I don't know about other conservatives, but I don't. I'm more than willing to help out someone down on their luck. However, there is a fine line between having empathy for someone, and just letting someone take you for everything you have.
I don't consider it a weakness. However, most of us don't let our empathy get in the way of reality and facts. We may feel empathy for someone that us unemployed and is on the verge of becoming homeless, but in the real world, unintended consequences and the way incentives, or lack thereof, affect people show us that giving people an easy out promotes the bad behavior that in most cases leads to the dire situations people find themselves in. Empathy needs to be balanced with holding people to standards of personal responsibility and accountability for the actions and choices they make.
My cousin, whom I am very close to, is a perfect example. He has shirked his responsibilities time and time again, and then turns to the government for a handout for his irresponsible behavior. He stays at a job on average for about 2-3 months before he quits or gets fired for poor attendance. Which he then turns to welfare to bail him out until he gets off his @ss to find another job, and the sad thing is he feels entitled to welfare and unemployment benefits, even though he himself puts himself in these situations every time. It can be avoided, but he's lazy, and has a sense of entitlement due to the fact welfare and other government programs encourage his bad behavior.
Of course they do. All conservatives live, breathe and trumpet a Darwinian might makes right sink or swim mother****** philosophy. It is all about I got mine (which is usually not much thanks to the republican powers that be that have pulled off the swindle of the era, namely getting the slaves to vote against their own interests financially and otherwise time and again) and screw everyone else. It is what they are known for, and rightfully so.
Law man you to good and smart a person to get tangled up with these meat heads in politics, you would be better off talking philosophy to a cow patty then trying to discuss politics with these road apples.
Of course. That's what I don't get about Christian Republicans in particular: They seem to cherish all of the stuff in the Bible about anger, strictness, punishment etc, but they ignore Jesus' central theme which is compassion for our fellow human beings.
"No, we have it as a balance. When it overcomes reality in the case of liberals, then yes it can be a weakness"
The economy, the very concept of economics, was created by human beings. It's not some sort of universal force over which we have no control. Therefore "reality", in an economic sense, is whatever we as a society decide it will be.
Why wasn't this basic human emotion passed down to these people. Sometimes I think that they were raised by wolves. That would explain their dog eat dog mentality.
Comments
No, we have it as a balance. When it overcomes reality in the case of liberals, then yes it can be a weakness
Too much empathy, and people take advantage of you left and right
I don't know about other conservatives, but I don't. I'm more than willing to help out someone down on their luck. However, there is a fine line between having empathy for someone, and just letting someone take you for everything you have.
I don't consider it a weakness. However, most of us don't let our empathy get in the way of reality and facts. We may feel empathy for someone that us unemployed and is on the verge of becoming homeless, but in the real world, unintended consequences and the way incentives, or lack thereof, affect people show us that giving people an easy out promotes the bad behavior that in most cases leads to the dire situations people find themselves in. Empathy needs to be balanced with holding people to standards of personal responsibility and accountability for the actions and choices they make.
My cousin, whom I am very close to, is a perfect example. He has shirked his responsibilities time and time again, and then turns to the government for a handout for his irresponsible behavior. He stays at a job on average for about 2-3 months before he quits or gets fired for poor attendance. Which he then turns to welfare to bail him out until he gets off his @ss to find another job, and the sad thing is he feels entitled to welfare and unemployment benefits, even though he himself puts himself in these situations every time. It can be avoided, but he's lazy, and has a sense of entitlement due to the fact welfare and other government programs encourage his bad behavior.
Of course they do. All conservatives live, breathe and trumpet a Darwinian might makes right sink or swim mother****** philosophy. It is all about I got mine (which is usually not much thanks to the republican powers that be that have pulled off the swindle of the era, namely getting the slaves to vote against their own interests financially and otherwise time and again) and screw everyone else. It is what they are known for, and rightfully so.
Law man you to good and smart a person to get tangled up with these meat heads in politics, you would be better off talking philosophy to a cow patty then trying to discuss politics with these road apples.
Of course. That's what I don't get about Christian Republicans in particular: They seem to cherish all of the stuff in the Bible about anger, strictness, punishment etc, but they ignore Jesus' central theme which is compassion for our fellow human beings.
"No, we have it as a balance. When it overcomes reality in the case of liberals, then yes it can be a weakness"
The economy, the very concept of economics, was created by human beings. It's not some sort of universal force over which we have no control. Therefore "reality", in an economic sense, is whatever we as a society decide it will be.
Yes, and I thank you for asking this question with the word "some," ... since so many people here never use that word the way that they should.
Why wasn't this basic human emotion passed down to these people. Sometimes I think that they were raised by wolves. That would explain their dog eat dog mentality.
No, sympathy would be a sign of weakness
"some"? Yes. But then so do "some" liberals. You can use "some" in any statement probably be correct.