Empathy: no longer a zero-sum game
It was, but now you ruined it.
A zero-sum game is an economic theory that has been coopted into a catchphrase by popular culture, to mean that if you get some, I get less. Like, presumably there’s a limited amount of money for social services so if we spend it all on giving poor kids vaccines, there will be nothing leftover for billionaire megayacht maintenance.
It’s often used in the negative for hippy-dippy reasons, to urge people not to get jealous of rival comedians who are more succesful than me. Like my mom always says, “just because you lost the part of “Creepy Weirdo #2” to [NAME REDACTED] again, doesn’t mean your time isn’t coming! So stop crying.”
The implication being that things like “success” or “love” or “kindness” aren’t zero-sum games, there’s more than enough to go around.
Despite my aura of being “too cool for school" that I project, I actually tend to agree with this philosophy.
I would go so far as to extend something like “empathy” to this list. Or I would have.
Empathy is free. To quote Belushi completely out of context: “Don’t cost nothin’.” The ability to put yourself in someone’s shoes is a wonderful gift. It can de-escalate contentious situations, humanize people you disagree with and generally contribute to your own well-being and happiness.
If you see people as real human beings with thoughts and emotions and not just stupid idiots put on earth to annoy you, you can achieve a level of control over your own emotions that approaches the concept of inner peace.
Because there’s probably a reason they are acting like that, right? They’ve had a bad day. Somebody in their past taught them to behave that way. Your high school bully was probably mistreated by his parents.
It instantly disarms you. It gives you context. You see the whole picture and you’re reminded we all have our traumas and we’re all just trying to get by in life.
Most relevant here, though, empathy shouldn’t be a zero-sum game. If I have empathy for one person, that doesn’t mean I somehow have less empathy for somebody else. And I shouldn’t conserve my empathy for someone I deem more worthy, right?
Wrong.
Meet Shiloh Hendrix.
She called a 5-year old autistic kid the n-word because he took her diaper bag. Then when somebody put it on TikTok, she started a fundraising site to trick people out of a quarter of a million dollars (and counting,) by convincing them she was the real victim.
“Maybe she was having a bad day — “ Stop. No.
“She might have been the victim of racism in the past. Yes, reverse racism is still rac — “ Just don’t.
I’m done. I’m tired. I don’t have any more. I ran out.
This goes for all of you. You know who you are:
The ones who voted to end handouts but somehow didn’t realize that meant your handouts.
The ones who wanted to throw people out of the country like garbage but thought you would be an exception because you’re one of “the good ones.”
The ones who didn’t bother to look up “terms for ruining a joke,” and then did the actual, literal thing that describes, and then got sad when nobody thought it was funny.
You might have enough empathy left for these clowns, and if you do, God bless ya. I mean that.
As for me, I’ll save my empathy for [NAME REDACTED] when it’s his turn to be jealous s of me, because I landed the part of the pedophile who gets decapitated in the new Tarantino movie.