Quote:
Originally Posted by timun
Nah, I'll come to GreenLantern's defence here. One of the last words anyone would use to describe me is 'conservative', and I'll freely admit that my capacity to care about the well-being of strangers is exhausted too. You can only care so hard for so long until you hit a hard limit, and in the last three years my limit was reached.
There's a big cohort of people out there whose drug of choice is propaganda, and it's going to result in material harm to themselves and to others, but I'm at a breaking point where as long as it affects them first? #### 'em. I am incapable of empathizing with them, I don't feel anger toward them, I don't feel sad for them: I feel nothing. They're lost causes that I don't give a #### about anymore.
People want to believe in conspiracy theories about Covid? As long as they don't come crawling for my help at any point in the future: fine, let 'em.
I'm so far past my capacity for compassion that it bleeds into my feelings about all sorts of societal ills. For example I couldn't care less about the junkies and alcoholics either. I don't feel pity or sympathy for the drug-addled zombies roaming the city. I've bought food for 'em and had it quite literally thrown back at me. If they're so far gone that all they give a #### about is their next hit, who am I to try to convince them otherwise? I'm not going to lift a finger to help them. At this point all I care about is not getting attacked or my car broken into.
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I don’t think anyone is talking about compassion for anti vaxxers and far right conspiracy theorists. #### those lunatics.
It’s the people who were innocent and had their lives ruined that people should show compassion for. And not just because of covid. Even now we’re having a housing crisis and a huge chunk of society is at their breaking point. Wages are stagnant, profits are up. The richest man in the world literally uses his wealth and power to defend actual fascists and nazis. Our biggest corporations have paid off our elected officials and are happy to grind the rest of society into dust for an extra buck.
I mean, I get it. It’s dog eat dog out there. It’s hard to save anyone from drowning when you’re struggling to stay afloat yourself.
But I cannot believe that “if you can’t beat ‘em, join em” is the right outlook on the world right now. More than ever we need the opposite view.