I hear these comments for not wanting to help people, and it feels like we’re worshipping individuality to the detriment of community, which is necessary for survival.
- “I don’t want my money going to ___ .”
- “This is not a democracy, it’s a constitutional republic!”
- “You don’t have any freedoms under socialism/communism.”
- “They’re just looking for a handout because they’re lazy.”
- “I’m a self-made man. I didn’t need anyone’s help.”
- “Empathy is not a virtue.”
- “I don’t see how that’s my problem.”
Some of that is dumbfuckism. Constitutional republics are democracies, for example.
Some of those sentiments have always existed & come across as though you were born yesterday.
While socialism is a broad term, communism usually refers to communist states, which are authoritarian regimes that even in theory reject universal individual rights/liberties. Non-authoritarian socialism is something else.
People have a duty to beneficence. However, plenty of people lazily toss empathy around as an argument from outrage fallacy instead of bothering to build a more credible & persuasive argument. Listeners get sick of that fast & don’t mind if you think of them as monsters: they certainly don’t care about your poorly argued opinions.
So, that could be deprogramming or it could be ineffective discussion breakdowns. I don’t think empathy requires programming. I’d think its rejection require reprogramming.
Individualism doesn’t necessarily mean selfishness. As pointed out elsewhere, collectivism can also lead to oppressive injustices.