“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.
For those of you who haven’t yet, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with Curtis Yarvin’s “Dark Enlightenment Theory,” because that’s what’s informing all of these chuds.
JD Vance has cited this guy. Peter Thiel is a huge fan. Based on his views, Musk is almost certainly reading this stuff.
The “theory” basically boils down to that tenet: empathy is weakness, might makes right, and it’s only natural for the strong to dominate and brutalize the weak.
Remember that kid in elementary school who refused to play with anyone at recess and just spent the whole time frying ants with a magnifying glass? That kid grew up and has an “intellectual following” now.
he’s right. we need to let go of our own empathy to make us more effective soldiers in the fight to defeat him and the people like him.
i look forward to the day when these guys beg for mercy as we ease them into their excruciating fate with cold, unblinking eyes.
Empathy is strength, love is strength, unity is strength, solidarity is strength, divided we may fall but as one united working class we can stand forever.
While we stand together they tear eachother apart and in their disunity we the workers shall have our revolution. For they are weak and we are strong, they produce nothing and we create all of the value.
Billionaires live in a weird bubble. Money and power twist the mind and destroy the soul.
Never idolize a billionaire, they’re the closest thing to evil incarnate that walks the Earth. Remember, the Devil will present itself as friendly, alluring, and attractive. So, at least we know they aren’t the Devil, but as close as reality can get, maybe.
The fact that this is even a real headline should trouble everybody. I know the answer, but the question still is:” what kind of a state is the USA in where someone even feels the need to write this, rather than it being an assumed norm?”
Musk: “The fundamental weakness is empathy” Also Musk: “Why are people so mean to me”
Oxy, meet moron.
he has neither intelligence or empathy. he turned intoa space karen, because he mangled his penis in a botched surgery
I’m down with calling him Space Karen from now on, actually.
All opposed?
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.
Ya, I think that’s psychopathy and also pretty common.
Musk is a weakness
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.
Musk found out that the people that like him now, after pissiing off the nerds and tech enthousiasts, base their world view on the works of Ayn Rand, who peached that empathy and governement help is bad.
Disregarding that Rand died penniless and on governement hand outs.
But musk will find out again that, no matter how much money he flings at it, nobody will like him for who he is and that void will eat him up though it may make him do more silly things. And That’s a shame
Ya know, the irony here, nobody is gonna feel bad for him either.
Yup no pity
Empathy is one of the foundational blocks of the society he abuses.
What an asshole
The fact he says this, he proves that he really never cared for the human good, all that talk was just to people buy his shit.
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
First, I didn’t write all of them.
Now on the subject of autism and empathy, empathy is widely misinterpreted and misunderstood in autistics. The lack of empathy stereotype is based on the deficit model of autism and therefore on the lack of theory of mind. This model has roots in eugenic and neocolonialism (also known as neurocolonialism) and is deeply ableist.
We have great research with good methodology and ethics (the opposite is true for the deficit model) about autistics not lacking theory of mind and being empathetic (often hyper empathetic). They just show empathy differently than the neurotypical. This is in fact true for many stereotypes about autism. Autism is a different cognitive style to process information, communicate (including emotions) and learn.
It’s where the Double Empathy Problem of Dr. Damian Milton comes in. It’s the difference and not the lack between two or more individuals/group of individuals that makes the understanding issue.
We are plenty of autistics on Lemmy.
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’m not doing diagnosis. But, a psychologist that use “mildly autistic” should not be taken seriously on the topic. There is no level. The DSM 5 TR has level of support. It’s very different and these levels can vary from one moment to an other (even in the same day).
More about this in this journal article by Steven Kapp which is an autistic researcher.
You show “little empathy” in comparaison with what? The neuronormativity? This is already an issue. We don’t have to compare to neurotypical. We have to validate how autistics shows empathy, emotions, etc. Often, it’s by resolving problems. E.g.: This is making you sad so we resolve the problem and you will be better. Advocating for someone is another. Sounds similar to what you wrote about your wife. It’s often called “cognitive empathy”. This is entirely valid!
I mean, that seems empathic to me - you are relating to her (potential) feelings.
And adds another chapter to the debate about him being a psychopath.
Yes.
