Is empathy political?
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@KatyElphinstone spot on! i love love love your work, it resonates so well with me
big thank youOoh thank you
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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.
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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 🧵
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#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.
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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.
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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 🥰
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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
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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.
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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
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@Susan60 Don't know if I can't see the thread or what, but please could I have the link?
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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
Yes. Nicely put indeed.
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@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.
@coppercrush @KatyElphinstone You're absolutely right.
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Yes. Nicely put indeed.
Hm you may be interested in this thread as well, just because it follows on from this thought...so thinking about the difference between feeling it, and what you do about it: https://mas.to/@KatyElphinstone/116070156336606549
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@Susan60 @KatyElphinstone When someone maintains the divide, more united we must be.We have the right to realise ourselves.
Let's unite. -
Hm you may be interested in this thread as well, just because it follows on from this thought...so thinking about the difference between feeling it, and what you do about it: https://mas.to/@KatyElphinstone/116070156336606549
@KatyElphinstone @GhostOnTheHalfShell Well that was an infuriating read.
“Our study showed that these abnormal people are, indeed, mentally impaired in understanding other people.”
“And how does it do that?”
“By conflating moral judgements with mental capacity we can say that non-normative results for one equal the other.”
“…were those judgements wrong, or did the participants not justify them…?”
“Oh, we never asked. We didn’t need to. We understand people, you see.” -
So perhaps it's about direction of travel?
Service and deference, in society, are meant to flow upwards.
Yet we autistics, it seems, are more likely to feel for the excluded person, the animal or child… the spider in the bath, or the earthworm on a sunny road.
7/10
I really appreciate you for this.
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@KatyElphinstone @GhostOnTheHalfShell Well that was an infuriating read.
“Our study showed that these abnormal people are, indeed, mentally impaired in understanding other people.”
“And how does it do that?”
“By conflating moral judgements with mental capacity we can say that non-normative results for one equal the other.”
“…were those judgements wrong, or did the participants not justify them…?”
“Oh, we never asked. We didn’t need to. We understand people, you see.” -
Here's to being weak, woke, and leftist
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I really appreciate you for this.
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@Susan60 Don't know if I can't see the thread or what, but please could I have the link?
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)
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No, indeed, autistic people are not emotionally impaired 🥰
🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
