Nazis and the Nature of Evil

[Yukaphile]

Well, people sometimes tend to think outside influences made them psychopaths, past the obvious outside influences such as parental guidance and genetics, which are the only two that I think should count in our all-important early formative years, where you are still developing.

[Dragon Ball Fan]

That says more about the limitations of your imagination than it does about anything else.

I still don't see it. how can someone like me who has empathy, put myself in the shoes of someone who does not?

[Yukaphile]

Well, I can do it easily. Of course, it's probably not very true to the actual reality of a non-empathetic sociopath.

[Dragon Ball Fan]

Well, I can do it easily. Of course, it's probably not very true to the actual reality of a non-empathetic sociopath.

that's exactly my point, I just cannot understand the mindset of a sociopath. someone who hurts others for a perceived greater good but also does not like that he has to hurt others, I can understand but someone who gets off on hurting people like Hitler, I refuse to even call a human being, or even a non-human animal, they are monsters.

[Jonathan101]

There are different kinds of empathy so it isn't really impossible.

[Yukaphile]

My big problem with all this... well, it's a point I've beaten over into the ground, so won't go over all that again. Needless to say, though, it's shocking how this issue can bring up so many people who are heartless out there. Think they have great empathy, but turn out to be as nasty-hearted as those they despise. I don't expect better from myself, and I know my limits. After all... I'm human.

[Dragon Ball Fan]

My big problem with all this... well, it's a point I've beaten over into the ground, so won't go over all that again. Needless to say, though, it's shocking how this issue can bring up so many people who are heartless out there. Think they have great empathy, but turn out to be as nasty-hearted as those they despise. I don't expect better from myself, and I know my limits. After all... I'm human.

your going on about that again? I never said every single person in Germany in WWII was a monster, just the ones directly involved in the Holocaust.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Well, I can do it easily. Of course, it's probably not very true to the actual reality of a non-empathetic sociopath.

that's exactly my point, I just cannot understand the mindset of a sociopath. someone who hurts others for a perceived greater good but also does not like that he has to hurt others, I can understand but someone who gets off on hurting people like Hitler, I refuse to even call a human being, or even a non-human animal, they are monsters.

The scary thing is that he didn't get off on it. He wasn't a sadist. He was somebody reshaping the world to conform to what he thought it should be. I doubt he took any actual joy in the death of the people he tried to wipe off the face of the earth.

Saying he's not a human, not an animal, just a monster...that's an easy way to distance yourself from him, and his motives.

[Yukaphile]

Truly the 1940s was the utter low point of our whole society. One we should be grateful will likely never come again. Assuming there's some kind of natural disaster. Which you never know...

[Yukaphile]

@Fuzzy Necromancer I mean, aren't you the guy who thinks Trump voters are all 100% KKK/neo-Nazis/white ultra-nationalists? I seem to recall you looking down on them, but tbh, I can't get mad at Trump voters. It just proves we haven't evolved as far past racial and gendered differences as we like to "pretend" we have. I just can't pass judgment on and condemn 60,000,000 people. If you feel upset, enraged at them, that's your right. But at the same time, it's the same thing you said above, isn't it? Not trying to understand the other side. I think it's more important than ever in today's world, because we will never have a perfect human society without true empathy. And I try to put myself in someone's headspace as much as possible. I talk to people who didn't vote Trump, but lean right wing, with views you'd find abhorrent. They aren't monsters. They aren't criminals. I don't even pity them. It can be hard to understand sometimes, but I try very hard. I tend to look at the things we have in common, in those cases. Doing so can help you learn all sorts of new things about yourself too.