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this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2025
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rule #1: be kind
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What I wonder is how much of that is innate versus learned.
Because it has been an increasing talking point among the right wing and evangelical churches that empathy is bad. And... a lot of that boils down to not having any.
It's like the golden rule simply means as long as we each treat each other shitty we're good. There needs to be another qualifier, and empathy, or kindness, or something else also needs to be attached. But, look who's their leader! Clean. Your. House.
There is the Platinum Rule, which is to treat others how they would want to be treated. I've heard more references to it in the past few years than I have to the Golden Rule, so I take that as a good sign.
The silver rule is good too. “What you don’t want done to you, don’t do to others.”
Look at John Fetterman. He had a stroke, now he's conservative, callous, etc. so, I'd bet it's both nature and nurture, but the uneducated and religious are more likely to be conservative than liberal.
While I'm inclined to believe this, my attempt to add a source came up mostly empty, other than an amusing chapter of CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters.
I was at a cocktail party with people who mostly I have known for at least 15 years. This guy came up who is the husband of a good friend of my wife and he was talking about how he doesn’t believe in empathy anymore.
There’s definitely something in the water
Have you ever seen the culture in USA? Literally both "parties" are genocidal. It's not learned so much as indoctrinated from birth. Not to mention the racism, patriarchy, etc.