They're the same thing. Sociopathy is often preferred because it avoids the "psycho" prefix. A lot of people correlate that word with psychosis, which is something entirely different. Though they're also used to separate "learned" psychopathy--that is, from your social environment, thus "socio", from inherent or genetic psychopathy. Either way, toMAYto-toMAHto.
Originally posted by Thor Is GirlyEmpathy is about more than values. It can be as rudimentary as cringing at someone else's pain. A lack of empathy is one of the cornerstones of a psychopathy diagnosis, though as I mentioned, there's some contention to that point--the "empathy switch". For Normies it's an automatic response, but if there's a conscious prompt by the psychopath to try to understand then the parts of the brain associated with doing so activate.
A lot of people claim empathy is easy but 99% of the time they empathize with the other person based on their own values, not the other person's values. So it's a sham.
You don't get points for intent in this world unless you're on trial. Nobody cares what you "intended" to do, only what you did or did not do (please don't make me quote Yoda). Furthermore, you said even selective empathy makes one a psycho, but with selective empathy, the person is actively empathizing with someone else, which is a hell of a lot more than "trying".
Originally posted by Thor Is GirlyI don't remember using the word "selective". The switch study I mentioned had the researchers prompting the psychopaths to place themselves in the position of pain being showed to them on-screen. It worked, but the point remains that they had to be prompted externally. It wasn't a gut reaction like the control group of Normies. They're hopeful that in time, psychopaths can be conditioned to react instinctively with empathy as part of their treatment. Though lack of empathy is by no means the only trait of a psychopath. Straight out of the PCL-R: being egotistical, remorseless, accepting no responsibility, compulsive lying etc. You also have to be a textbook anti-social. So, if you fit those...?
You don't get points for intent in this world unless you're on trial. Nobody cares what you "intended" to do, only what you did or did not do (please don't make me quote Yoda). Furthermore, you said even selective empathy makes one a psycho, but with selective empathy, the person is [b]actively empathizing with someone else, which is a hell of a lot more than "trying". [/B]
And of course you don't get points for intention. Intention is always secondary to presentation. But if your self-identity is based solely on the "points" you think people give you, then... well. That says something. Regardless, your intention should matter to you, even if you don't think it matters to anyone else. Which is why I brought up sympathy. I know I'm empathetic, and I know it's easy for me. But I don't display any sympathy for another's pains or troubles (unless I'm pretending, to get what I want). I understand them, absolutely. But I don't care. Blunted affect, baby.
Originally posted by Thor Is GirlyBy listening. If I have an admirable trait (beyond my good looks) it's my ability to intently listen for extended periods at a time. If I'm actually empathizing with my own values instead of theirs than either a.) there's a been a helluva breakdown in communication, or b.) they've repeated my own values right back to me. It helps to have flexible values of your own--makes it easier to allow incoming POVs and mindsets to make an impression. Being clinically dispassionate is a huge boost as well.
Well, I AM egotistical and social, although I prefer to be by myself. I don't have those other traits.I ask you again, how do you KNOW you're empathetic? How do you KNOW you're empathizing with the person and his values rather than your own?
And again, it's impossible to not be agnostic on such an issue of empathy. It'll never be pure or absolute because you can't recreate their experience perfectly (or even remotely perfectly--the variables that construct each experience are innumerable). Most discussions of empathy tend to revolve around physical pain, since that crosses all barriers. But socially, I can understand the importance and reverence cannibals have for their treasured custom, even if I don't like it or care about preserving its existence. I can argue the merits of its abolition while still withholding personal judgement on the practitioners (public bluster and rhetoric being only "presentation"😉. Eliminating morality from your own set of values helps tremendously in this regard. Really tears down roadblocks.
Originally posted by Master HanNo, if anything it's worse. For them. For me it's easier.
Wait...is this supposed to be any better?
This is what racism looks like.Racism is the utter lack of compassion it takes to see a mother grieving for a boy and afraid for her own sons, and think, “Wow, that would be really easy to tweak in Photoshop to make her look stupid. Wouldn’t that be funny?”
Racism is dehumanizing. Racism robs this woman of her individuality, her humanity, and her gender. “And ain’t I a woman?” This mother ain’t a woman to “The Patriot Nation.” She’s an object to be ridiculed for mistakes she never made; mistakes, in fact, that someone intentionally added to a photo of her for the purpose of mocking her grief and fear.
Racism is someone in front of his computer whose face twists into the same mask of disgust we see in grainy old black and white films of the KKK burning schoolhouses and churches, and instead of a racial slur spilling from his curled-back lips, he sneers, “Sheeple,” or “Socialists,” or “Obamanation,” and he clicks “like” and “share” on this photo because there’s no little switch in his brain to say: “Is this right to do to a human being?” No. The filter turns off when his hate is triggered by this image. And the really scary thing is, that missing filter means he’s also missing the ability to honestly ask himself, “Am I responding this way because of this woman’s race?”
This is also what courage looks like, over there on the left.
Courage is a woman who knows damn good and well that there are people in the world who will use and abuse anything she does in the public eye to slander her, her community, and the sons on whose behalf she’s protesting.
Courage is a woman with her head held high holding a protest sign of her own making in front of a news camera. She is old enough to have three sons. Surely, she has experienced racism before. Surely, she was raised to “never ever forget [she] was born on parole,” and surely she knows that speaking for her sons means taking risks with her own image, her own safety, and her own reputation.
The cost of courage in nonviolent protest has changed. Those who march peacefully may no longer risk firehoses and police dogs’ bites (though they do risk being attacked with chemical weapons), but they now risk digital slander as impossible to remove from the Internet as unflattering photos of Beyonce.
One acute injury, one arrest, or a lifetime of being “the stupid woman with the misspelled sign” online when you KNOW damn well you can spell “sons” (and so can all of your sons, for that matter)? Dog bite, or teenage niece who gets on Facebook for the first time calling to ask why auntie doesn’t know how to spell?
I think I’d take the dog bite, personally.
Showing my work: The racist photoshopped image was found on Facebook. Use of FotoForensics validated my assumption (based on jpeg artifacts) it had been resaved repeatedly. A Google reverse image search using the photoshopped image revealed the original. I used SnagIt to create the side by side comparison here. To his credit, the friend who first shared the fake version retracted it and declared it “despicable” after being shown the original photo.
I obviously do not own the original, but I grant any and all permission to use the above comparison image for purposes related to rescuing this anonymous woman’s reputation from racist attempts to depict her in unflattering and false ways via sharing of a “meme” anywhere, in perpetuity. As an additional sidenote, if anyone knows the woman depicted, please give her a hug from me.
Why?