At heart, I am a philosopher. Well, to some extent. It is a passion that I normally keep to isolated binges in my dorm room, ruminating over the nature of the implications of the social contract and wondering what makes us tick. This may be rooted to my absolute undying love for psychology and neuroscience, but I digress. One of my favorite concepts in philosophy is the root of empathy. What exactly makes us want to relate to others around us when we are in a clear evolutionary rivalry?

These questions are the ones that keep me going. I seem to live off of the questions that truly have no answers. I speculate that this comes from my bad habit of trapping myself in my thoughts in order to escape the world around me, but, again, this is an ironic display of yet another question that I feel has no answer. From what I understand, the root of the empathy question comes down to how empathy is just a foundational aspect of relationships and the construction of a society. It is the reason why we have laws governing the preservation of human life and why it is so extremely difficult to hold back tears while watching compilations of soldiers returning home from deployment—especially if it contains dogs, those ones get me every time.

Yet when I look at society, I notice a stark lack of empathy in so many people. Like I have mentioned before (and will mention again countless times), interpersonal conflict is something that I would like to see disappear. Permanently. I want to maintain a positive outlook when it comes to humanity, but it grows harder every day.

I do find one thing more deplorable than war, however: hatred for empathy's sake.

Honestly, I find the concept hard to comprehend too. How can people actually hate others due to their empathy? If you did, in fact, ask this, then allow me to respond with another question: do you believe in equality?

If your answer was yes, I will absolutely stand by your side, hand-in-hand in solidarity. But I also request that you take a look around. Observe the behavior of those around you. I bring this up because the modus operandi for many advocates of social justice resemble a kind of retributive justice that I seek to fight against.

It's cruel, isn't it? Fighting oppression by advocating for the oppression of others? A cruel irony that I detest with every fiber of my being.

I, personally, have come across many people—both on and off the internet—that take this concept and run with it. They seem to thrive off the suffering of others. For example, any person with a mug that contains the words "male tears" probably exhibits this tendency quite clearly. They seek only to devalue the so-called oppressor of a minority, othering them as a pariah that must check its privilege and then, like, die or something (at least if he's white, then #KillAllMen is perfectly fine). When an entire group of people is demonized for something they cannot control (e.g. biological sex, race, sexual orientation, etc.), it justifies oppressing them in response to a perceived injustice. The worst part about all of this trite is that the very people these groups are trying to exact revenge against are made guilty to the point of joining in their own destruction.

How insidious. Out of every reason for exploitation, when it is done with the target's empathy in the crosshairs, it resembles the form of indoctrination one would see from cult recruiters. This kind of person preys on those who want to better themselves or better society. Normally, a group of people with a similar interest in introspection or philanthropy would be perfectly acceptable in my eyes; but the moment individual members are told to devalue others of a certain group for characteristics they cannot control, all while literally celebrating in their suffering and demanding their subordination, I will gladly fight in opposition to such a societal infection.

I am not addressing this issue to lambaste specific individuals; I only do so because a dialogue—meaning not just one person speaking—is the best way to resolve these issues and actually achieve our goals. To me, that goal is creating a society that values each individual regardless of factors they cannot control and refusing to take control over others whose factors are seen as not only morally bereft but reasonably incorrigible.

And it is through this platform that I plan on doing so.