“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.

  • Wilco@lemm.ee
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    3 hours ago

    Musk: “The fundamental weakness is empathy” Also Musk: “Why are people so mean to me”

  • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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    5 hours ago

    he has neither intelligence or empathy. he turned intoa space karen, because he mangled his penis in a botched surgery

  • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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    9 hours ago

    You know who lacks empathy? Psychopaths.

    This paper says this about it:

    Importantly, empathy is such an essential component of healthy human social interactions that absence of it may lead to severe social and cognitive dysfunctions. A personality structure often marked by a lack of empathy is psychopathic personality.

    Musk is once again pretending to know about things he’s clueless about.

    • sik0fewl@lemmy.ca
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      6 hours ago

      Lack of empathy is how I characterize Republicans or conservatives in general. It explains every single one of their policy position.

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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        5 hours ago

        there also very good at pretending to have empathy, which is another key trait. hence why we seen “so many people” become super right wing as time goes on.

  • ssillyssadass@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    Empathy is a weakness for sociopaths, and only sociopaths can be billionaires. So it’s not a universal weakness, but it is a weakness for him.

  • Akasazh@feddit.nl
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    2 hours ago

    Musk found out that the people that like him now, after pissiing off the nerds and tech enthousiasts, base their world view on the works of Ayn Rand, who peached that empathy and governement help is bad.

    Disregarding that Rand died penniless and on governement hand outs.

    But musk will find out again that, no matter how much money he flings at it, nobody will like him for who he is and that void will eat him up though it may make him do more silly things. And That’s a shame

  • Kumasousa@lemmy.zip
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    15 hours ago

    The fact he says this, he proves that he really never cared for the human good, all that talk was just to people buy his shit.

  • moitoi@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    15 hours ago

    I guess it closes the debate about Musk being autistic. Autistics are more likely to be hyper empathetic.

    • b161@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      15 hours ago

      Narcissists can display similar traits similar to autistic people. You’re right, he’s not autistic, just a narcissist.

    • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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      14 hours ago

      Speaking as someone who is autistic, autism is rarely a one-size fits all diagnosis.

      While Hyper Empathy can be a side-effect of Autism, another is the exact opposite where your sense of empathy is limited to “So what have you done for me lately?”, in this case the person has absolutely no understanding of interaction outside of it being transactional.

      Musk is definitely this kind

      • moitoi@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        27 minutes ago

        First, I didn’t write all of them.

        Now on the subject of autism and empathy, empathy is widely misinterpreted and misunderstood in autistics. The lack of empathy stereotype is based on the deficit model of autism and therefore on the lack of theory of mind. This model has roots in eugenic and neocolonialism (also known as neurocolonialism) and is deeply ableist.

        We have great research with good methodology and ethics (the opposite is true for the deficit model) about autistics not lacking theory of mind and being empathetic (often hyper empathetic). They just show empathy differently than the neurotypical. This is in fact true for many stereotypes about autism. Autism is a different cognitive style to process information, communicate (including emotions) and learn.

        It’s where the Double Empathy Problem of Dr. Damian Milton comes in. It’s the difference and not the lack between two or more individuals/group of individuals that makes the understanding issue.

        We are plenty of autistics on Lemmy.

    • Wanpieserino@lemm.ee
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      14 hours ago

      Wasn’t the opinion of my psychologist about me. She told me I’m mildly autistic and that I show little empathy.

      For example I saw a dead pigeon on the bike lane and my concern was: my wife behind me might ride over it and be distressed.

      And it’s not that I care about her being distressed if I’m saying the truth. It’s that her distress would be a pain to handle. That the bike would be dirty which would cause further distress to my wife.

      Her response to seeing the dead pigeon was that she thought it was sad.

      Empathy is tricky 🤷🏻‍♂️ the only thing I feel about this truly, is guilt. But that’s all.

  • evergreen@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    Empathy as a weakness is exactly what I’d expect to hear from a sociopath. If everybody thought this way, we’d have no civilized society.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      It’s a useful skill if you’re trying to cultivate a popular following. The funny thing is that he used to have it and was quite good at feeling people out for a popular vibe. Now he’s too ketted out to feel anything. Just a rolling ball of Id, bouncing between hungry, cranky, and horny.

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        15 hours ago

        I wonder if he was ever good at it, or if before he got a pass on being a weird guy because his goals seemed positive (save the planet, push tech forward). Now that he’s fixated on manosphere/nazi shit, more people are less willing to overlook his idiosyncrasies.

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          12 hours ago

          Some such people are really good at pretending to have empathy. I used to be with a narcissist who was a nurse. She could put on a good face, but in actuality she just got off on the sense of power over people who needed her help. In areas where being an awful person didn’t threaten her job security, she had zero qualms about hurting or taking advantage of others, and she did so without hesitation when she felt it would benefit her.

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        16 hours ago

        Empathy is an ability not a skill. It’s not a mundane tool to get what you want.

        • gloriousspearfish@feddit.dk
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          16 hours ago

          It is a inbuilt limit that prevents (most of us) from doing harm to our fellow humans, and to shun from society those that do. It is the very core of why humanity has reached the modern society with a high quality of life.

        • glitchdx@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          you’re right, it’s not a tool to get what you want

          it’s a tool to not be a horrible person

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          Plenty of conmen and torturers can tell you differently. Whether your soul can bear the burden of your actions is far removed from what you can accomplish with your abilities.

      • 60d@lemmy.ca
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        16 hours ago

        He’s gone too far with special k and needs to come back. Many such cases observed in the scene during my youth.

        • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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          5 hours ago

          i think he also downs alcohol and cocaine as well, given his sudden increase in energy from time to time.

  • johncandy1812@lemmy.ca
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    16 hours ago

    Greatest thing I did with my life was to increase my understanding of other people’s lives. He is toxic, whether he’s trolling or not