one that I actually like using to describe myself as a human being, it is the one of an empath.

Yeah, I'm kinda one myself.

"You should not accept people’s vile behaviors because they once had been victims too."

Screw that. I totally think you...actually...I don't "accept" it, I try to understand it. We're all humans. Some of us might be sociopaths or psychopaths...but they're still humans. My efforts to understand people and accept that they are fucked in the head but they should still be treated like humans shapes my opinions on a number of things, like prison reform.

Those people just made mistakes, or were shaped by their life. They shouldn't be treated like they're hopeless and just shoved into a box for years as some primitive form of payback for their crimes. That's just cruel.

If more people were empathetic to their plight, we'd actually have a lot less people in prison, because we would understand that people make mistakes, and we would ensure that they go through programs that actually reform them, without shoving them in a box. Or hell, we could still shove them in a box, but instead something more akin to a dorm. If you had to attend classes for 2 or 4 years or whatever that taught you how to be a better person, and at the end you could get a job in a field of your choosing, hopefully as a better person.

Quite a few countries have tried out making facilities that are less like prisons...and it works. We could totally design a system that wouldn't be so cruel.

Hell, we could even possibly get them working in different ways for real wages, paying off some of the cost of taking care of them. In America they have them working for slave wages, yet they still have to pay for things in prison, meaning female prisoners can't even afford to pay for pads or tampons if they go over their allotment. That's fucked up.

A group of workers to instantly work on whatever you need without having to go through a bunch of resumes is already pretty valuable. They don't have to pay them slave wages when they gotta pay for a lawyer too, if they wanna have one that's not useless.

I have no problem being empathetic. I feel for the plight of even the worst criminals. Even if they have committed crimes...they're still humans. They should be treated humanely. From what I know of the prison system in America and certain other countries...that's not really how they're treated. Hell, people think it's funny that they can be raped.

Some may stand with the belief that humans are inherently selfish beings by nature.

Of course they are. They're also communal. We're the next evolution from a pack animal. We form packs and use communication and working together to extend that pack to a much larger community.

I am a firm believer that empathy has to be modeled to us from a young age

To a degree. I learned my level of empathy over time. Probably a lot of it a lot older than when I was young. But I suppose I was always a bit more empathetic than most.

showing empathy solely to individuals you think are worthy of receiving it.

Yeah...that's really weird. It doesn't quite sound right. Something wrong with that.

Recently, I came across a tweet from Neil deGrasse Tyson

I got really annoyed that people gave him so much shit over that. Of course I've followed Neil's work and listened to quite a few podcasts of his and talks and such. I've heard him talk about this before. He's totally right. We let our emotions cloud our thinking. Of course we should address gun violence...but there are a lot of things we need to address...and quite a few of them are ignored.

Those medical examples could definitely be reduced to an extreme degree if medical wasn't so fucked in America.

There's also heart disease and obesity, which are totally caused by corporations pushing sugar down our throats, among other things.

But the news focuses on shootings. If they decided to focus on another problem for whatever reason, people would start to care about that.

The shootings are a horrible issue that we should address...but it's not like the politicians are actually putting forth real solutions. Background checks only keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Assault weapons bans only keep them from getting assault styled weapons, which means nothing. It's just a style or look. Might as well make black guns illegal. Mentally ill people are actually less likely to shoot anyone as well. They're more likely to be victims. Red flag laws are unconstitutional, since they involve taking the guns from people who often haven't committed a crime. They could possibly stop a few shooters though, if someone thinks someone is a danger. But to do that they'd take the guns away from a lot of people, and some of them might resist. Banning bump stocks and huge magazines might help a lot...if they couldn't be 3D printed so damn easily.

Empathy is a good thing...but only if we use our heads. Right now we're all tired of these shootings, and we're letting these politicians play games pretending they're gonna do something when it's a hugely complex issue.

For the gun issue, I'd say the intelligent thing to do would be to treat it like a numbers game. We should maybe limit the guns that are available in big box stores, so people have to go to specialty stores, perhaps that require more scrutiny. Maybe require training courses to buy a gun. Maybe include a psyche eval with the background checks. Maybe require further training and evaluations for different levels of guns.

Also maybe require cops to be certified sharp shooters to carry a gun, and do training in hand to hand combat, because they're more likely to be shot by their own gun than by anyone else's. Less cops with guns also means less criminals with guns, since cops getting machine guns actually were the reason gangsters got them back in the day. If criminals know having a gun will bring sharp shooters that will kill them, but not having a gun will only get them maybe tazed? They won't carry guns.

Empathy is important. We just need to use our brains too. Right now, in regards to many things in society, we need a lot more empathy. It's costing us a lot of money and people's lives.

Jesus I talked a lot this time. Sorry.