that they deserve it? My answer was the former. His answer was the latter.

Empathy is yet another cognitive process by which we prioritize our actions. In both these stories, the citizens of concern (unvaccinated and anti-mask versus explicitly stated racism), empathy (or the lack thereof) helps us prioritize where we *spend* our resources. We had a conversation, here, awhile back about the role of fiat currency and alternative mechanisms like reciprocity. These stories are triggering precisely because of the obvious asymmetry and non-reciprocol respect ratios.

That family does not deserve *our* empathy. Neither does the Nazi. ... not because I am "illiberal", but because they actively deny and thwart the respect-mediated economy. We should prioritize against such people in the face of limited resources.


On 12/27/21 09:42, Marcus Daniels wrote:
> This relates to a disagreement I had with Nick.   What is the value of empathy above and beyond the ability to anticipate feelings and the consequences of feelings?    When Bill Clinton "feels your pain" but perhaps actually doesn't, what difference does it make provided he was persuasive?   If he passes the emotional intelligence Turing test, he passes.
> 
> My sympathy is to the doctors and nurses who have a technical task to perform under pressure and one that may threaten their own safety.   They shouldn't also need to perform the task of helping people manage their own emotions.   That is not a scalable approach. It means that the people (here, doctors) who can keep it together become more and more burdened by people who cannot.   I don't just mean in a crisis, but in general.   A citizen has the job of keeping it together.  It helps no one to start lowering the bar on that.  Lean on me until you don't need to, and then please stop.   It isn't the Gen-Z or the Millennials to blame for all the conspicuous neediness and instability, but increasingly it seems be a cultural problem.
> 

> On 12/27/21 09:18, Eric Charles wrote:
>> The frustration of the family and it's manifestations are totally understandable. They are wrong, but they still deserve our sympathy.


-- 
glen
Theorem 3. There exists a double master function.