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Caring about things is brave. Cowards make fun of people who are empathetic, acting as if it is a weakness. I don't know how else to say this, but they are completely full of shit.
That's happened to me a couple of times from (((former))) friends.
Just Annie One of the most courageous acts is to keep a soft heart in a hard world. It's not easy---it takes all of your energy to resist the darkness and keep the light burning.
teach me your ways
@RickiTarr I feel like the people who do that now are the same ones that made fun of other kids in school for being smart, because it was easier to mock and humble the smart kids than it was to actually learn things themselves.
@DrakkenZero @RickiTarr
The smartest people I know, are also the most empathetic.
I can think that, but I think that another, large, part of it is having values that actually denigrate being smart. Being good at maths, science, or writing is seen simultaneously as effeminate in boys and masculine in girls. (A telling disparity: 'effeminate' is only a snarl-word and used only for males, 'masculine' is negative only when applied to females, ++positive for males.)
Feeling imprisoned in a school also induces hatred of those perceived as 'trusties'….
@RickiTarr Yes! The young folks know this. My teens call that kind of cowardice "total loser behavior" 
@RickiTarr I compassionately agree.
Caring and empathy are signs of strength. Macho posturing is a sign of weakness and reveals one is insecure in their manhood.
@RickiTarr Until they are begging you to have empathy for them because they were made to feel sad about being total twats.
Helping each other is the most human thing there is, we are meant to help each other, it's what we are here to do.
@FediThing @RickiTarr It’s the foundation of society, without it you have nothing.
@RickiTarr Empathy is especially important in healthcare.
@RickiTarr
“I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I’ve come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants. A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.”
― G. M. Gilbert
@realtegan @RickiTarr It's especially evident when one brags about not having any then whining when people have none for you in return.
@RickiTarr caring in a cold society takes courage. Easier to armor up.
@RickiTarr I’ve been “teased” all my life about my “tender heart.” I don’t give one tiny shit what anyone thinks about it. It’s never steered me wrong. I’m so grateful it never turned brittle & mean.
@RickiTarr It didn't used to be "brave", but I acknowledge your point.
I view empathy (or even just the desire to appear so) instrumental for a functioning civil society.
But, as a left-wing-pinko-degenerate-libertine, I was bound to think that.
The hatred some have for empathy is rational: it attacks their values and statuses and impedes their getting done what they want done…counter-cultural.
Some of them will feel more comfortable being unkind if _we_ are so, too.
A vague source of hope is that being completely lacking in it can make one effectively stupider, as one were less able to understand others and what they are likely to want to do, as opposed to
'
Know one's self
Know one's opponent
Win one hundred battles
'
@RickiTarr Caring about things in some sense is intrinsically a weakness that can be exploited by threatening the thing cared about.
We should definitely care about things, to the extent that we can defend those things from those that would threaten them.
