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this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023
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I guess I'd just imagine that a mere lack of sympathy, and nothing more than that, would result in simply no comments. I don't talk about things I don't care about. Some random conservative anti-vaxxer in Texas dying of COVID has no more impact on my life than some random average person in Iowa dying of a heart attack. But if I saw two articles about those two events in a social media timeline, I know which one I'd be a lot more tempted to click on, and which one would get significantly more engagement. And I can't help but think that it's because, on some level, a part of us likes hearing about those we consider to be bad people "getting what they deserve".
Yes, but feeling unsympathetic is not the same as feeling indifference. It’s not a neutral nothingness, a lack of interest - it’s actively not having sympathy for someone. Not having sympathy is also different from feeling glad about someone’s misfortune.
I’ve heard the sentiment “I don’t talk about things I don’t care about” before, but it’s not my experience or something I particularly understand. But then I’m chatty and I love hearing different people’s views and expanding my horizons. Tbh I’m not sure how people function socially by only talking about things they care for. What about friends/partners with different interests from you? How will you learn about new things if you aren’t open to discussing things beyond your current interests? And in this instance, talking about the criminal justice system and the human response to bad things happening to bad people, surely everyone should care about that at least a little bit?
I strongly disagree with you about antivaxxers. Their behaviour had a very real impact on the lives of other people. I don’t just mean the physical risk they posed to people around them, but the damage they did by spreading misinformation or straight up lies. Not to mention the strain they put on hospitals and other resources in your country - as well as the political divides that most antivaxxers sought to perpetuate and worsen. Antivaxxers impacted your life even if you didn’t realise it at the time. A complete stranger, someone relatively “insignificant” in the world, dying from a heart attack likely has absolutely no impact on your life at all.
Part of us does take pleasure in hearing about bad things happening to people we feel deserve it. There’s no direct word for it in English, but in German it’s “schadenfreude”, in Greek it’s “epicaricacy”. It’s common across all cultures and occur in all ages. You might find this article interesting, it discusses the possible benefits of experiencing schadenfreude. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/12/18/why-taking-pleasure-in-others-misfortune-can-actually-be-good-for-your-mental-health/?sh=783978836526