Captain G. M. Gilbert, the Army psychologist assigned to watching the defendants at the Nuremberg trials:

“In my work with the defendants, 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.”

Christ: Please be kind.

Christians: Empathy is toxic.

It's frustrating to read Christians trying to distinguish themselves from one another based on interpretations of a book while also all believing in a magical creature that lives in the clouds who will both condemn someone to an eternity of torture and provide unconditional love and acceptance.

Ah “toxic empathy” this is the “I need to protect my mental health— I can’t be bothered with seeing homeless people or caring about genocide. It hurts me to care, so I just won’t.” crowd. And every last one of them is a “magical empath” with more empathy than anyone ever had ever. They’re the mostest empathetic and don’t question it!

Sadly, this is a thing.

(Note: I am not encouraging one to read the link.)

Witnessing to Liberals by Ron Rhodes

God’s primary attribute is said to be love. His holiness, judgment, and wrath are practically ignored. Thus, it is not surprising that liberal Christians hold out the hope of immortality for all people. The idea that any will spend eternity in hell is rejected.

The writing spends a lot of time arguing against the "mischaracterizations of evangelicals", while mischaracterizing "liberal Christians".

Such a horrible out world view.

(I don't care to find out what this detestable person has to say about Atheists.)

I would say that empathy should be a basic requirement for any political office in a democracy. Anyone who lacks empathy is simply unsuitable, because you have to be able to put yourself in the voters' shoes in order to fulfill your mandate as an elected representative of the people.

Empathy would also be highly desirable in business leaders, as the purpose of the economy is to serve society and distribute goods at least somewhat fairly.

In our dark times, however, when politics and business mainly serve to maintain the power of those who are already powerful, it is hardly surprising that someone who is interested in doing just that propagates such idiotic ideas as "toxic empathy."

Religion. The only mental illness not in the DSM.

There's no such thing as toxic empathy. If it's hurting others, it's not empathy.

You know who I blame? Jesus. Going round teaching people to care about one another regardless of creed and colour. His toxic empathy has really ruined Christianity.

I'm old enough to remember in 2009 when Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, mentioning empathy as one of the characteristics he valued in her, and the right melted down

They're SO DAMN CLOSE TO ACTUALLY BEING SELF AWARE

So, this is controversial, but when I hear "toxic masculinity" I understand that it means that not all masculinity is toxic, but masculinity can have toxic forms. In the interest of using precise language, I do believe that, in the realm of all possibilities, there can conceivably be toxic forms of empathy.

Now, I don't think that left/progressive ideals are toxic in general, and certainly aren't toxic when they're based in empathy and compassion. And I realize that the "side" that coined the phrase "toxic empathy" is also the side that thinks "toxic masculinity" is an absolute phrase. So it would make sense that right/conservative people would think "oh we'll call ideals we don't like toxic, like the libs do with masculinity" without any deeper understanding.

Just want to be pedantic to try to keep the capital-D Discourse on the nature of empathy from becoming black-and-white polarized.

No surprises that MAGA wants to teach that we shouldn't consider someone elses position. Its their way or the highway.

This comment will probably seem tone-deaf at best and malicious at worst. I want to be clear that I am not saying people shouldn't be empathetic. I'm not saying that empathy-based morality is a problem. I'm not saying being a bigot is okay. So what am I saying?

It's just that yesterday I learned from the Healthy Minds program that empathy can sometimes be problematic, and that the solution is compassion.

The problem has to do with the fact that some service workers are immersed in workplaces filled with suffering. Think of nurses. Think of first-aid responders. These people constantly see human suffering. And if these service workers empathize with the suffering, they themselves can suffer immensely.

The solution, the Healthy Minds program claims, is to not be empathetic, but compassionate. The difference is that empathy, at its core, is about understanding and feeling what others are thinking and feeling. However, compassion is about understanding others enough to be able to understand their difficulties, and (crucially) wishing them well. Empathy over-identifies with suffering and compassion believes suffering is the current reality but improvements are possible.

If you are interested in reading about this, it's ironic that the Wikipedia article is titled "Compassion fatigue". I suppose that the Healthy Minds app uses different definitions than the Wikipedia article.

Anyway, I will do what the program suggests and wish you all the best!

Not sure what the article is getting at, but there’s a thing called “weaponized empathy” - or “concern trolling” - which is a bad-faith argumentation tactic where you pretend to be worried about someone, when in reality you’re just using that as a cover for judgment or hostility.

It can also be used more broadly. Think of how often “think of the children” gets trotted out as a justification to invade people’s privacy, when the supposed concern for kids’ wellbeing is really just an excuse.

Toxic empathy can only harm the person who has it. In truth you have to be a little selfish. The trouble with anyone who thinks empathy is really toxic are the ones who are too selfish.

i don't understand how empathy can be toxic.....

Is that what they're now calling "virtue signalling"?

Ugh, don't you just hate it when people care about someone other than themselves?

Conservative Christians are fundamentally incapable of understanding the concept of a social contract in a pluralistic society. They'll console themselves with the belief that empathy is a sin whilst stepping on our necks with the authority of the state.

Sometimes I really believe I have died and gone to hell. WTF did I do to deserve this crap?

For those who might want to know what she means by that phrase, here's the full interview (archive). It's... certainly a viewpoint.

Too much of anything can be bad, but in North America Christian evangelicals could use more empathy.

People are leaving churches over "woke" sermons like caring for the needy or turning the other cheek.