“The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy. The empathy exploit—they’re exploiting a bug in western civilization, which is the empathy response” -- Elon Musk
No more questions.
No more questions.
Which is a shame, because if you questioned the quote a tiny bit and listened to the whole segment[1], it's far less damning that you make it out to be. Before that quote he even says "I believe in empathy, I think you should care about other people". He's not against empathy as a whole, he's against "too much" empathy, to the point that "you suicide yourself". That in my view, is entirely reasonable. If you had infinite empathy and were running a store, and you let yourself be shoplifted to bankruptcy, I think most people agree that would be a character flaw.
> he's against "too much" empathy, to the point that "you suicide yourself"
His recent comments against all DEI programs(while implementing his own DEI programs and being a DEI hire himself) seem to show that this is an exaggeration
In other words, he's not an absolutist, which seems fine.
>His recent comments against all DEI programs(while implementing his own DEI programs and being a DEI hire himself) seem to show that this is an exaggeration
Sounds like you're already convinced that he's a Bad Person, so anything he says is going to be further proof of that. Even if he said something utterly anodyne like "government should be smaller", you'd probably respond with "well given what he's doing at DOGE, that's obviously him saying that he wants to dismantle the federal government as we know it".
I'm also not sure what your comment about DOGE is trying to say. He has commented many times on wanting smaller government, and is working actively to achieve that with DOGE. What am I missing there?
He mentions right after that "empathy is good but you need to think it through and not just be programmed like a robot".
That quote is clearly taken out of context and is specifically chosen as click/rage bait.
Like all things, nuance and context is always key.
I, of free and sound mind, do not.
I find an argument that it could be nullifying to be quite challenging to make. (really, I can't figure out how I'd make it)
Additionally, if I could, I'd still have to wrestle with that life isn't full of cartoon villains, and people usually hedge.
"One of world’s richest man Elon Musk’s kids does not want to be related to their biological father anymore. Born a boy, Xavier Alexander Musk, has filed a plea seeking a change in her name in accordance with her new gender identity. Xavier had filed the petition seeking both a name change and a new birth certificate that reflects her new gender identity with the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Santa Monica in April 2022.
The reason for the name change in the documents is mentioned as “Gender Identity and the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”"
"Elon’s father Errol Musk fathered two children with his former stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout, who is 41 years his junior."
"n a recent podcast interview, Errol Musk said his son Elon had not “been a good dad” to his children."
“He was such a terrible human being,” Elon, 46, told the magazine. “You have no idea.”
Elon added: “My dad will have a carefully thought-out plan of evil… He will plan evil.”
“You have no idea about how bad. Almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done,” Elon said, though he never went into specifics about what his father allegedly did. “Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done… It’s so terrible, you can’t believe it.”
“It would certainly be accurate to say that I did not have a good childhood… It may sound good. It was not absent of good, but it was not a happy childhood. It was like misery.”
"One does see a mother turning the children against the father successfully. "
"It's thought Grimes is keen to move in with the mothers of Musk's other children and raise them all together in one big house, however, most recently she's hit out at her billionaire ex publicly about his parenting.
"Plz respond about our child's medical crisis. I am sorry to do this publicly but it is no longer acceptable to ignore this situation. This requires immediate attention", she wrote on X.
"If you don't want to talk to me can you please designate or hire someone who can so that we can move forward on solving this. This is urgent, Elon.""
If you are letting “empathy” drive your civilization to ruin, it is no longer empathy. That is the point.
In contrast, we know that lack of empathy directly leads to atrocities:
> In my work with the defendants (at the Nuremberg Trails 1945-1949) I was searching for the nature of evil and I now think I have 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 men. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy. —Captain G. M. Gilbert
He's not saying "Don't empathize". He's not saying "We shouldn't have empathy". He's saying "Empathy can be exploited, and used against you".
Which is entirely valid. Balance is everything.
Now I know many have issues with Musk right now. I'm scratching my head on a few things he's doing. But, this quote seems entirely reasonable.
"Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages."
-Samuel Johnson