“The fundamental weakness is empathy,” Musk recently told radio podcast host Joe Rogan. “There is a bug, which is the empathy response.”
As Musk has established himself as at least the second most powerful person in an administration seeking a wholesale remaking of institutions, rules and norms, what he said matters, because it encapsulates a political plan. What the Project 2025 report set out in over 900 turgid pages, Musk’s remark captures in a simple pithy mantra for the social media age.
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Ohh now it all makes sense.
Dude got bullied, felt miserable and couldn’t deal with that. So he convinced himself to try and not feel feelings. Spoiler: doesn’t work and often ends in drug addiction.
I would recommend reading the quote in context, and not just headlines. It is not quite as insane as it seems at first glance, although just slightly. Transcript from Yahoo Fact Check:
Musk: The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy. The empathy exploit. They’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response. So, I think, you know, empathy is good, but you need to think it through and not just be programmed like a robot.
Rogan: Right, understand when empathy has been actually used as a tool.
Musk: Yes, like, it’s weaponized empathy is the issue.
The point, as I understand it, is that empathy lets people manipulate you into making short-sighted decisions based purely on feelings, without properly investigating the facts. This is true. However, I strongly disagree that this is the fundamental weakness of Western civilization. I think that greed and selfishness are way bigger problems, and this is also what leads to people taking advantage of people’s empathy.
Fuck Joe Rogan for letting him say shit like that unchecked.
But greed isn’t weakness?
Believing empathy is a weakness is a symptom of psychopathy.
The lack of empathy, however, has been linked to psychopathy by study after study after study.
Yep. They can’t even comprehend the notion.
yes, the problem with having an ignorant idiot of a host/presenter have all these hugely influential people with their half baked ideas as guests is that he can’t/won’t point out basic facts like how a lack of empathy is indicative of anti-social personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.
so, you’ve got how many bros who think “empathy is a bug” is a statement that doesn’t need to be challenged out there… repeating it in their heads.
Roegan just lets them talk, its a forum for everybody!
Wasn’t it the other way around? Psychopathy is the inability to empathy.
No, as a lack of empathy isn’t the only defining characteristic of psychopathy. There is also a lack of remorse, disinhibition, and egocentrism amongst other traits.
A lack of empathy alone doesn’t make someone a psychopath. For example some people on the autistic spectrum can exhibit a lack of empathy but are not psychopaths. (Should be noted a lack of empathy is not a defining feature of autism - its variable and a lot of people on the autistic spectrum do have empathy).
So its true to say a lack of empathy is a feature of psychopathy but not true to say that psychopathy is the inability to be empathetic.
Are there empathy possessing psychopaths?
Cognitive empathy, yes, absolutely, affective empathy, no. Difference between flinching when someone gets hurt and understanding that someone gets hurt, including the theory of mind to understand that they don’t like that. Which is why the well-adjusted ones (mostly a function of nurture) make damn good surgeons. Maladapted ones will use that (very acute) cognitive empathy to do the usual dark triad stuff.
No, I think another way to say it is that lack of empathy is a necessary, but not sufficient, criterion for it.
He’s really leaning into the villain trope. So many sci-fi villains claim that empathy and/or compassion are weaknesses. Their lack of it is usually their undoing.
The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.
— Hannah Arendt
What a sad, pathetic little weasel.
Personally, I don’t take advice or inspiration from a figure named Elon Musk. For me, empathy is a fundamental human value, not Tesla or Starlink. With empathy, I believe highly wealthy people can already solve world poverty and be happy together. But no, they use us as a source of income.
They key issue is to treat oligarchs, their lackeys, their polemicists as individuals that lack empathy and thus lack humanity. Never forget what they are. Only certain types of incentives will work with such individuals.
Thank you for pointing this out. We indeed need to remember that oligarchs lack empathy, and therefore, humanity. You stated it so excellently.
Billions of years of evolution leading to this. Tons of research with the same result. Nope, says narcissistic sociopath, you’re all wrong and I’m right.
“4 billion years between our ears, still hatred brings us many tears”
I think, even a psychopath understand the usefulness of empathy at the conceptual level, both to the individual and society as a whole. Elon is just fucking stupid, insanely out of touch, drugged out of his gourd.
Disgusting pos
Give me 5 minutes alone with that motherfucker and I’ll teach him the virtues of empathy.
