this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2026
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"The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy." Elon Musk, 2020
I remember being outraged by that, not only by the evilness, but also about how easy it is to disprove.
As I said back then:
Empathy is one of society's greatest strengths, when people fall down, others will help them up, enabling them to keep contributing to society later, this creates a flexible but strong society.
A society without empathy is a brittle society, it doesn't bend, when someone falls down, they are left behind, and the society loses their their experience and future contributions, creating cracks. Eventually these cracks will break an unempathic society.
You can even claim that empathy is a form of selfishness, by helping other's you make sure that there are other's around that can help you.
TL;DR: Elon lacks basic logic.
Elon lacks empathy. If you don't have empathy it's like some magic fairy miracle stuff, and you don't understand it. So you hate it.
HE does however claim to be logical, he obviously isn't, but he claims to.
I always kind of liked the take that empathy is self serving. You're kind and compassionate to others because it makes you feel good to do so. People without empathy are just less of a person for the lack of it.
You’re right. People like this are intentionally blind to your point though. They think anyone who falls is dead weight and should be cut loose. They are too arrogant and selfish to answer the question of where they will be cut loose. Anywhere out of sight is probably the answer if I had to guess. But the truth is even out of sight is still in society and society is a connected web. I suspect when this happens over and over and they can no longer be shielded from the horrors they have created by cutting people loose, they begin using the final solution so they no longer have to see what they have created with their hatred and lack of empathy.
I don't think it is intentional. Sociopaths are unable to simulate another emotional state in their mind, thus they have problems predicting emotions, even their own future emotional state. All they can do is to project their own emotions onto others.
This is what happens when you build a system that rewards narcissism and psychopathy.
Remember when all the right wing “Christians” were spouting about the “sin of empathy?”
How would he ever have empathy? He has never suffered a day in his life. He probably can't even imagine what it's like
well that's the thing innit. empathy implies the ability to feel and connect to another person regardless of shared experience.
I think it is more the other way around. The world is a scary place if you cannot predict other peoples or your own emotional state.