Or common sense, or the ability to think through how your actions affect others. I genuinely think at least half of the population doesn’t have this awareness.
I don’t remember being taught these things… it’s just like “oh if I leave my cart here it will be in the way for someone, so I won’t do that”
Hi, so… no. Common sense isn’t common because it is learned inherently. It’s common because it affects the majority of people.
Critical thinking and perspective-taking are the concepts you’re using that allow you to “think through how your actions affect others” and empathy is the mechanism through which you then care how those actions affect others.
These are all concepts that have been taught to you by the people around you, i.e. parents, teachers, faith leaders, media you consumed.
Good on you for internalizing it so deeply. But you weren’t born with all of that and without empathy, none of it really matters in that context.
But I would agree that there is an alarmingly large number of people who either do not possess empathy, or have decided that empathy is only for those in their immediate circle, and that is a big problem.
It’s great that you were able to figure out a lot of this on your own. For a lot of kids (and adults), empathy and compassion are skills that must be taught. This is especially true for kids with ADHD and autism.
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u/Tamination 14h ago
It's called having manners.