It’s not you it’s them. They have no empathy.

If you’re someone who has normal human empathy like me,it’s probably getting really hard to watch what’s happening in the United States right now.You’re not crazy.But I wanted to find out exactly what’s going on here.So, I did some research on why some people seem like they have no empathy.What I found out was crazySo I put together a list, and I want to share it with you.Authoritarian regimes try exploit people’s empathy.This is their number one tactic.Empathy is the brake pedal on cruelty.Most people don’t want to see other people suffer.But authoritarian regimes exploit this by dehumanizing groups of people.They call them enemies, traitors, invaders, illegalsAnd once you start dehumanizing people, anything becomes justifiable.Low empathy plus high fear equals an authoritarian mindset.Most of these people who seem to have no empathygrew up in households where love was conditionalauthority was absoluteand questioning the authority (your parents) was consistently punishedThey learned safety comes from obedience, not connection.Authoritarian followers crave order, fear chaos, and react strongly to perceived threats.They have a very large over-active Amygdala, that’s the part of the brain that controls fear.authoritarian households reward go along to get along or else.So their group identity replaces empathy.The leader becomes their father figure.When a group of people fuse their identity to a person or a movement, facts become hostile.Any criticism is seen as a personal attack.The only language that is spoken is one of loyalty to the leader. OR ELSE YOU’RE OUT OF THE GROUP, OSTRACIZED, PUNISHED or worse.That is why you cannot disagree with any of these people.Propaganda just needs to make you stop caring about the targeted group.Once that happens, fear and loyalty take over completely.Radicalization spreads through group reinforcement.Dehumanizing jokes, slurs, threats, and loyalty signals that normalize cruelty over time.That’s why the rhetoric keeps escalating.If you try and hold the leader accountable, followers see it as persecution of the leader.If you don’t hold them accountable, the leader escalates the cruelty.People without empathy don’t experience that pain, guys. They don’t. They literally don’t feel it.That’s why they can celebrate when others get hurt.If you feel exhausted, it’s because you still have empathy.You feel the real world harm, the breakdown of human decency.If you’re someone who feels empathy like I do, you’re not weak.You’re normal.You’re just in a reality where empathy is being exploited. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lucasbean.substack.com/subscribe