Discussion Why is this generation having an empathy crisis?

[uglymisanthr0pe]

Ignore my grammar and horrible cohesiveness. this is a bit corny but I just found it in notes so ill just post it

We have often noticed that teens and children are having a loss of empathy for other people. So much destruction and calamity when we expected change and happiness in the future; more and more kids and teens aren't finding reason for empathy anymore.

For example, in America it used to be a technologically advanced which evolved through acceptance. We were almost there as it seems to us. But suddenly everything starts changing. The fact it was so sudden and rapid, it changes our aspect on everything. Other countries have been suffering for years, especially poor and underdeveloped countries. For them change isn't so different from what they experience. America is experiencing destruction for the first time in a very long time.

Now there has always been destruction in America, but rather it is the first time it has been widely spread in media; its coming to the public eye. This is important because so many things have been hidden to us civilians that it is so different that it is now being talked about with pride by the far right.

We survive on capitalism and government control; there's no way out of it now. The government finding more and more stupid ways to scam people out of their pockets. The government does not want happy civilians, they want dangerously powerful kings with too much money to care. "Why can't the children speak up and fight for their rights?" Our first fucking amendment is being fought against. Many countries don't have that privilege but we've lived with that freedom for years, just to see it wither away hurts us deeply. I see a major population decline in the future with the rise of homelessness and plummeting economy for mainly the lower class even the middle class. Women are dying due to being forced to bear a child they clearly did not ask for. "Kill the apple not the tree" - idk someone said that

Children want to speak up. But what are they to do when no one listens. "Violence violence" here we go again. That's what we preach against. So much destruction and violence that children see everyday. Not always face to face but they are presented with more and more evidence to just stop caring because our protest wont matter anymore. In the past people have protested and received rights but now were losing them all over again. We have an apathy pandemic and the government is the only who can help but why would they? Its not their fault most children care but we have learned to keep quiet.

 

[NormallyNeurotic]

People of all ages are being encouraged to not practice/get better at Cognitive Empathy and general compassion nowadays (I talk mostly from a USA perspective).

I'm Gen Z, and we were certainly jaded growing up but I think the helplessness has poisoned the youth to go one of two ways—the easy way out of deciding not to care for anyone, or the hard way out of being hyper-aware of the Hell we live in. The latter often leads to suicidality, especially in already-marginalized people.

It's a mixture of survival, bad parenting, and the worsening education in our country. Especially now with misinformation left and right, even from the people who are trying to do good.

 

[uglymisanthr0pe]

People of all ages are being encouraged to not practice/get better at Cognitive Empathy and general compassion nowadays (I talk mostly from a USA perspective).

I'm Gen Z, and we were certainly jaded growing up but I think the helplessness has poisoned the youth to go one of two ways—the easy way out of deciding not to care for anyone, or the hard way out of being hyper-aware of the Hell we live in. The latter often leads to suicidality, especially in already-marginalized people.

It's a mixture of survival, bad parenting, and the worsening education in our country. Especially now with misinformation left and right, even from the people who are trying to do good.

Its all the remnants of our ancestors teaching our parents how to live. Zoochosis has really developed in past 5 years. And Im pretty the government was intentional about it. It is in order to keep those in power in power for decades to come.

 

[Dejected 55]

Couple of things...

The changes happening in society policy-wise are being driven by older people, not younger ones... because it is mostly older people in government and running large corporations who are making those policy changes. So, the current seeming direction change can't yet be the fault of the younger folks because they have little to no power to do anything. Stay tuned!

But the empathy thing... I'm not sure it is new. Could slavery have existed if most people had empathy? Could women be oppressed for generations all over the world if there was empathy in most? I could go on...

I'm not sure most people have ever had empathy. I think empathy is rare. It isn't unnatural, but it is rare... and, frankly, society has never really encouraged it. Nature doesn't discourage sympathy or empathy... it just doesn't encourage it.

Evolution happens when some particular quality is more beneficial to the current environment in a way where those without the quality cannot survive. But in situations where multiple outcomes are co-existent, there is no value of one quality over the other. I don't think you can look at history and say there ever was a time when empathy was more advantageous to survive than it wasn't. So, empathetic people can exist and non-empathetic people can exist... and I think the fact that humanity has systematically oppressed various people, genders, and other animal species tends to indicate that empathy is not a requirement for survival in any meaningful way.

People tend to be more likely, over time, to do the things that historically gained them the most success... and while those of us with empathy argue it is a good trait and is beneficial to those we have empathy for... many people survive even though no one has empathy for their situation... thus the empathy ends up being irrelevant to society as a whole, even if it might have been of value to a specific person along the way.