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Wow this thread is a straight condemnation of Lemmy's high-horse. It's wild that the comment above yours is neutralized on votes and yours is so far in the negative. What did you do that was so worthy of condemnation? Express concern for another human being's family.
Of course, people here will tell you that billionaires discount lives on daily even while they discount the lives of the loved ones of this woman. Were all of them billionaires? Perhaps. Regardless of the size of their pockets we do know that they are human.
Folks that lean left generally understand what it's like to be caught in the circumstances of your birth. It's incredibly telling that this self-same group finds it so easy to dismiss the value of this human life and those around her.
You're right to be concerned for the well-being of others, and I believe I'm right to be concerned about the company we're keeping here. It's seemingly a group of people that will dismiss the death of someone wealthy, even while they assume the wealthy will dismiss the death of the poor. I wouldn't say it's entirely incorrect even though it's just as morally bankrupt.
Your empathy for unempathetic people is depressing. Stand up for yourself better.
I fail to see how not having a modicum of empathy for this person's family after their horrific death qualifies as "standing up for myself," but do feel free to explain this worldview in detail.
This person would have no second thought at you dying in this car. Or your family. Therefor you are defending and standing up for someone who would trash you. It’s just sad to watch from the outside is all.
Even if this were true, are we to assume the same of this woman's grandchildren? Her distant family?
Regardless, I fail to see the need to laugh at a terrible death, and that is certainly not standing up for anyone's moral compass but my own.
The sad state of affairs here is how far you and others like you are removed from your humanity.
I don’t recall saying you should laugh. I recall saying you shouldn’t have empathy.
No, the top level comment refers to laughter and that is specifically what I am speaking out against here.
And yes, I do have empathy for the family members of this woman and I find it telling that you let that slide by.
I haven’t let anything slide by. You are making assumptions about my character simply because I have no empathy for a single person because of their choices that led them to die. Again. I, Me, Santa did not say laughing is okay.
You jumped into the thread unwittingly then, and I am glad you have some amount of concern for such frivolity at the conclusion of a horrible death.
However, I clearly and repeatedly highlighted OP's and my concern for the family, and yet again you seem to have missed that.
Correct. I am ignoring the family aspect of this story as it doesn’t matter. People die in car crashes every single day. A billionaire dying is a good thing imo. Like a dragon being plucked from the story books and laid before society’s feet. I am also very aware of how callous this is. The family does not deserve this. No one deserves this. But they damn sure do not deserve your empathy either imo. They are part of a family benefiting off suffering and doing nothing to stand out against it. They did their part letting themselves benefit from the unempathetic people they called family.
All of our families seem to have benefited from barbarity, (though I take your point in the here and now.) In addition, I have a hard time blaming those born into that family (particularly the younger members), as none of us choose our birth, and it seems to me that wealth can be as deranging as poverty.
If my words felt calibrated to attack, I apologize and truly appreciate the conversation. You are considerate and I appreciate the handle.
“Wealth can be as deranging as poverty” exactly. The problem is their inherent power from the wealth makes their interactions so much more destructive. Yet most of the time. They are just doing what’s best for their family. It’s hard to be callous tbh but sometimes I feel it’s needed. Lacking empathy is draining as fuck. Lol
Yeah not at all. I love discourse and not arguments. And I dunno I think we had good discourse. 💜
How does the family benefit from suffering?
The only way in my eyes to become a billionaire is off the suffering of others. So their association and ability to spend that money is their benefit. Whether attained by them or others. They still play an important role in the destruction of those other human beings production and value.
So what if I brought a $10 insulin vial to market and sold 100 million units?
Is that taking advantage of the suffering of others? How is being a billionaire different than being a millionaire in that sense? Doesn’t money come when you provide something more valuable than the money to someone else?
It depends on how you are viewing the situation and at what point you are declaring ownership. “I” brought. No you and the people who work for you brought it to market. Instead of sharing that wealth with the workers that created the value. You’ve hoarded it to get rich. And created suffering for those workers as their value was stolen from them to line your pockets. So “you” could bring something to market.
That isn't $1b of wealth or profit. You did not do that alone either.
You bet your ass I’m judging your character based on this.
Have you ever looked at the Darwin awards and laughed? Damn you are just as bad as me!
Of course I have. I bet a lot of those people would laugh at their own deaths too, if they could see them afterward.
But that has nothing to do with empathy.
Being able to turn your empathy off at will, seeing empathy as a thing you can control, that tells me about your character.
You might not like that this reveals information about you, but it does.
Interesting. Having the ability to control empathy and how it’s handed out is a very strong defense mechanism. Surprised you haven’t done it yourself in order to protect yourself from narcissistic people you have met through life. Or maybe you are over analyzing my comment as it’s not like I’m able to turn empathy on and off at will. But factors will affect it. As with all things. Blatantly being empathetic to everything is a recipe for suffering.
Empathy is not the opposite of standing up for yourself, though thinking so does explain a hell of a lot of leftist politics these days.
Depends on the context of the situation in my opinion but I understand where you are coming from. I’ve found if someone has no empathy for me. I should not return the favor to them as they’ve shown their hand. Does that make me spiteful? Probably. But I really love the quote. “Listen when someone tells you who they are”. As you can tell I’m callous and don’t have empathy for billionaires or ultra rich.
They didn't say it was, that's a logical fallacy.
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me. I don't want to be the kind of person that "turns off" empathy at will.
Fair enough. It’s just my opinion. 💜
This is hilariously stupid, like genuinely ask yourself how Rage Against the Machine would feel about a billionaire dying.
Would you consider RATM an authority on how I should feel?
I mean, fuck billionaires in any sense that actually matters. They shouldn't get to hoard wealth while real people can't afford housing, medical care, etc. At the same time, I refuse to laugh at a human being drowning to death. Literally nobody deserves that. I'm also morally opposed to the death penalty.
Maybe I'm just not hardcore enough.
You quoted them so, maybe?
It’s okay. I realize lots of people are suffering and as a result tensions are high. I didn’t mean to make everyone so angry and I realize my initial comment of ‘have some humanity’ was to harsh. I’m sorry I made so many people angry with this.
I do feel bad for the people that loved this woman regardless of how much money she has. I don’t wish that pain on anyone.
You're fine, this gets out of hand quick and I ended up feeling for someone that was getting pilloried in the snap-back.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply and have a great week.
So much online discourse I've seen on here is just the same as Reddit. Stripping the humanity of people you don't like. It's just tribalist, cringey, and narcissistic.
Not really; did you grieve for people you heard of dying in the news the other day? Grieving isn't just being sad for a brief moment then moving on with your day.
You seem to have attributed feelings of people here to one side or the other, how and why? Do you have a record of how each person leans politically?