My stipulated definition is not “small-scale kindness”, it is the emotional concern for other’s well-being that causes an “emotional inclination to be kind”. Politicians lack concern for others’ suffering because they cannot have sonder, and therefore cannot have emotional concern, for the suffering of everyone their policies will affect. (Just about everyone has intellectual/abstract concern for others’ suffering; we can all say, “children dying in a war is bad”, but when we hear news about such, we don’t have the same emotional reaction that we would have if the dying children were members of our own families or communities.) Emotionally identifying with and caring about people is known as affective/compassionate empathy; those with ASPD lack this, though they may have cognitive empathy (which is how they can manipulate people).
I don’t believe that empathy is the sole cause and determiner of political polarization, only that it is the root. While tribalism is present in all societies (Europe and Japan are not free of racism, for instance), social factors such as the identification of ethnicity/culture/religion with politics, influence of social media, and presence of charismatic individuals (the modern American right would not have existed to the same extent without Donald Trump) drive tribalism along political lines.
My concern is that you are not being careful enough with your words to ensure the reader picks up what your trying to communicate.
For example, “I don’t believe that empathy is the sole cause” shortly followed by “it is the root”. Those are contradictory statements. Perhaps you could have said “it is one of the roots of tribe formation”
I honestly also do not understand what you mean by “emotional concern”. Are you saying that someone “has a preference for others to be well, but only if they are in their in-group”?
By “emotional concern”, I intended to convey that you feel an emotional impulse in response to how someone else feels; you are physically/emotionally upset by seeing someone suffering, and you are made physically/emotionally joyful by seeing someone succeeding.
My stipulated definition is not “small-scale kindness”, it is the emotional concern for other’s well-being that causes an “emotional inclination to be kind”. Politicians lack concern for others’ suffering because they cannot have sonder, and therefore cannot have emotional concern, for the suffering of everyone their policies will affect. (Just about everyone has intellectual/abstract concern for others’ suffering; we can all say, “children dying in a war is bad”, but when we hear news about such, we don’t have the same emotional reaction that we would have if the dying children were members of our own families or communities.) Emotionally identifying with and caring about people is known as affective/compassionate empathy; those with ASPD lack this, though they may have cognitive empathy (which is how they can manipulate people).
I don’t believe that empathy is the sole cause and determiner of political polarization, only that it is the root. While tribalism is present in all societies (Europe and Japan are not free of racism, for instance), social factors such as the identification of ethnicity/culture/religion with politics, influence of social media, and presence of charismatic individuals (the modern American right would not have existed to the same extent without Donald Trump) drive tribalism along political lines.
My concern is that you are not being careful enough with your words to ensure the reader picks up what your trying to communicate.
For example, “I don’t believe that empathy is the sole cause” shortly followed by “it is the root”. Those are contradictory statements. Perhaps you could have said “it is one of the roots of tribe formation”
I honestly also do not understand what you mean by “emotional concern”. Are you saying that someone “has a preference for others to be well, but only if they are in their in-group”?
By “emotional concern”, I intended to convey that you feel an emotional impulse in response to how someone else feels; you are physically/emotionally upset by seeing someone suffering, and you are made physically/emotionally joyful by seeing someone succeeding.