“Follow-up to ‘My Empathy Is Rarely Kind’” by johnswentworth

There's now over 100 comments on “My Empathy Is Rarely Kind”, and the consensus response is roughly “John, that's not what empathy is”.

So, first things first: I agree. I was using the wrong words for the things I tried to describe, and this was a useful thing to realize, so thank you everyone for that!

As a result of using the wrong words, I think people mostly walked away with the impression that I don’t know how to do the-thing-usually-called-”empathy”. And while I don’t claim to be especially good at empathy, I think the post gave an inaccurate impression, due to using the wrong words.

I do, in fact, empathize with literal cats. I track what the cat is thinking and feeling, and part of that is vicariously feeling some of what the cat feels. I can empathize with humans in the same way I empathize with cats. [...]

---

First published:

July 31st, 2025

Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KJh2xckmCNAggisuq/follow-up-to-my-empathy-is-rarely-kind

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.