Comment on Too soon?

• certified_expert@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  TLDW. what would the difference between sympathy and empathy be?

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  • SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    merriam-webster.com/…/sympathy-empathy-difference

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    • certified_expert@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I would argue that the average person refers to a mix of both when they use the word “empathy”:

      • caring about the other person’s pain
      • being there for them
      • trying to see things from their perspective
      • wanting the other person to be better and wondering how one could help.

      Classifying one as “a terrible problem” and the other as acceptable seems (at least) a bit pedantic. Specially when it comes to language, a dynamic phenomena in which words mean what (the majority of) people deem them to mean.

      my two cents

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      • SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        The train of thought he talked about right when he said that was that in the past politicians said they feel your pain, even if they are an opponent. Now politicians try to make the case that people aren’t in pain.

        In that comparison I linked one of the differences is sympathy is feeling pain as your own and another is acknowledging pain without feeling it at all.

        I’m not saying I agree with his take, but it went from thinking “this guy doesn’t care about others at all” to “grammar police sidenote where he wants people to say sympathy more”

        Context is important and I never heard or watched him at all so I wanted to share for people who were interested like I was.

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