I’m tired of explaining my motives to people who don’t “get” altruism. When pressed by a friend on whether I’d bought a ticket for a car raffle as we had last year, I said, “no, all my money is focused on helping #Ukraine.” “Why?”, he asked. “Do you have family there?”. “No”, I said, to his bafflement. Yesterday, I told the guy taking my blood donation that I was a 3rd generation donor. He asked, “Did someone in your family need blood?” “No”, I explained “Nobody.” Is everyone that self serving?
@cassandra17lina A shocking amount of people never develop any empathy for others outside of their 'group'.
It takes something bad happening to them or their loved ones to get them to give a damn, and even then - they often don't. Hell, my husbands family claims to be supportive of him, and then donate large sums of cash and vote for the very people wanting to take away his freedom to transition.
Humans who actually emotionally develop generally have empathy for everyone.
@mouses Thanks for sharing your perspective. I agree. I thought that my upbringing was overly strict, but my parents were both very altruistic, and what a great gift that has been.
@cassandra17lina That's great!
I had some pretty bad family growing up, but oddly enough - later in life they became the most amazing kind people ever.
My step-dad (who I consider my father, he was more of a dad to me than my sperm donor ever was) went from an abusive transphobic asshole to a kind man who literally hangs out at a LGBTQ+ coffee shop bragging about his daughter and having conversations with others to try to understand things better.
My gift came late, but it's a gift!
@cassandra17lina Heck yes! Get the hard stuff over with first.