a lack of empathy in NTs - or just indifference?

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LookTwice
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14 Mar 2012, 9:06 am

I just stumbled across this here...

http://epiceli.tumblr.com/post/19019441 ... y-her-poor

and I'm deeply disturbed by the thing itself, but even more so by the fact that almost all of the commenters seem to find it hilarious and write things like "xDDD", "loled so hard" etc. I don't want to be a hypocrite - I have laughed about models falling down on a runway before, but this is different. I mean...she must've felt an enormous amount of pressure to try and keep going despite the pain. She quite possibly really damaged her ankles, maybe permanently, and probably will lose her job and any chance of working in this industry again. I think I can't laugh about this because it seems to me that she doesn't have any control over the situation, and doesn't seem to see another way but to just keep going.
I don't understand how anyone can find someone who is helplessly trapped in an obviously painful and embarrassing situation funny... am I the only one?
I immediately felt disgust and hatred towards those people, and felt shocked that this is apparently the norm. But maybe my perception is skewed and it really is funny?
Or maybe it's just that I've felt similarly helpless and trapped in my life, and most people haven't?



kobi_galon
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14 Mar 2012, 9:15 am

I don't think all NTs are like this, but I've seen similar things many many times (people laughing at or making fun of someone else's suffering). I think this is due to the fact that people are being brought up in such an individualist way that they don't care about the others. It's just "me", "me", "me"...
Then, when such a thing happens, all they do is to laugh or to make jokes. I'd call it lack of empathy somehow, in the sense that they don't "learn" it at home.

And when we see these things we find out that it's ironic when some psychiatrists say that we aspies don't have empathy.


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Krychek
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14 Mar 2012, 9:51 am

Isn't empathy just being able to "put yourself in someone else's shoes"? Ha, well this is a pretty good example.


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League_Girl
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14 Mar 2012, 1:14 pm

She seemed fine to me and one person helped her up. It looked like she was dancing, not trying to keep her balance. Then she went down to her knees and got up again and kept on dancing. I really do lack empathy.



kobi_galon
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14 Mar 2012, 1:21 pm

I don't think you lack empathy, League_Girl. This has been proved a myth created by some (NT) psychiatrists. :)


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CockneyRebel
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14 Mar 2012, 2:53 pm

It looks like she twisted her ankle a couple of times, she was trying to regain her balance and than she tripped.


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14 Mar 2012, 4:31 pm

kobi_galon wrote:
And when we see these things we find out that it's ironic when some psychiatrists say that we aspies don't have empathy.

Maybe they project their own flaws into aspies' in general?



Jory
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14 Mar 2012, 4:48 pm

Lacking empathy for one's misfortune is one thing; making fun of it and deriving pleasure from it is sadistic and psychopathic.