Am i the only one with NO empathy for the Cinema Massacre?

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The OP is 16 years old, and thinking/acting similar to a semi-evil sociopath is relatively normal for teenagers I've noticed.

I tend to feel sad about deaths, even when they're people I don't know. It's a tremendous injustice that these things happen, whether mass murder, or dying to natural disaster, starvation, disease, war, genocide, etc.

Empathy, conscience, and sympathy are all quite different things. Lack all three and you're James Holmes.

I think it might be possible to have sympathy for someone (putting yourself in their position), even though it might be hard to have empathy (seeing things from their perspective).

Regarding the image that OP showed, I strongly suspect it was created by an NT of the same kind that originated "jokes" about such things as the Ethiopian famine of 1983-1985, the spaceShuttle Challenger crash, and the sinking of the Titanic.
So, what's the excuse for NTs displaying such behaviour?

Am I stupid for just not getting why this photo should be seen as funny? Is it my autistic mind? I usually get jokes and use humour myself a lot, when I interact with my friends. This s**t looks tasteless and offensive to me. Even if I got the humour, I'd still think that death is not a reason to laugh. But I honestly don't get it.

Other than that, on the topic of empathy, if I overhear or casually read about disasters like this, I get feelings like the ones described by Callista and Verdandi. If I dwell on it and start thinking more in-depth about what happened, my mind begins picturing and imagining (in pictures) the events, as if in a movie. That's how my brain works, I think in pictures and all the pictures have strong emotional connections tied into them. As a result, a strong feeling of empathy kicks in, maybe too much empathy, and it almost makes me sick to think about the pain of those who loved the victims and the fact that so many poor innocent people died. I think boths are forms of empathy and equally valid. I think none is the NT kind of empathy though. I really don't know how empathy works for NTs. For me, there's no middle ground. When I was a kid, apparently I lacked empathy - now, I'm almost too empathetic.

Now about 16-year olds and empathy... there seems to be a trend for teens to be less empathetic than adults. I've noticed it in myself and my NT best friend says she noticed it in herself too. I remember watching Mel Gibson's Passion Of The Christ when I was 17 and I didn't even flinch. I tried to understand what was the artistic purpose of showing so much blood. At 22, I simply couldn't bear watching it again, because of the empathy I felt when I saw the violent scenes...

_________________
Probably 75% Aspie, 25% NT... and 100% ADHD

Aspie-quiz results:
Aspie score: 138 of 200 / NT score: 78 of 200 => Very likely an Aspie.

I should comment on my own feelings toward the shooting, as I have neglected to do so. I'm not certain I can say I empathise, as I've always found empathy a difficult concept. I do sympathise with the victims, like other members above. But mostly, I feel contempt for what this man has done, as it was such a very cowardly act. I've heard that he may have done it because he felt bullied by others- which makes it more reprehensible that he would take his anger out on innocent strangers, who moreover were not expecting the attack at all. They were in a state of recreation, watching a movie- defenceless. That's tantamount to killing someone in their sleep. He's basically become just like anyone who may have bullied him, only a hundred times worse. You don't need to be empathetic to be upset or disgusted by this.

Personally I hate it when someone says to me "I know exactly how you feel (blah blah blah)". I find it annoying, insulting and that they're belittling the problem. If that's empathy then I think empathy is a bit over-rated. That may just be me... or it may be an Aspie thing?

I took the liberty of rewriting your post, just to seperate the two conflicting thought groups. No words added or deleted, just rearranged.

'You know what happened with that dude shooting people in the cinema during Batman.

I honestly don't care and feel no saddness towards any of it. I have no feeling and really don't give a f**k unless it happends to me or is something to do with my disability. I laughed my ass off when I saw this in my facebook not 5 minutes ago:



And though I've got Aspergers, I'm not a horrible person. And want to feel bad, but yet I just don't.
I don't know why, but it seems it's like this with everything'

I think this attitude isn't necessarily a function of your Aspergers. It may have something to do with it, but I have also met countless NTs with simliar attitudes.

I think you are being honest, so, so shall I. If you trully want to 'feel bad', one thing you can try is to mentally and in great detail, put yourself into the shoes and shattered life of a wounded victim. Or imagine one of them was your child that you raised. Or imagine it did happen to you and see your new life paralyized from the neck down.

One thing I believe is if you are not willing to see things from another's perspective, don't complain when someone doesn't care to see yours. When you see people as meaningless it classifies you as meaningless as well. Open season for the next monster going for the highscore.

The OP probably starts whining like a little b***h when something bad happens to him. lol