Asklemmy

51216 readers

330 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS

Out of ten, how would you rate your ability to empathize with people with opposing viewpoints? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 4 days ago by StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

76 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Let's say zero is straight up shutting your ears, going lalala and storming out of the room, let's say 10 is sitting down with a Nazi, genuinely making an effort to see things from their point of view just to see if you could.

Sure this may sound ridiculous but it's basic knowledge that studying your opponents viewpoints is the best way to counter them and get new insight yourself.

Me? Id like to think I'm a 6, I don't cut family ties over their political opinions but I'm very likely to shut that down with a "I don't want to speak politics with you"

Lemmy can be an echo chamber sometimes, but that doesn't mean everyone here is a mindless zombie, how do you all deal with others who believe differently? Can you back it up?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

10 and 1 simultaneously. I'll sit down. I'll talk politics with damn near nazis. But I'll also understand they're disgusting, their viewpoints are formed through pure idiocy. It can be simultaneously very informing and infuriating to get an understanding of how they come about their viewpoints. Same applies to much less extreme examples as well

[–] StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works -4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

No offense but it sounds like your are completely at a 1, if you only see idiocy then I don't see understanding at all.

More like fear

[–] Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

... You think nazis aren't idiots? Lol. I see you don't have any actual understanding.

[–] StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works -2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Never said Nazis were right. I said calling anyone an idiot isn’t understanding — it’s lazy. People don’t just wake up evil; they get shaped by fear, ignorance, and propaganda. Pretending it’s just about “stupidity” is how you avoid learning from History

[–] Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's the truth. These people wake up, and they choose to hate. They chose ignorance. They willfully and intentionally choose it. We don't live in the 1700s. Information to disprove themselves is readily available. Or if they had basic critical thinking skills

Pretending it’s just about “stupidity” is how you avoid learning from History

Perhaps I phrased it poorly. But their opinions are only formed because they're stupid, through extra propaganda and hate. They're not opinions someone who actually cared about others can have.

[–] StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This is delusional, but it is popular, you sir, have no ability for empathy for your enemies.

[–] Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Pray tell, why do you think people become nazis then?

[–] StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I’ve already told you. Fear, the one emotion that overrides logic. You can’t call someone stupid for falling into an ideology they were raised around, fed by fear and propaganda. It’s not intelligence that fails first, it’s empathy., and you sure, have failed intelligence. Some day far in the future your take that seems so logical to you will be labeled as barbaric and idiotic. I bet you.

[–] Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Can and will. If they were smart, they wouldn't take what they're told unquestioningly at face value. Fear does not wholly override logic. Overcoming instinct is what makes a human human

[–] StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Looking at this today, You sound like you haven't actually looked into the history of Germany during the Nazi occupation and how normal life worked back then. Please actually read and get back to me when you recognize concepts such as the gestapo and the reality of friends and family

They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933‑45 by Milton Mayer

[–] Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 days ago

Lol. Yeah, we don't live in an era where information is that repressible anymore--and it ignores how many germans knew they weren't free