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152 points doener | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.207s | source
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tkiolp4 ◴[] No.44417009[source]
Is anyone out there who feels sympathy for Elon? His public image is so damaged, I don’t think it can be recovered.
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RandomBacon ◴[] No.44417205[source]
You can feel sympathy for a person without agreeing with them or having the same viewpoints. I hope there are people out there that feel bad for another living being.

Edit: Yikes. Also, sympathy ≠ empathy.

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goku12 ◴[] No.44420272[source]
Does anybody feel sympathy for a terrorist? If your answer is yes, then you're unsympathetic towards numerous innocent others who have or may fall prey to them. Your sympathy becomes selective and meaningless.

This might sound like a hyperbole, but the comparison to terrorism is relevant here. The DOGE cuts have a cost in terms of human lives. I have no conclusive sources to show for it, but some estimates put it at 300K till date. Even Bill Gates criticized it. And Elon laughed and scoffed at it when he was asked about it. Drugs are not an excuse for any of it, since it was his choice and nobody's addiction should cause the deaths of thousands. Frankly, the greed of billionaires seem to have a bigger cost in terms of suffering and lives than even terrorists do. So please stop giving these humans devoid of any empathy, the benefit of your humanity.

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1. npteljes ◴[] No.44432984[source]
>If your answer is yes, then you're unsympathetic towards numerous innocent others

What this means is an incomplete understanding of sympathy / empathy. These feeling don't need to pick sides. And they don't have to influence outcomes either - even feeling these feelings, you can come to the conclusion that you don't want to associate with, or support that person at all. Or even speak out against them, or do anything else. You are free to do all that, and it's not a contradiction. Quite the opposite, not doing that is to artificially restrict natural human expression.

Also, you don't have to feel sympathy / empathy, and that is okay as well. Others might, and that is just as valid. Either of them telling the other that they are wrong, and should or should not feel it, is now wrong. Feeling something about it, and voicing that, is not wrong though again.