Weaponizing Empathy

Our world grows weary of the foolishness that is taking over. Good is bad, bad is good.  The rules thrown out the window. Somehow the moral compass does not point true north. I’ve been on the planet a fair amount of time and watching those things we can count on disappear is very disheartening. 

It’s almost as though people’s brains are being rewired. Is it simple mental illness, demonic possession, covid vaccine and 5g? Is it psychosis from the covid era of fear and hatred towards friends and family that didn’t think like you?  Whichever conspiracy theory you choose, it all comes down to one simple issue. 

Back around 2008 I found a group of folks that talked about empathy. It was the concept that this was a survival skill from the days of tribal attitudes. If you wanted to fit into a new tribe you had to be able to observe, feel and think like they did. Know how to stay on everyone’s good side. Today the folks that excel in this concept are children born into families of substance abuse, mental illness and pedophiles. A child learns how to “read the room” to stay out of harm's way. These children open up an integral part of them that lends to the term empathy. Some folks never need to open this part of their psyche and they are blessed in my opinion. But some folks live it daily, soldiers off the battlefield, abused people and not just children, any human. In modern times we have PTS, anxiety, depression. All forms of coping. But empathy is survival for many. They learn the hard way, they feel what others are feeling just to make sure they are okay. 

For those that think this isn’t a scientific modality, we have what are called mirror neurons. It is through these neurons that we learn to relate and at times resemble those around us. Again, this is a survival skill, but it can open up to so much more. There are those who are empathic enough to feel those with mental illness, and they make great medical staff to help those folks. They can help adults and children through hard times, by relating to what they are going through. There are many other things empathy opens up to, but I won’t go into them here.

Okay, so now the issue. The problem. Somehow perhaps through media, the need to belong, crowd sourcing, or just lack of purpose, there are groups of people feeling empathic to low moral values.  Remember most of the people that have activated these mirror neurons did so because of tragic circumstances. They are wired to protection, fear and rage. So how hard would it be to point this as a misdirection at any issue you choose.  The world wasn’t fair to them. Perhaps the moral compass never truly formed or formed incorrectly. 

Take BLM for instance. We had massive amounts of young people feeling they had the right to tear things up.  During that time, we had white people feeling terrible about being white. How must shame and fear must have to hate yourself that much. This was further advanced by the lack of law enforcement. So, the event appeared righteous.  Thise was one of the bigger changes in how things were viewed. It gave young people the feeling that they had a right to act out. 

Today we see a movement to honor a woman that killed her children. There is no doubt from her or her attorney that she strangled her babies. Yet, there are scores of women standing up for her. I have never seen anything so broken. 

Anger is a natural emotion; we all have it. Rage on the other hand is anger out of control.  It doesn’t come from the logical frontal lobe, it comes from the hypothalamus, the fight or flight part of the brain. We see a lot of illogical actions these days, like perhaps the hypothalamus is being activated more often.  When the hypothalamus registers a threat it sends signals to the endocrine system to release hormones and adrenaline. 

So I look at these groups of people that are so enraged over events that are not their issue.  It’s like they need to keep the fight or flight chemicals flowing, like an addiction. They have been taught to find a cause to feel the rage. There is little logic to any of it. 

Mainstream media, speakers, and social media all play a role in this. I don’t know who is behind it all, but it is nefarious. I think we will see this ramp up when people finally realize that the covid vaccine wasn’t what it was advertised to be. As more people become ill, fear will be a force. It will have to go somewhere. 

So, what do we do? I don’t like talking about an issue without some kind of a solution. Because there are people with empathy that has been distorted, they do mirror, so why not give them something positive to mirror. Joy, happiness, serenity.  Living your life in a positive way, being an example. There is so much good in the world, we could all be part of it, and give those in trauma something else to think about. 

As an aside, not all empathic people are broken, and it is my humble opinion that most are using this ability in positive ways. Just sayin.