Sadism - How far does our lack of empathy go?

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I'm against the death sentence, against revenge killing, and against much of the structure of the current penal system. I do not see any merit or virtue in torturing another human being to death, whatever their crimes. I am aware that sometimes killing happens in self-defense, however, and sometimes that is difficult to avoid.

My attitude to torture is based on my horror of it. It's the worst thing I can imagine happening to me so I would not seek to
do it or encourage othes to do it.

I've never understood crimes where people get tortured for the PIN number to their bank card - it's only money! Who would want excrutiating pain/possible death as opposed to just telling them the number?? There's no logic to it. I'd rather lose all my money than suffer torture any day and can't understand the mentality of anyone who'd risk torture just to hang on to their money.

Option 1.

In this hypothetical world of super-efficient mercenaries, the formation of an FBI hostage rescue team seems unlikely.

I would prefer to enlist The A-Team.

Interesting question.

The OP's experiences seem unusual, even for someone with AS.

If I ever have violent fantasies, or could imagine myself getting pleasure from observing a violent or destructive act, it involves hypothetical or unspecified people, or no people at all.

For instance, had I been in New York to watch the twin towers collapse, I imagine I could have felt a certain (positive) excitement right when watching it happen. But the same would be true from watching a controlled demolition of the same towers, after they had been cleared of people. In this case, my lack of tendency to think in terms of the human cost means that I would focus on the excitement of seeing an event involving inanimate objects. I certainly wouldn't prefer that there were people inside.

Also, as a libertarian, I am very aware of some of the awful things that governments do. I believe I speak for a lot of anti-government folks when I say that deep within us, there is a certain feeling of understanding for someone like the Unabomber, who had a set of grievances and acted on them. I know that in "meltdown mode" I sometimes have fantasies of this, even though of course I have never considered doing something like that in real life.

I also have noticed the following weird thing: If I imagine a natural disaster happened in my city/town, which destroyed like 95% of the structures, but left my own house still standing, I see my first "gut" reaction as being an odd self-esteem boost, because subconsciously I'd feel somehow "special" or "chosen". Of course this is irrational, especially since I'm an atheist and don't see how the disaster could have been created by a being with an intent to favor me.

Now, when it comes to imagining ME intentionally hurting an actual, live person, especially one who didn't hurt me in any way? Now that makes me cringe! It's certainly not a fantasy of mine.

I've often wondered if I'm a sociopath. I couldn't care less about others misfortunes. I see atrocities and feel nothing. I care nothing for the law, or the implications of what I've done. I only fear the consequences. I could probably very badly hurt someone and not care. Only the law makes me care, the idea of being locked up. I don't usually have fantasies about cruelty though, so I would have to conclude that I'm not sadistic, at least not frequently. I will fantasize about hurting someone if they do something to me. I say sociopath, and not psychopath, as I do have emotions, and I do care about particular people, thought very few (two). There are people in my family that, I don't hate, but I couldn't bring myself to care about, and I couldn't really care less if they died.

I'm not diagnosed as a sociopath, but I would assume that I am. That, or I just find it extremely hard to form bonds, along with the aspie trait of "less empathy". I don't know why I'm posting, I have no advice.