Digg - The End of Empathy

145 Comments
Who Dugg It?

eco57, on 11/18/2008, -7/+91What violence in media is the author talking about, exactly? Suicide bombings just merit a paragraph or two on an inside page in the paper now. Hell, we haven't seen ENOUGH violence. Show us a few pictures of shot up marines or the dismembered corpses of Iraqi or Pakistani women and children and we'll be out of there in 6 months, tops.
- zheisey, on 11/18/2008, -2/+34^ What he said
- S7aind, on 11/19/2008, -3/+13Yeah right. Even if they showed that, and the public got angry, it wouldn't make much of a difference.
  - AndrewMoyer, on 11/19/2008, -2/+6I'm not old enough to have seen any of it, but isn't that kinda why we left Vietnam?
- asgardshill, on 11/19/2008, -2/+14Even some newsworthy photos like the endless stream of body bags with American troops in them coming back from the Middle East would help. But no, with Bush still in power, you are censored from seeing those.
- ender8631, on 11/19/2008, -9/+7You know what's pathetic, people complain about the way the world is, well if people got up off there lazy asses, Put Down The Nintendo Controller, turned off their television, and stopped doing the lines of coke on their table, then perhaps we would be in a different position to say hey the violence in the world sucks. and the media is over saturated, well turn the television off put down the damn newspaper, and do something productive, like say procreating for the species, if kids in Iraq wanna suicide bomb let em, Its sad yes, but if faith is blind, then people are just the same, their is two sides too one story, and the fact is people always get the one side that is saturated to the point that they will believe it blindly, oh well, i say ***** happens, This generation is nothing special compared to others, we just have more ***** we can blow up, with pushes of the button, so im gonna hold my pitchfork up, and tell people how it is.
  - Bodhinature, on 11/19/2008, -0/+7You have to know how it is before you can tell how it is...
  - bdav87, on 11/19/2008, -1/+4nintendo controller? lines of coke? newspapers?
    
    i think you're talking about the 80s generation.
- lennybird, on 11/19/2008, -0/+18I am so pissed our government is restricting photos/videos of our soldier's coffins, or even live footage. That's not reporting or journalism. You asked for war, now take the consequences instead of covering it up.
  
  I wasn't alive during Vietnam, but from what I understand, they showed live footage of firefights, etc. That stuff hits hard. It may not be pleasing to watch, but it's a wake-up call for many Americans. I guess I'm paraphrasing what Eco57 said, but it just pisses me off...
  - aenima987, on 11/19/2008, -0/+7"You asked for war, now take the consequences instead of covering it up."
    
    You're asking them like they're normal non-assholes.
- iticu, on 11/19/2008, -0/+5Ender, did you just rant that people should get off their asses and do nothing?
  
  I'm confused now.
  - Grin23, on 11/20/2008, -0/+2To be more specific he said we should have lots of sex.
- frishackbanned, on 11/19/2008, -11/+1Show us the dismembered fetuses that are aborted daily, and maybe people will start to understand the insanity that is abortion.
  - pantbash, on 11/19/2008, -1/+2OM NOM NOM NOM
    Coarse Foetal Pâté, insanity is the wasted protein
  - mchisari, on 11/19/2008, -1/+4
    I've seen a product of conception of a first trimester abortion ( when the vast majority of people get their abortions ), and trust me, it's nothing anyone would sympathize with. I know the anti-choice movement has made you believe that abortion is akin to walking into a nursery and dismembering a baby, but it's not. It's just a pile of gloop, similar to a very heavy period.
    
    Sorry, man. But seeing real live adult human beings getting shot and carried home in body bags would upset people. Seeing some indistinguishable clumps of tissue and blood really wouldn't.
  - cebmom, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3For myself I have always been prolife but have been around long enough to see the results BEFORE legal abortions in this country and that was less pretty. More offensive is the insanity of children abused and neglected because they were born unwanted and unloved.
    But this is about a different topic and doesn't belong here
- jameszhao00, on 11/19/2008, -1/+6I think the "oversaturation of violence" the author talks about is when people portray violence in a fun and amusing way. (i.e. youtube videos where people laugh at other people's sufferings)
  - SpacePoet, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4Also in the movies, but you're right, Americans have no idea what real suffering is.
- SpacePoet, on 11/19/2008, -0/+6I was watching BBC America this morning and they were showing parts of a British show that follows soldiers in Afganistan. These people are fighting one minute and bawling their eyes out the next when they see some of the horrible things happening to their men and civilians. It is an absolute travisty that our government hides us from the atrocities being carried out in our name every day in the Mid East. As an American i am ashamed at my fellow men who seem like pussies of the highest order, pretending everything in the world is just fine. Here's American Gladiators...your government is in complete control...
- MindTrigger, on 11/19/2008, -0/+5I couldn't agree more. Our government and the media have been hiding the violence of this war from the get go. The closest thing we had to the truth was at the beginning of the war when journalists were embedded. Even that was questionable because it was more like war porn with all the blood and guts censored out. We aren't even allowed to see coffins being brought home and moved from military air transports.
- khoikhoi, on 11/20/2008, -0/+3what eco57 said!
AdeleMor, on 11/18/2008, -3/+22while this isn't necessarily a new concept, it's important to regularly renew this conversation in order to stir the empathy we've all guiltily failed to muster for distant troubles
- samoan27, on 11/19/2008, -3/+7The viewing public still has empathy...just as long as the victim is a little white girl.
reyoo30309, on 11/18/2008, -12/+10That's how I feel about wildlife preservation in general. No doubt I love and respect nature but I find it hard to care about every little organism that faces it's own destruction. I think my thoughts are more in line with FDR's I just want to save enough so I can hunt them with my children.
- mikbunn, on 11/18/2008, -0/+15I believe you're thinking of Teddy.
  - jcfisher3rd, on 11/19/2008, -0/+15FDR was a mean wheel chair hunter, he off-roaded in that bitch.
  - mikbunn, on 11/19/2008, -0/+7Introducing the 2009 Rascal Rover 4x4! Extreme mobility with optional Rhino Rack and motor snorkel!
- thepoliticalcat, on 11/18/2008, -1/+14The problem is that the web of life is precisely that -- a web. If enough of the links in the web are gone, the whole web falls apart. We are a part of the web. Our lives will not be miraculously saved if the rest of the fragile web crumbles. This is what is meant by the concept of "ecosystem."
- quentinp, on 11/19/2008, -1/+5ooo sorry FDR, God Love ya, what am I thinking..everyone else stand up and go hunting!
Pitofdoom, on 11/18/2008, -13/+59When history continues to validate the belief that our
fiery goo crawls out of it's petri dish shaking it's defiant
fist at GOD, men becomes a little apathetic !

When,
Doctors destroy health,
Lawyers destroy justice
Universities destroy Knowledge,
Governments destroy freedom,
Major media destroy Information,
and
Religion destroys spirituality.

People become a little apathetic !
- NinaOdell, on 11/18/2008, -2/+12Wow, that was deep for so early in my morning...
  - Pitofdoom, on 11/18/2008, -3/+11The pit never stops digging,
    that's why its so deep !
    
    ha ha ha.....
    Some times I even impress myself !
    Life without a since of humor is slow suicide !
  - S7aind, on 11/19/2008, -2/+16...your first one was better.
- Albionshores, on 11/19/2008, -0/+25Nice Michael Ellner quote.
  Like it.
  
  "Just look at us. Everything is backwards. Everything is upside-down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information, and religion destroys spirituality."---Michael Ellner
  
  http://www.riprense.com/quotatious.htm
- LeviTheSmith, on 11/19/2008, -0/+5You seem like an intelligent person.
- Bodhinature, on 11/19/2008, -3/+4I agree with everything but the first part.
  
  History continues to validate the goo because it is true! In fact, your first statement alone makes you a complicit party to the rest!
  - Pitofdoom, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3Yes, my give a ***** factor's mighty, mighty low !
BohicaTwentyTwo, on 11/18/2008, -2/+5You can solve all the world's problems. In fact trying to solve too many of the world's problems may actually make things worse.

To quote my favorite 70s gospel based rock opera:

Surely you're not saying we have the resources
To save the poor from their lot?
There will be poor always, pathetically struggling.
Look at the good things you've got.
- ssn697, on 11/18/2008, -0/+3"You can solve all the world's problems"
  
  I am pretty sure you meant "can't", right?
- BohicaTwentyTwo, on 11/18/2008, -0/+3True. Its getting late.
- uncleosbert, on 11/19/2008, -0/+6it's one of my favorites too. i think the point was not that we can't make the world a better place, but that we have to also take time to appreciate it.
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SAE_NaLRKQ
  
  or, like e.b. white said, "I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."
- mediaspree, on 11/19/2008, -2/+4Everyone should see Jesus Christ Superstar. It basically tells it like it was. There was this dude Jesus who had some good things to say and the people, desperate for understanding of their purpose and how things worked before able to be educated by science, misinterpreted it as "Gods" word and ***** everything up.
  - Frodoholic, on 11/19/2008, -1/+4Seconded on the Jesus Christ Superstar. In that representation of the final days of Jesus, Judas is actually concerned about the crowds getting out of control, losing the way of what Jesus had been preaching before it started getting sensational. "I remember when this whole thing began, no talk of god then we called you a man.."
- ingodwerefucked, on 11/23/2008, -0/+1um, actually we do have enough resources to feed the poor.
ssn697, on 11/18/2008, -1/+19I am ambivalent about the "over saturation" of violence, specifically in association with his premise.

We see ZERO violence from Iraq or Afghanistan. A number in a 20 second news report does not reflect the actual violence. The author talks about being numb to the killing, but he doesn't ever SEE any of the aftermath. We have been very purposely shielded from the horror of war, making it easy for the uninitiated to become "numb" or uncaring.
- Arghblarg, on 11/19/2008, -0/+7The US government and military will NEVER allow the real horror to be presented on TV again, ala Vietnam. They know darn well how it affected public opinion. Hence the ban on filming caskets coming home, etc.
MalarkeyPN, on 11/18/2008, -1/+17This is the most pathetic article I've ever read. The author is either a) complaining about having to hear about all the bad stuff in the world or b) trying to make his readers feel guilty for not feeling bad enough about all the bad stuff. Well ***** that. What a whiner.

Here's the real deal people. When you listen to the news and hear about a terrible tragedy, you are not morally obligated to feel bad. You are not even obligated to listen. You don't have to keep a running tally and light a candle for every Iraqi that gets blown up in Baghdad. You don't even have to feel the slightest tug at your heartstrings. In fact you don't have to feel anything that you don't honestly, genuinely feel. You have a choice: either do something about it or don't. But if you're just going to complain about the fact that you have to hear it, you'd be better off changing the channel.
- sodade, on 11/19/2008, -0/+5"You don't have to keep a running tally and light a candle for every Iraqi that gets blown up in Baghdad."
  
  Americans who can ignore the innocent blood all over our hands are evil. Period.
  - MalarkeyPN, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4Americans who call the people they disagree with "evil" are no better than fundamentalists. Period.
    
    I acknowledge the innocent blood on my metaphorical hands. So what do I do next? Feel bad about it? Is that your only solution? ***** off and let me live my life!
    
    Either take action or don't, but don't tell other people how they should feel.
  - Bith8654, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3Not always, sometimes they are just misguided or misinformed. When propaganda makes them genuinely believe the blood isn't from the innocent, they don't feel bad. Don't just assume everyone understands the gravity and reality of the situation just because you do. I think Vietnam showed that when the public gets to see the reality in all it's gruesome detail, most of them won't just ignore it. The problem is that the reality isn't thrown in the public's face like it was back then, you actually have to go look for it.
  - sodade, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3This is not about agree/disagree this is about facts and denial.
    
    "I acknowledge the innocent blood on my metaphorical hands. So what do I do next? Feel bad about it? Is that your only solution? ***** off and let me live my life!"
    
    If you acknowledge it then you are responsible to question those who try to shove it under the rug: "b bu but saddam was a bad man!" You are also responsible to vote out the perps.
    
    That is all.
  - MalarkeyPN, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3So it's not that those who disagree with you are evil. It's just that those who disagree with you are in denial about the facts, and those who are in denial about the facts are evil. Oh okay.
    
    Your solutions essentially boil down to "read the news" (I'll let the fourth estate do the questioning) and "vote out the perps." You didn't say "feel bad about it" so it seems like you actually agree with my original post. But lots of people read the news and they still come to disagreements over who they should vote for. It doesn't mean either side is evil.
  - sodade, on 11/19/2008, -0/+2What the ***** is there to disagree with? Our hands are ***** covered with the blood of innocents - are you disputing that? If so, then yes, you are in denial about the facts. Being in denial is bad enough, but reinforcing the denial of others is pure evil.
  - MalarkeyPN, on 11/19/2008, -0/+2It's not a fact that our hands are covered with the blood of innocents. It's an abstract metaphor that means very little. Let's explore. Blood is on my hands because ... why? I pay taxes that help fund the war? But I don't really get to choose whether or not to pay taxes and I didn't get to choose whether or not to go to war. I didn't even vote for the guy who chose to go to war. Now that I think about it, maybe there is no blood on my hands after all. This is a serious moral question: can I be guilty of a crime someone else committed? Am I guilty just because I was born in the US?
    
    However you answer that question, your answer will be an opinion. Calling people evil (especially for disagreeing with your vague metaphor) makes you sound like you think you have access to some sort of objective moral reality, which you don't. It makes you sound like you think you are hand-delivering the judgment of God, and that, sir or madame, makes you very much like a fundamentalist.
  - sodade, on 11/20/2008, -0/+1It's an abstract metaphor that means quite a lot. Blood on hands = shorthand for 60 years of murderous and criminal foreign policy.
    
    And "evil" is just putting it into terms that the average american christian can relate to.
- ajb2015, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3I don't think its that we don't care. I think its that we are so tired of hearing about the atrocities, the corruption, the shady deals, the human rights violations, and the absolute misuse of taxpayer money. We've gotten to the point where we feel powerless because it doesn't seem like anyone in Washington cares. So, we close ourselves off so it will hurt less. I'm not saying its a good thing. But, who can maintain a constant level of outrage after eight years of Bush?
- SpacePoet, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4We're not powerless, we just let ourselves become powerless.
- dithyrambica, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4We're not powerless.
  We've become despondent and apathetic.
PoizonFrog, on 11/19/2008, -1/+26Turn off the TV...seriously. Tap out of the consumer mindset and reclaim your life.
- singularityv, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
  
  The consumer mindset is the true reason to live.
uncleosbert, on 11/19/2008, -1/+9it's not the tv. cracked has a much better theory:

http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysp ...

take some pride in being a human. it's always been this hard.
- BoneheadFarker, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4Cracked didn't come up with that. It's been floating around the net for years. I first read it in college, before the turn of the century...
RobotBuddha, on 11/19/2008, -0/+23Pft, humans have 'never' cared about people outside their direct experience. If you cared, I mean actually cared about a stranger dying you'd be insane within minutes of realizing the sheer amount of suffering that goes on every second of every minute that humanity has been on the planet. We're a tribal species that evolved to only care about the people around us, and the rest of the species only on an abstract level.
- MiddleOfNowhere, on 11/19/2008, -0/+2Yeah, but isn't this changing?
  We used to live in a very "flat" world, where you stayed in more or less the same place for all of your life, working with people you knew, marrying some neighbor's daughter etc.
  And a lot of people felt lonely because they didn't fit in with their, uhm, tribe.
  Now the Internet, while it hasn't made us all rich and happy, has shown us that there may be e.g. ten thousand other fans of that weird Australian SF author who writes about transhumanism and AI. You may get to talk to and care about these people because they share your interests/beliefs, not because they were born around the corner.
  And among fifty thousand dumb, irrelevant Youtube videos there may be one showing something terrible happening at the other end of the world which makes you change your mind about your country's foreign policy, eating meat or whatever.
  I believe that empathy can go from "local" to global. It may take more than one generation, but I think it's happening around us right now.
  - Screwy1138, on 11/19/2008, -0/+2The problem is, I'm not sure humans are capable of dealing with a globality of suffering. It's one thing to have access to the information, but another to be able to emotionally handle it.
thecatcantalk, on 11/19/2008, -2/+14Who cares?
RogueGenius, on 11/19/2008, -0/+9I have to agree with the masses here. We aren't seeing any violence from Iraq or Afghanistan. The media and the administration have conspired to give us a sanitized view of what it happening there. We see lots of guys with guns, some pretty airail photos of bombings, but not bodies, no wounds, and no flag draped coffins. The subconscious message is clear: nothing to see here move along and let us handle it.
- ratles, on 11/19/2008, -5/+1
  - RogueGenius, on 11/20/2008, -0/+2I'm sorry ratles, did you miss the memo? The Administration PUBLICLY admitted that there are to be no photos of American bodies returning home. If reading the little bit they tell us requires a tin foil hat then I recommend you get fitted for one. Ignorance is a noble state, but willfully self-imposed ignorance to offensive and stupid.
  - RogueGenius, on 11/25/2008, -0/+1No response from the coward ratles, I see. Typical Republican. Fight when the opponent is weak but try to cross swords with me and oops, he hears his mommy calling.
- SpacePoet, on 11/19/2008, -0/+5That reminds me of the opening coverage of both Iraq wars and the parrots cheering like it's a football game every time another 2000 lb bomb dropped on Baghdad. The same people would scream bloody murder if it was their city or if one person was killed.
Hetman, on 11/19/2008, -0/+15My monkey brain can only really care about like 5 people. And their are like 6 billion in the world. Yea I can see why we would have technical difficulties when it comes to getting along.
InigmaIP, on 11/19/2008, -4/+6I feel sorry for those who can no longer empathize.
- memper, on 11/19/2008, -0/+2I see what you did there.
- sodade, on 11/19/2008, -1/+3I feel sorrier for the people who still can.
TheR3dMenace, on 11/19/2008, -0/+6The internet is probably the wrong medium for an article about empathy
dynelol, on 11/19/2008, -6/+5*****! The overwhelming amount of BAWWW over Megan Meier's stupid ass hanging herself over retarded internet ***** was major. People still argue over it and wrongly want to jail someone over it.
musntSurfatWork, on 11/19/2008, -1/+3I honestly couldn't care less about anyone telling me I couldn't care less.
Smokeydabear, on 11/19/2008, -0/+5Humans have been not giving a ***** about atrocities that have occurred in different parts of the world for thousands of years. Nothing ***** new here folks.
ColBuendia71, on 11/19/2008, -0/+13"One death is a tragedy. One million is a statistic."
- Joseph Stalin

I think I read something in a class on this once; it's hard to have any concept of people's pain outside your immediate circle. I agree that we need to step outside our immediate community and care, but let's not act like it's a modern problem or that it's really even a natural thing to do.
wunksta, on 11/19/2008, -0/+7the primate brain dictates the amount of people within the "circle" that the individual cares about, its not many
http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysp ...
theokandroid, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4If anything I think it's made me MORE empathetic. But at the same time I wouldn't say I care any more. You can only care so much about a person a million miles away from you that dies. I feel empathy, I can put myself in their shoes, but I do not feel sympathy because I do not know them personally.
roddack, on 11/19/2008, -0/+6If you want Empathy go talk to Sylar
deadapostle, on 11/19/2008, -3/+10Digg's oversaturation of ***** articles left me caring less about reading this one.
konkaten8, on 11/19/2008, -5/+6Should be "sympathy", not "empathy".

I can't "identify or understand someone else's feelings or difficulties" if I have never had "that" something bad happen to me. For example, I can't have empathy for a female rape victim because I am male...
- deadapostle, on 11/19/2008, -1/+7I can empathize with a female rape victim and I am a male.
  - Kosh, on 11/19/2008, -2/+3By definition you can't.
  - konkaten8, on 11/19/2008, -2/+3I see......you must have gone to prison at one time in your life...
  - rossisdead, on 11/19/2008, -1/+3Have you been raped?
- nem0, on 11/19/2008, -4/+3I empathize with you. I have no sympathy for bad grammer.
  - konkaten8, on 11/19/2008, -1/+4"grammer".....um...ok?
  - nem0, on 11/19/2008, -0/+2Okay, I can't spell.
- jaythree9, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3Empathy is feeling for someone although you haven't shared their experience. Sympathy is when you feel for someone because you understand first-hand what they are going through.
  - konkaten8, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3jaythree9, it's actually the opposite of what you're saying!! Jeez, & you're getting digged??? In order to have empathy, you must understand the other person(s) pain; you feel the pain with that person because you can identify within yourself that identical, MUTUAL feeling. Having sympathy is just acknowledging someone else's pain. For example, at a funeral, you offer your "deepest sympathies" to the family of the deceased. If you know someone who has lost a child & you have no children, you can only offer your sympathy to the person in pain. You have no children & can therefore offer no empathy. Don't take my word for it; just open up a dictionary & look it up yourself. Get some knowledge in those brains people.
  - BlacklabelSAR, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3Sigh...
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy
    Empathy is the capacity to recognize or understand another's state of mind or emotion. It is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes", or to in some way experience the outlook or emotions of another being within oneself. Empathy does not necessarily imply compassion, or empathic concern because this capacity can be present in context of compassionate or cruel behavior.
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sympathy
    Sympathy is a social affinity in which one person stands with another person, closely understanding his or her feelings. The word derives from the Greek συμπάθεια (sympatheia)[1], from συν (syn) "together" + πάθος (pathos), in this case "suffering" (from πάσχω - pascho, "to be affected by, to suffer"). It also can mean being affected by feelings or emotions. Thus the essence of sympathy is that one has a strong concern for the other person. Sympathy should not be confused with empathy.
katorga, on 11/19/2008, -1/+4You don't have to read much history to know that violence and suffering are the natural human condition. The 20th century was the pinnacle of violence. Our advanced societies are only more advanced at delivering violence and suffering. Nothing will ever change that.
- sodade, on 11/19/2008, -0/+2History is written by those that won. By force.
Dalhectar, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4It doesn't seem to be the case that less saturation would bring about more empathy. If anything, less saturation would bring more ignorance, and thus even less empathy.
scoot2006, on 11/19/2008, -1/+4It must be a slow news week. Another story was about how a ***** spider was lost on the international space station. Now there's this *****. Seems like they're really reaching.

This is all ***** that's been said before. The repetitive, ***** news media is really needs to stop. Wait, it's all 24-hour news now. They have to fill their time with something. ***** useless.
FuckTheNWO311, on 11/19/2008, -5/+3It's...NOT ENOUGH! I NEED MORE! NOTHING SEEMS TO SATISFY!

I don't want it, I just need it.

To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07pLGIgyfjw
mike17032, on 11/19/2008, -1/+3The world sucks and humans are assholes, this isnt a new concept. The masses are just less sheltered from it than they used to be, and I fail to see how having your eyes more open is a bad thing.
Frodoholic, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4If anything, this article just provides a starting point to discuss modern culture and how we react to other people.
The author is just concerned that with so much bad in the world, everyone is just wrapped up in their own lives. I don't think he's saying that's wrong for people to do, he's just wondering if anyone has noticed it.

I don't think people are becoming less empathetic, I think they're becoming more cynical. Look at the internet culture that has formed- never have I seen so many cynics in one place. Maybe it's not a bad thing, but I think with cynicism comes a certain loss in responding to your fellow man seriously You begin to question everything and anything and wonder if there is really anything you can do of value (to someone besides yourself) in the world, and become far too wrapped up in your own ideas and beliefs where anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot or worse. I'd like to see an article about that rather than about empathy.
nem0, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3To care about care about what’s happening globally would be sympathy. To understand and share in what's happening globally would be empathy.

-- The Pendantic Grammarian
LeviTheSmith, on 11/19/2008, -1/+3Anyone list some good news sites for me?
After reading this I have realised that I don't read up on world news as I think I should.
Literally any site to do with: world news/tech/science/ etc.
- andretii, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3digg.com
  - LeviTheSmith, on 11/19/2008, -0/+2"good news site"
  - surprisenu, on 11/19/2008, -0/+1Digg.com is the news site. Its not single source so you can get articles like this that a CNN would not even touch.
- pappyblueribs, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3http://www.happynews.com/
  http://www.goodnewsdaily.com/
- MiddleOfNowhere, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3Google News may be a start. It does not necessarily give you the relevant stuff, but it's like a meta-aggregator of what the Western Hemisphere cares about. Be careful when customizing; you may switch off a lot of stuff that is shaping your future, whether you like it or not.
  And if you want to see all the wonderful, odd, interesting stuff that usually falls through the cracks of the big news sites, I suggest metafilter. These guys are snobs, but they are very smart snobs.
Kosh, on 11/19/2008, -0/+6"It is the one great weakness of journalism as a picture of our modern existence, that it must be a picture made up entirely of exceptions. We announce on flaring posters that a man has fallen off a scaffolding. We do not announce on flaring posters that a man has not fallen off a scaffolding. Yet this latter fact is fundamentally more exciting, as indicating that that moving tower of terror and mystery, a man, is still abroad upon the earth. That the man has not fallen off a scaffolding is really more sensational; and it is also some thousand times more common. But journalism cannot reasonably be expected thus to insist upon the permanent miracles. Busy editors cannot be expected to put on their posters, "Mr. Wilkinson Still Safe," or "Mr. Jones, of Worthing, Not Dead Yet." They cannot announce the happiness of mankind at all. They cannot describe all the forks that are not stolen, or all the marriages that are not judiciously dissolved. Hence the complex picture they give of life is of necessity fallacious; they can only represent what is unusual. "

~G K Chesterton
- Screwy1138, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3Interesting, philisophically. I appreciate your posting it. I am going to contemplate the idea that "everything I see that is news, or constantly in the news, is, by definition, unusual".
  
  It could honestly make me a happier person.
  
  However, applying this to the lack of news coverage of things like Iraq, Darfur, etc., becomes incredibly depressing.
roctimo, on 11/19/2008, -1/+6Something kind of sad about
the way that things have come to be
Desensitized to everything
What became of subtlety?
bunkster, on 11/19/2008, -1/+5To the writer of this article. I have only one thing to say. There is a very old saying: "NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS". Perhaps he would like to read cozy feel good stuff every day. That would be nice, if that were reality. Fact, is it's not!
Testiculese, on 11/19/2008, -1/+4Before the media was so infiltrated in the world, we never saw any of this anyway, so we were apathetic to it back then, too...nothing has really changed.
bigtoes, on 11/19/2008, -0/+5We are oversaturated on hearing about violence & undersaturated on actually seeing it.If we saw graphic images of decapitation & blood no one would be feeling empathy.I was watching a Frontline on tribal leaders in the area between Afghanistan & Pakistan being tortured by the Taliban . It was pretty graphic & not really like anything I had seen on the news . Anyone who would have viewed that would not be empathetic . Words don't do violence justice .
wedges, on 11/19/2008, -1/+4it might also have something to do with stratification of wealth. as the rich/ruling class gets more powerful, they keep others down intentionally. it's hard to worry about others when one needs to look out for oneself. that said, any time one of those creepy stories pops up on digg, or a story about some rape victim being stoned to death in the middle east, it's hard not to feel.
azhura, on 11/19/2008, -1/+4I don't believe that it is the news that is causing the "end of empathy". It's probably all of the violent television sitcoms and video games that aren't real that are causing people to become desensitized.
- wedges, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3cutting a monster's limbs off in Dead Space doesn't make me cringe. my friend's bicycling accident where he tore up his hand, broke his nose, and tore every ligament in his shoulder did.
- geddon, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3There we go! I knew we were blaming the video games for this..
  
  Personally, I blame the All You Can Eat Culture where we pit our children against each other to be the lead dog. Why care about the next person in line when they're either a crackhead wasting all of your tax dollars or a fat cat taking it directly from your wallet?
  
  In short, we're no longer in this together.. we're in it to win it.
quentinp, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4I don't think we're truly capable of empathy on a large scale. Show me a story of a baby that was killed or something and I will definitely feel something, show me a story that mentions 1,000,000 killed and sure i'll agree it's terrible, but I'm not really feeling it the same way...it's not something that I can fathom.
- Cyrock, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3Nobody panics when things go according to plan. Even if the plan is horrifying. If tomorrow I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all part of the plan. But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!
jimbo92107, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3It is because we are emotionally incapable of empathizing with more than a small group of people that we must create governmental and societal structures that treat people humanely. That's why it is so vital to elect representatives with more brains than George Bush. They need to be capable of considering factors beyond their own narrow loyalties to family, friends and business allies.
Cyrock, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4Well, we have to end apartheid for one. And slow down the nuclear arms race, stop terrorism and world hunger. We have to provide food and shelter for the homeless, and oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights, while also promoting equal rights for women. We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern and less materialism in young people.
Poonchow, on 11/19/2008, -1/+3The article is exploring the question "Should I feel this way?" Because throughout our lives we are taught to feel empathy toward fellow man, to help a stranger in need, to be a good Samaritan, to give and not take, to feel and not be callous -- and when our emotions betray our understanding of what we are supposed to feel, it's frightening.
TheToecutter, on 11/19/2008, -1/+4I care less and less because people have freewill, make terrible choices, and don't use the intellectual potential they are born with. Has nothing to do with the media.
- Hetman, on 11/19/2008, -0/+2Can you prove to me their is free will? Anyways their are many people born in places like somolia and many countries in africa that do not have the choices or the capability to pull themselfs out of their situations.
mercenary90, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4Whatever.
sodade, on 11/19/2008, -0/+6"Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception." ---Mark Twain.
Me004, on 11/19/2008, -2/+4
- konkaten8, on 11/19/2008, -1/+1amen....that's exactly why I hate charity; it just feeds the status quo...
- gravedigga, on 11/20/2008, -0/+2have you considered that if the africans' wellness would ascend to american standards, than americans wouldn't have where to get cheap labour and natural resources, and the american standard of living would be well below where it is now? If you accept that as a fact, next consider that it isn't in the americans' interest to have africa govern itself and not slaughter each other to farm the land.
  
  Nevertheless, I too believe it's stupid the help anybody with any welfare programs that never actually help, even do harm, and only serve to enrichen the people that work souch a program and to make donors feel less guilty.
  
  http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=sobbzaIa4_E biggest, ever.
surprisenu, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4Yes it is wrong to answer your question. But a Iot of us fall into that same train of thought on our morning commute as our minds drift in and out of NPR and the person who just cut us off to weather or not we are out of milk at home. We have to do what we can with the time we are given and make a difference any way we can. It is impossible to take the entire worlds weight on our shoulders but we can take a share we can handle and that is were we all need to step up to the plate. Take your share of the weight and handle it. Eat a PB&J for lunch and give the money you would spend on Pad Thai to charity.
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The End of Empathy

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