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Comment by mattboardman | Hacker News Reader

Relishing in other people's actions that were driven out of fear during a crisis when our institutions (media and state) failed to keep public trust for millions. Empathy, even for those who make foolish decisions is difficult but necessary, you should try to understand rather than judge.

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Why is empathy "necessary"?

Why "should" someone try to understand rather than judge?

What's the actual rationale for it?

What is the mutually agreed desired result of acting in those ways?

>why is empathy necessary?

I don't really have an objective answer for you. I do find personal value in empathy, I get less mad when I can understand why someone did something I disagree with. It doesn't change what they did nor does it excuse it.

>What is the mutually agreed desired result of acting in those ways

Harmony.

Keeping just to the utilitarian perspective, cooperative strategies in humans overwhelmingly have better outcomes in both individual well-being and output (innovation, manufacturing, zero-sun games). Cooperation is extremely hard to achieve and sustain without some empathy for your peers. Similarly, judgement runs counter to group cohesion, except in the divergent strategy of establishing an Us/Them dynamic, sustainable in the short term but leading to homogeneity, worse outcomes.

Tossing the utilitarian perspective, being transactional and self-serving in your daily life tends to get you invited to less parties.

I think it will be easy for you to come up with some possible answers to these questions if you have some charity for their argument.

People who pride themselves on lacking empathy are kind of trapped because no one can explain in a way that doesn’t require some empathy to understand.

>Why is empathy “necessary”

This is a philosophical question that man has sought to answer since the Stone Age. Much smarter people than us have dedicated their lives to the study of ethics and come up with wildly differing ideas, I don’t think you’re going to find an objective answer here.

I don't see it as necessarily relishing, just a dark joke.

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