His Mom didn't show any empathy when she raised him. This is why he is a weirdo.
this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
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You know who else thought empathy was a weakness? That German party from the 1930s that turned out to be really bad for the world...
Fuck Joe Rogan for letting him say shit like that unchecked.
I would recommend reading the quote in context, and not just headlines. It is not quite as insane as it seems at first glance, although just slightly. Transcript from Yahoo Fact Check:
Musk: The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy. The empathy exploit. They're exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response. So, I think, you know, empathy is good, but you need to think it through and not just be programmed like a robot.
Rogan: Right, understand when empathy has been actually used as a tool.
Musk: Yes, like, it's weaponized empathy is the issue.
The point, as I understand it, is that empathy lets people manipulate you into making short-sighted decisions based purely on feelings, without properly investigating the facts. This is true. However, I strongly disagree that this is the fundamental weakness of Western civilization. I think that greed and selfishness are way bigger problems, and this is also what leads to people taking advantage of people's empathy.
But greed isn't weakness?
Ohh now it all makes sense.
Dude got bullied, felt miserable and couldn't deal with that. So he convinced himself to try and not feel feelings. Spoiler: doesn't work and often ends in drug addiction.
Basically he has mommy daddy issues and wants to take it out on millions of other people. It's like punching someone in the face but then washing their car and acting like he's a saint.
Give me 5 minutes alone with that motherfucker and I'll teach him the virtues of empathy.
I thought we were finally over the fact that it is no longer a "bad thing"-to show publicly. I still remember high school days days, where showing any kind of a fear or other emotion, was seen as a weakness.
My hope is is that the youth does not copy-cat this psychotic behavior too much.
Musk is a little childish. Probably some developmental deficiencies going on there.
Disgusting pos
Believing empathy is a weakness is a symptom of psychopathy.
I think, even a psychopath understand the usefulness of empathy at the conceptual level, both to the individual and society as a whole. Elon is just fucking stupid, insanely out of touch, drugged out of his gourd.
Calling empathy a "bug" in human psychology is just so, so strange.
Sweet. So we shouldn’t feel empathetic towards him, and if we feel he needs to be out of politics, we should do what is necessary and without empathy or emotion. Just as he is non empathetic as he kills, rapes and steals just so he can fill that empty void his parents not loving him left.
The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.
— Hannah Arendt
What a sad, pathetic little weasel.
I surely haven't felt any empathy for him as I've watched Tesla’s stock free fall...
He's really leaning into the villain trope. So many sci-fi villains claim that empathy and/or compassion are weaknesses. Their lack of it is usually their undoing.
Billions of years of evolution leading to this. Tons of research with the same result. Nope, says narcissistic sociopath, you're all wrong and I'm right.
"4 billion years between our ears, still hatred brings us many tears"
The lack of empathy, however, has been linked to psychopathy by study after study after study.
Wasn't it the other way around? Psychopathy is the inability to empathy.
No, as a lack of empathy isn't the only defining characteristic of psychopathy. There is also a lack of remorse, disinhibition, and egocentrism amongst other traits.
A lack of empathy alone doesn't make someone a psychopath. For example some people on the autistic spectrum can exhibit a lack of empathy but are not psychopaths. (Should be noted a lack of empathy is not a defining feature of autism - its variable and a lot of people on the autistic spectrum do have empathy).
So its true to say a lack of empathy is a feature of psychopathy but not true to say that psychopathy is the inability to be empathetic.
Are there empathy possessing psychopaths?
Cognitive empathy, yes, absolutely, affective empathy, no. Difference between flinching when someone gets hurt and understanding that someone gets hurt, including the theory of mind to understand that they don't like that. Which is why the well-adjusted ones (mostly a function of nurture) make damn good surgeons. Maladapted ones will use that (very acute) cognitive empathy to do the usual dark triad stuff.
No, I think another way to say it is that lack of empathy is a necessary, but not sufficient, criterion for it.
Yep. They can't even comprehend the notion.
yes, the problem with having an ignorant idiot of a host/presenter have all these hugely influential people with their half baked ideas as guests is that he can't/won't point out basic facts like how a lack of empathy is indicative of anti-social personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.
so, you've got how many bros who think "empathy is a bug" is a statement that doesn't need to be challenged out there.. repeating it in their heads.
Roegan just lets them talk, its a forum for everybody!
They key issue is to treat oligarchs, their lackeys, their polemicists as individuals that lack empathy and thus lack humanity. Never forget what they are. Only certain types of incentives will work with such individuals.
Thank you for pointing this out. We indeed need to remember that oligarchs lack empathy, and therefore, humanity. You stated it so excellently.
Personally, I don't take advice or inspiration from a figure named Elon Musk. For me, empathy is a fundamental human value, not Tesla or Starlink. With empathy, I believe highly wealthy people can already solve world poverty and be happy together. But no, they use us as a source of income.