Elon Musk wants to save Western civilization from empathy | Hacker News Reader

Elon Musk wants to save Western civilization from empathy

cnn.com

15 pointsarchagon15 comments

“The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy". This is so depressing to read from one of the most influencial leaders in the world. I think empathy is a basic condition for a healthy society, and it lifts the average of human happiness.

On the other hand, Tesla stores are being vandalized across USA and Europe, suggesting people do not have much empathy for him or his enablers anymore.

Ever notice that people who idolize some famous person. They get really bent when someone calls that person on their bullshit. The reason they get bent is because their living vicariously through them. So an attack on the idol is perceived as an attack on them personally.

Wasn't Mark David Chapman that way? He'd convinced himself that Lennon had betrayed the working class and got so worked up he killed him.

That's just proving Elon's point that far left lost their minds completely.

Mild Tesla protests = "far left" losing their minds completely

Beating up cops and breaking into the Capitol Building with the intent to stop an election = normal patriotic behavior that deserves a collective pardon

Wat.

You see a turtle on its back, but you are not helping it. Why is that Leon?

I don’t even feel like this is the right prescription. If he’s trying to say anything at all (which is questionable) I assume he’s trying to say that we don’t move fast enough and make hard decisions, that we put ruinous empathy above the greater good;

But then he just comes and does the opposite, putting ruthless efficiency above considered action.

But then maybe even he has to listen to his own advice. Stop trying to “extend the light of consciousness”, having empathy for people who don’t even exist yet, and help solve real problems.

> ruthless efficiency

I mean, that’s a _very_ charitable interpretation of what he’s doing. “Random flailing” might be closer to the mark; at some point someone will have to put the pieces back together. Nothing efficient about that.

This feels like the point in an old Star Trek episode where Picard or Uhura would say, "No, empathy is what makes us strong".

(Not Troi, whose "empathy" was more like weak telepathy. They never did figure out what they were going to do with her character.)

This feels related to so-called Christians complaining about the "sin of empathy" recently: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/1/25/2299109/-Oh-noes-Ma...

Presumably because it's a shared practice with secular humanists and so un-christian by associative guilt.

Musk does not want to save western civilisation. Musk is an experience addict using Ketamine and lives in a self perpetuating bubble of autodidact belief. Whatever he does is right, because he did it.

And replace with what?

Psychopathy, sociopathy, &| Kantian-immoral utilitarianism.

It’s true. It’s much easier having zero empathy for Elon Musk. I hope to live to see the day after which I never have to see his stupid name or his stupid face or hear about whatever stupid shit he said ever again.

God what a dumb asshole he is. Hope he drops dead

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