Reveal Your Uncool Conservative Beliefs Here

RIP

I'm reading the bloom essay now and there's a lot of fascinating stuff here, though I'm a little skeptical of some of the science he cites regarding the downsides of emotional empathy

Well it’s not as if we’re in the midst of a replication crisis in social sciences

though as others have said, the distinction between "cognitive" and "emotional" empathy is not one I'd come across before and seems pretty useful

tbf that cuts both ways and i intentionally didn't bring it up above xp

xp yeah I basically glossed over the couple of paragraphs starting with "in a series of studies using fMRI brain scanning..."

I really enjoyed the discussion of psychopathy, though I think bloom elides an important point toward the end of that discussion, when he mentions that

Finally, one decisive test of the low-empathy-makes-bad-people theory would be to study a group of people who lack empathy but also lack the other traits associated with psychopathy. Such individuals do exist. Baron-Cohen notes that people with Asperger syndrome and autism typically have low cognitive empathy—they struggle to understand the minds of others—and have low emotional empathy as well. (As with psychopaths, there is some controversy about whether they are incapable of empathy or choose not to deploy it.) Despite their empathy deficit, such people show no propensity for exploitation and violence. Indeed, they often have strong moral codes and are more likely to be victims of cruelty than perpetrators.

while it may be true that these people are unlikely to engage in manipulative/exploitative antisocial behavior, aggression and other behavioral problems are highly comorbid in this population. I would intuit that this relates in some way to their incapacity for empathy

That is not my general experience from 20+ years of working with autistic people. And like everybody working in the field Baron-Cohen's theories are not uncontested.

to be clear I was referring not to criminal behavior, but to maladaptive behaviors like tantrums, outbursts, and (mild) aggression, which are very well described

children are really bad at two things, among others

1) projecting their actions into the future
2) putting themselves in someone else’s shoes

imo teaching these two things is a good thing to do, and critical for helping give kids a moral compass

I feel like this is something that should be done by a child's family or church or girl scout troop, or soccer team, and classroom time shouldn't be spent on teaching them how to act like a decent human being.

idk, maybe the kids that suck at it can get assigned to some sort of special ed remedial class for "non-asshole studies".

so personal responsibility, perfect thread for that!

well, this is the uncool conservative beliefs thread so

Or maybe I'm confused and "empathy" isn't it's own class and it's just something that gets taught alongside other academic material, or as part of P.E. or games period or whatever. I can see how it can work well as part of a history, or civics, or literature curriculum. As its own subject, though, it seems really contrived, and like the "say no to drugs" classes we had to take in the 80s that are now trendy ironic t-shirts sold to millenials. Maybe the next generation will buy empathy/restorative justice t-shirts and wear them ironically.

child's family or church or girl scout troop, or soccer team,

absolutely! and i would say that ime most students have access to these things, and show up in my class with a lot of emotional intelligence, empathy and a moral compass. but sadly not everyone has access to these things, which is it’s so important for schools to give all students opportunities to participate in interest groups, community service, team sports, mentorship, etc etc to help them learn social skills (including empathy and so on)

xp just to be clear at my school we don’t teach empathy as part of any curriculum, and we don’t have “empathy days” the way we used to have “say no to drugs” days (oddly enough we don’t have “say no to drugs” days either!)

but when students fuck up and do stupid, mean, hurtful shit. Then i have to have one-on-ones with kids, and rather than applying the methods that were used on me as a kid (coercion via threat of punishment) i try to use it as a teachable moment to help them reflect and build cognitive empathy

classroom time shouldn't be spent on teaching them how to act like a decent human being

personally i would rather live in a world of decent illiterates than a world of educated sociopaths so that guides my priorities, ymmv (of course it’s never that black and white)

I feel like this is something that should be done by a child's family or church or girl scout troop, or soccer team,

The kids whose families aren't teaching them this stuff ain't bringing anyone to soccer practice imo

Same

Xp

TLG otm

tlg deserves the 'posting like a decent human being' award for work on this thread

Wrong thread for that

Lame as fuck to use this thread as your judgy tickbox of the day tbh.

child's family or church or girl scout troop, or soccer team,

Any other common venues for sexual abuse been left out there?

Ha

special ed remedial class for "non-asshole studies"

Which (to stay on topic) most contemporary American conservatives would regard as "liberal reeducation camp for wrongthink"

child's family or church or girl scout troop, or soccer team,

Any other common venues for sexual abuse been left out there?

― Whiney Houston (Tom D.), Sunday, December 31, 2017 4:00 AM (six hours ago)

what better way to learn empathy than as a victim of pedophilia?

So really, the gropers are doing the kids a favor. You're welcome.

:-/

xp to thomp

Maybe one useful benchmark for this thread is, "Would Morrissey agree with your post?"

your posts no itt? probably

i meant the above more or less sincerely

:-)

Porn and sex work in general is not empowering, is gross, and is damaging to the workers and consumers, unless they are already total sociopaths

i have a thread for you

gimme more james morrison

a friend and a cousin of mine, both in their 30s, died of opioid overdoses in november. i don't see a reason to think that they were victims of anything other than the decisions they made. i feel uncool in this thought.

I think I'm more conservative in my opinions about people I know than about people in general.

I saw “call me by your name” and thought it was moving
and that the younger actor delivered an incredible performance BUT i also felt that the relationship was inappropriate given the gap in the characters’ ages/life experience.

I understand the kid grew from the experience and that it wasn’t exploitative but still... I think adults should stay away from teenagers.

I’m not against the movie for portraying this relationshio the way it did and I am not even condemning the Oliver character. Maybe it’s just more like... watching it... I realized that if I was Elio’s parent I wouldn’t have been chill with this.

Although apparently Oliver is only supposed to be 24. He seemed way older in the film to me.

suggest a rename to 'aspects of my ignorance i'd rather post about than address'

I saw “call me by your name” and thought it was movingand that the younger actor delivered an incredible performance BUT i also felt that the relationship was inappropriate given the gap in the characters’ ages/life experience.

― treeship 2, Tuesday, January 16, 2018

I wouldn't date you either.

That's not an uncool conservative belief at any rate, it's something a lot of right-on social justice ppl have brought up to criticize the film with (that and "the book was written by a straight").

I've seen the last remark, and it's so absurd that it's beneath contempt.

Porn and sex work in general is not empowering, is gross, and is damaging to the workers and consumers, unless they are already total sociopaths

Feel like current pro-sex work rhetoric is rarely about sex work being empowering and much more frequently about the idea that sex worker's labour rights matter more than moral qualms concerning content. Which shoves some things under the bed, sure.

a friend and a cousin of mine, both in their 30s, died of opioid overdoses in november. i don't see a reason to think that they were victims of anything other than the decisions they made. i feel uncool in this thought.

― Yelploaf

my particular brand of hippie liberalism holds that everybody is wholly and fully responsible for their individual life choices, but it's in society's best interest to help people even if they don't personally "deserve" it. because, and here's my uncool conservative belief, i think that once you start actually judging people critically that nobody deserves to live.

i don't think that's actually a radical belief of debatable coolness