Discussion Why is this generation having an empathy crisis?

[uglymisanthr0pe]

Ignore my grammar and horrible cohesiveness. this is a bit corny but I just found it in notes so ill just post it

We have often noticed that teens and children are having a loss of empathy for other people. So much destruction and calamity when we expected change and happiness in the future; more and more kids and teens aren't finding reason for empathy anymore.

For example, in America it used to be a technologically advanced which evolved through acceptance. We were almost there as it seems to us. But suddenly everything starts changing. The fact it was so sudden and rapid, it changes our aspect on everything. Other countries have been suffering for years, especially poor and underdeveloped countries. For them change isn't so different from what they experience. America is experiencing destruction for the first time in a very long time.

Now there has always been destruction in America, but rather it is the first time it has been widely spread in media; its coming to the public eye. This is important because so many things have been hidden to us civilians that it is so different that it is now being talked about with pride by the far right.

We survive on capitalism and government control; there's no way out of it now. The government finding more and more stupid ways to scam people out of their pockets. The government does not want happy civilians, they want dangerously powerful kings with too much money to care. "Why can't the children speak up and fight for their rights?" Our first fucking amendment is being fought against. Many countries don't have that privilege but we've lived with that freedom for years, just to see it wither away hurts us deeply. I see a major population decline in the future with the rise of homelessness and plummeting economy for mainly the lower class even the middle class. Women are dying due to being forced to bear a child they clearly did not ask for. "Kill the apple not the tree" - idk someone said that

Children want to speak up. But what are they to do when no one listens. "Violence violence" here we go again. That's what we preach against. So much destruction and violence that children see everyday. Not always face to face but they are presented with more and more evidence to just stop caring because our protest wont matter anymore. In the past people have protested and received rights but now were losing them all over again. We have an apathy pandemic and the government is the only who can help but why would they? Its not their fault most children care but we have learned to keep quiet.

 

[NormallyNeurotic]

People of all ages are being encouraged to not practice/get better at Cognitive Empathy and general compassion nowadays (I talk mostly from a USA perspective).

I'm Gen Z, and we were certainly jaded growing up but I think the helplessness has poisoned the youth to go one of two ways—the easy way out of deciding not to care for anyone, or the hard way out of being hyper-aware of the Hell we live in. The latter often leads to suicidality, especially in already-marginalized people.

It's a mixture of survival, bad parenting, and the worsening education in our country. Especially now with misinformation left and right, even from the people who are trying to do good.

 

[uglymisanthr0pe]

People of all ages are being encouraged to not practice/get better at Cognitive Empathy and general compassion nowadays (I talk mostly from a USA perspective).

I'm Gen Z, and we were certainly jaded growing up but I think the helplessness has poisoned the youth to go one of two ways—the easy way out of deciding not to care for anyone, or the hard way out of being hyper-aware of the Hell we live in. The latter often leads to suicidality, especially in already-marginalized people.

It's a mixture of survival, bad parenting, and the worsening education in our country. Especially now with misinformation left and right, even from the people who are trying to do good.

Its all the remnants of our ancestors teaching our parents how to live. Zoochosis has really developed in past 5 years. And Im pretty the government was intentional about it. It is in order to keep those in power in power for decades to come.

 

[Dejected 55]

Couple of things...

The changes happening in society policy-wise are being driven by older people, not younger ones... because it is mostly older people in government and running large corporations who are making those policy changes. So, the current seeming direction change can't yet be the fault of the younger folks because they have little to no power to do anything. Stay tuned!

But the empathy thing... I'm not sure it is new. Could slavery have existed if most people had empathy? Could women be oppressed for generations all over the world if there was empathy in most? I could go on...

I'm not sure most people have ever had empathy. I think empathy is rare. It isn't unnatural, but it is rare... and, frankly, society has never really encouraged it. Nature doesn't discourage sympathy or empathy... it just doesn't encourage it.

Evolution happens when some particular quality is more beneficial to the current environment in a way where those without the quality cannot survive. But in situations where multiple outcomes are co-existent, there is no value of one quality over the other. I don't think you can look at history and say there ever was a time when empathy was more advantageous to survive than it wasn't. So, empathetic people can exist and non-empathetic people can exist... and I think the fact that humanity has systematically oppressed various people, genders, and other animal species tends to indicate that empathy is not a requirement for survival in any meaningful way.

People tend to be more likely, over time, to do the things that historically gained them the most success... and while those of us with empathy argue it is a good trait and is beneficial to those we have empathy for... many people survive even though no one has empathy for their situation... thus the empathy ends up being irrelevant to society as a whole, even if it might have been of value to a specific person along the way.

 

[CatAstro.Fee]

You already know why, and I know this is less of a question and more of a "how can this be?"

I don't know how it can be fixed. I have a hopeless hope for people's behavior.

I've had luck making people think about things that they normalize in their life, I've had people ask me questions because they were curious, I've had people confide in me about things they weren't comfortable talking about with others.

I don't mind explaining at all, I'm usually someone's first exposure to open-queerness.

But unfortunately, I've had more arguments and threats against me. Talking to a wall, seeing that the wall cannot think deeply about things or care to change on their part.

Many of the populations are just going to have to be directly affected to care or change, and also some just have to be shunned and removed because they are dangerous and don't want to stop hurting people in the many ways they do.

It feels like it should be simple to just be mindful of others and be good to them. I wish it were. But there are people putting up the good fight, and for that I have to respect them because even if it seems hopeless, I'd be spitting in their face by saying there is none.

 

[itsgone2]

I'll start by saying what I've said elsewhere, I've led a poor life. Many stupid decisions. Im the last person on this site to judge.
I see a lack of empathy from some rich. Most? Idk. My world has been destroyed by corporate greed. Companies destroyed by mergers. Outsourcing to countries that pay slave wages. ZERO empathy for what happens to the American worker by other Americans.

Then look at groups importing people. Look at the billions of dollars in fraud we're uncovering in places like Minnesota and Ohio, revolving around refugees. People were empathetic to them. Now we see they were ripping us off the entire time, with other politicians getting rich in the process. We're going to see that it's way more than just these few places it'll be in every state in the country.

This is where I've gotten very jaded in life. He used to think the left stuck up for me as a middle class person. Now I see how wrong I was. No one sticks up for the middle class. A few here and there seem to be principle bye-bye enlarge everyone's just out for themselves and the extra extraordinary greed is just crushing everyone.

I've worked continuously for 29 years and I don't have enough to show for it. Part that's my fault for being an idiot. But also, I've worked for two companies where I could've retired and both were sold.

So while I'm here suffering, I get to see how many millionaires with their yachts or politicians or so-called refugees with brand new cars and million dollar houses.

I don't see the empathy from anywhere. Just from us fools stuck in the middle class who are getting constantly scammed for being kind and empathetic in the first place.

 

[Spicy Tteokbokki]

...

All part of the system, sadly, but most people are too tired, blind or not caring to do anything about it while things keep getting worse.

 

[Lookingtoflyfree]

I'll start by saying what I've said elsewhere, I've led a poor life. Many stupid decisions. Im the last person on this site to judge.
I see a lack of empathy from some rich. Most? Idk. My world has been destroyed by corporate greed. Companies destroyed by mergers. Outsourcing to countries that pay slave wages. ZERO empathy for what happens to the American worker by other Americans.

Then look at groups importing people. Look at the billions of dollars in fraud we're uncovering in places like Minnesota and Ohio, revolving around refugees. People were empathetic to them. Now we see they were ripping us off the entire time, with other politicians getting rich in the process. We're going to see that it's way more than just these few places it'll be in every state in the country.

This is where I've gotten very jaded in life. He used to think the left stuck up for me as a middle class person. Now I see how wrong I was. No one sticks up for the middle class. A few here and there seem to be principle bye-bye enlarge everyone's just out for themselves and the extra extraordinary greed is just crushing everyone.

I've worked continuously for 29 years and I don't have enough to show for it. Part that's my fault for being an idiot. But also, I've worked for two companies where I could've retired and both were sold.

So while I'm here suffering, I get to see how many millionaires with their yachts or politicians or so-called refugees with brand new cars and million dollar houses.

I don't see the empathy from anywhere. Just from us fools stuck in the middle class who are getting constantly scammed for being kind and empathetic in the first place.

I would love for a conversation about empathy here and anywhere else just for once not focus on the 'but it's the migrants taking our jobs/women/money'.

 

[Dejected 55]

I would love for a conversation about empathy here and anywhere else just for once not focus on the 'but it's the migrants taking our jobs/women/money'.

Yeah... There is this wonderful graphic I stumble upon every now and then. Wealthy/powerful person on the left, middle-class person in the middle, and poor person to the right.

The person in the middle only has one cookie on his plate. The person to the right has a few crumbs. The person on the left has 11 cookies and is saying to the person in the middle, "Look that poor person is taking your cookies!"

When people start blaming immigrants for "stealing jobs" it's like willful ignorance of the fact that it is the "job creators" who are willfully defying laws and exploiting immigrants so that they can pay them less and increase profits. But it's easy to blame the immigrant for "taking" your job somehow... kind of like how people yell at Customer Service Reps on the phone when the CSR isn't the cause of your problem, it's someone else at the company whom you will never get to talk to because they hide from he problems.

CEOs love to take credit for all the good their company does, but they are nowhere to be found when there are problems.

But... empathy is really independent of all that. Empathy is about putting yourself in the other person's position and imagining how they feel with some degree of accuracy and realizing they are also human and suffering. Whether you can help them or not... understanding them is necessary for there to every be the possibility of improvement.

Most people don't care about anyone or anything but themselves, though. To a degree being selfish is necessary for survival. Put your mask on before helping your fellow neighbors in an airplane trouble situation, right? But there's taking care of yourself first and taking care of yourself instead of or at the expense of... and those last two require no empathy.