I need someone to explain to me the rational behind having empathy for instigators and false accusers; as well as for the family, friends, and communities that support them and even help them in their efforts or victim blame those effects/affected by them.
>>16910645
The rationale is (supposedly) that everyone deserves empathy, because we would want people to empathize with us.
I can't say I hold with it. There are people in this world who do not deserve empathy (such as instigators), and even people with whom it is actively harmful to empathize with (such as false accusers). Their friends and loved ones, now, that's a different subject: their only crime is being mistaken, and it's tough to blame them for that, given that they are being duped.
>>16910645
If we start from the assumption that there is no gene for being evil, then everyone who does bad things is reacting to things in their past that made them turn sour. It is therefore possible to see them as victims first, and evil-doers only after being victims.
It can take the forgiveness and generosity of a saint to believe that fully, but we all make some small effort to forgive, just to avoid being burned up in resentment.
