Is empathy political?
-
Empathy is usually believed to be a personal virtue, that some people have and others don’t.
I don't think that's the whole story.
It’s also shaped by power. By conditioning. By rewards and punishments. By who’s allowed to have needs, and who's trained to attend to them.
8/10
Autistic people often don't fit that mold.
We get called rigid, naive, inappropriate. But I think it might be a lot more to do with ethical consistency.
If we’re told honesty matters, we tell the truth. If we’re taught kindness matters, we try to direct it where it seems most needed.
9/10
-
Autistic people often don't fit that mold.
We get called rigid, naive, inappropriate. But I think it might be a lot more to do with ethical consistency.
If we’re told honesty matters, we tell the truth. If we’re taught kindness matters, we try to direct it where it seems most needed.
9/10
So perhaps autistic people aren’t empathy-impaired at all.
Just misaligned with a social order that expects empathy to be smooth, selective, strategic, performative, and status-aware.
And maybe that's really what gets pathologized.
End of 🧵
Full article, with refs, in the link below.
-
So perhaps autistic people aren’t empathy-impaired at all.
Just misaligned with a social order that expects empathy to be smooth, selective, strategic, performative, and status-aware.
And maybe that's really what gets pathologized.
End of 🧵
Full article, with refs, in the link below.
Is empathy political? an article on autistic empathy, by K.J. Elphinstone
Instead of autistic people lacking empathy, our empathy may simply be expressed differently – both in its form, and its direction of travel.
Neurofabulous (www.neurofabulous.org.uk)
-
So perhaps autistic people aren’t empathy-impaired at all.
Just misaligned with a social order that expects empathy to be smooth, selective, strategic, performative, and status-aware.
And maybe that's really what gets pathologized.
End of 🧵
Full article, with refs, in the link below.
I'm quite happy to be misaligned with _that_ social order.
-
I'm quite happy to be misaligned with _that_ social order.
Exactly
-
Now we're onto the topic of power dynamics
I've noticed autistic empathy can be rather unorthodox.
That could mean feeling compassion for animals, plants, trees, octopuses, sharks, avatars, our plushies… or even inanimate objects.
🧸
6/10
@KatyElphinstone yes, we feel strong compassion for non-humans and we feel for plushies too. it makes us uncomfortable when others treat plushies roughly and carelessly.
-
Is empathy political?
A thread on autistic empathy.A still-quite-popular belief about autistic people is that we lack empathy.
I think this is faulty logic.
Here's why:A thread 🧵
1/10
#ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent
#DoubleEmpathy #TheoryOfMind@KatyElphinstone It is total nonsense - & insulting nonsense - to say that we lack #empathy. I well remember my reaction to hearing the story of two #Palestinian #parents in #Gaza whose infant son had been reduced to dismembered pieces in a plastic bag by #Israeli #bombing. I was reduced to helpless tears. Lack of empathy? I don't think so!
-
So perhaps autistic people aren’t empathy-impaired at all.
Just misaligned with a social order that expects empathy to be smooth, selective, strategic, performative, and status-aware.
And maybe that's really what gets pathologized.
End of 🧵
Full article, with refs, in the link below.
@KatyElphinstone If I where to generalize, going just by the people I know, it seems more to me like it's the 'allistics' who are empathy-impaired, and masking+projecting.
-
@KatyElphinstone If I where to generalize, going just by the people I know, it seems more to me like it's the 'allistics' who are empathy-impaired, and masking+projecting.
I honestly think it's our whole society, as it stands, that's empathy impaired
️ -
Is empathy political? an article on autistic empathy, by K.J. Elphinstone
Instead of autistic people lacking empathy, our empathy may simply be expressed differently – both in its form, and its direction of travel.
Neurofabulous (www.neurofabulous.org.uk)
@KatyElphinstone empathy is NTs is 'performative'. yes, absolutely.
can anyone look around at the state of the world and think that neurotypicals are doing a good job of practicing empathy? or that they even have the right to define what empathy looks like, to the exclusion of others?
my autistic friends are extraordinarily empathetic, it just doesn't look exactly like what we are told it's supposed to.
-
So perhaps autistic people aren’t empathy-impaired at all.
Just misaligned with a social order that expects empathy to be smooth, selective, strategic, performative, and status-aware.
And maybe that's really what gets pathologized.
End of 🧵
Full article, with refs, in the link below.
@KatyElphinstone well said! I think the fact that allistics manage to pathologize a strong sense of justice says it all tbh. It's the same with honest autistic empathy.
-
So perhaps autistic people aren’t empathy-impaired at all.
Just misaligned with a social order that expects empathy to be smooth, selective, strategic, performative, and status-aware.
And maybe that's really what gets pathologized.
End of 🧵
Full article, with refs, in the link below.
@KatyElphinstone spot on! i love love love your work, it resonates so well with me
big thank you -
@KatyElphinstone spot on! i love love love your work, it resonates so well with me
big thank youOoh thank you
🫂 -
So perhaps autistic people aren’t empathy-impaired at all.
Just misaligned with a social order that expects empathy to be smooth, selective, strategic, performative, and status-aware.
And maybe that's really what gets pathologized.
End of 🧵
Full article, with refs, in the link below.
I have met some autistic people. And these ones were not emotionally impaired. So maybe it is a question of spectrum.
Disclaimer: I am not versed in the subject so very ignorant. Just observing.
-
Is empathy political?
A thread on autistic empathy.A still-quite-popular belief about autistic people is that we lack empathy.
I think this is faulty logic.
Here's why:A thread 🧵
1/10
#ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent
#DoubleEmpathy #TheoryOfMindOne thing I’ve quite resent is how some certain billionaires I won’t mention Elon Musk or Alex Karp by name, clothe themselves in that label in order to, if I’m going to be honest, paper over the antisocial personality . That’s a lot different from a condition where one can get overloaded with sensory information.
Empathy is that ability to comprehend the emotional state of another being. It is a critical faculty to navigate social context.
1/n
-
One thing I’ve quite resent is how some certain billionaires I won’t mention Elon Musk or Alex Karp by name, clothe themselves in that label in order to, if I’m going to be honest, paper over the antisocial personality . That’s a lot different from a condition where one can get overloaded with sensory information.
Empathy is that ability to comprehend the emotional state of another being. It is a critical faculty to navigate social context.
1/n
The notion that it’s a virtue, cannot be entirely correct because we have neuron structures to make that perception possible.
Empathy as a word that’s used within academic context is a very broad term so they contextualize what they actually are referring to.
There’s a capacity to read and understand the emotional landscape of others, which are quite distinct from how an individual uses that understanding.
2/n
-
I have met some autistic people. And these ones were not emotionally impaired. So maybe it is a question of spectrum.
Disclaimer: I am not versed in the subject so very ignorant. Just observing.
No, indeed, autistic people are not emotionally impaired 🥰
-
The notion that it’s a virtue, cannot be entirely correct because we have neuron structures to make that perception possible.
Empathy as a word that’s used within academic context is a very broad term so they contextualize what they actually are referring to.
There’s a capacity to read and understand the emotional landscape of others, which are quite distinct from how an individual uses that understanding.
2/n
A manipulative like a con man could use it to trick people. Others respond to people around them in prosocial ways.
But especially now the far right has made a campaign of vilifying it is some novel creation of the left, even though science says no, this is part of our wiring
N/n
-
Thank you
🥰Interestingly, I got the book "Against empathy", by Paul Bloom, out of my University library last week. I'd highly recommend it, as he goes into the definitions etc. We're basically saying a lot of the same things regarding how empathy gets defined, but just using different words.
-
Thank you
🥰Interestingly, I got the book "Against empathy", by Paul Bloom, out of my University library last week. I'd highly recommend it, as he goes into the definitions etc. We're basically saying a lot of the same things regarding how empathy gets defined, but just using different words.
Another fascinating thing I've got from the book - which looks at various studies into the matter - is how not having empathy (as currently defined) doesn't result in more violence, cruelty, etc.
My autistic brain says perhaps we are really underestimating the role of logic in social justice and kindness.
And in fact, a lot of what we currently call empathy results in partisanship, and dehumanizing other groups
️
