[balamatom]

Well, considering her son ended up on fentanyl, probably not very able to tell some things, yeah.

"I'm sorry kid, I know you probably have aspirations and all that shit, but due to a host of technical reasons we don't care about any of that. Here's this fentanyl instead, either shoot it or go sell it to the next loser. And say hi to your mom from me - she's an absolutely remarkable woman."

[bitlax]

There goes that empathy. Glad you do in fact realize that dealing fentanyl is wrong. Not something fantastic people do.

Edit: After your edit you seem to have found a rationale for rounding up and executing drug dealers "because reasons" so I think we're all done here.

[bitlax]

On re-read I may have been caught by Poe's Law here, in which case Thank God. I need sarcasm tags.

[balamatom]

No, there's no Poe's Law involved; it's just that you're unlikely to permit yourself to empathize with anything else besides your ingroup. (Exactly as unlikely as you're meant to be; congratulations - there is some safety in numbers).

That's all rather revealing as to what this so called "empathy" actually is, and why of all possible ethical values this is the one which epitomes of uncaring choose to pay lip service to.

Circling back to your original strawmonster - no, I don't believe any particular disaffected youth has had any voice in whether society should go through an opioid epidemic. As to the actual people responsible, I'm sure you'd perceive them as having vivid, rich inner lives, not unlike your own.

[bitlax]

> you're unlikely to permit yourself to empathize with anything else besides your ingroup.

But in your example you described an attitude of depraved indifference, which is exactly how I described the motivations of many drug dealers, including ones I know and that you do not.

[balamatom]

Phone, please.

>But in your example you described an attitude of depraved indifference, which is exactly how I described the motivations of many drug dealers, including ones I know and that you do not.

You're pointing at a contradiction in "unlikely" or in "ingroup"?

>attitude of depraved indifference

We stock two flavors of indifference in the indifference truck, we got callous and then we got depraved. Callous is sans empathy, weighs one `compartmentalize()` call. Depraved is the one with the extra sprinkle of empathy, more precisely a dash of empathy with the victim in the very moment the indifferent person is screwing them over with their sheer indifference. So, not very indifferent anymore, but what some people go for anyway. Empathy is very poignant after all. Plus, observers are none the wiser. Now, how much flavor you prefer, that's kind of career-deciding innit

[bitlax]

I see where you're coming from.