Is too much empathy a bad thing?

 Another question discussed on forums that I would like to discuss today. 

I did have a draft of a post on this subject, but I came off sounding like a raging jerk so I deleted it. But now I feel like this framing of the topic finally nails it.

In short, YES. It is. Empathy in moderation is a good thing, but if you just empathize too much with everything, you shut down. Given the sheer amount of the suffering in the world, if you focus on every single cause where there's suffering all at once, you would not be able to function. or prioritize. I also believe people who have too much empathy often lack philosophical principles. They have stage 3 thinking in kohlberg's stages of morality, and this leaves their worldviews undeveloped and unprincipled. Without a guiding ethical system or set of principles, you simply cannot use empathy properly. You will be like a beast subject to their passions. You will jump from cause to cause to cause and be unable to prioritize or understand anything within a logical framework. This also leaves one open to people who are more cynical abusing these empathy based moral agents. Which is what we see with SJWism. The democratic party, for example, is willing to use empathy and their little cult of caring to bully people into supporting their causes, often at the expense of one's own. You're asked, "don't you care? unless you vote the way we tell you you dont care and that makes you a bad person". And the obvious goal of such behavior is to bully people into supporting them and their positions.

This is why I tend to be a bit less empathetic these days in politics. I'm just so exhausted from the BS that I just turn empathy off to some extent. I'll be the kind of person who says I don't care, and that I care about my principles and issues more. It isn't that I really don't care AT ALL. It's a strategy of prioritizing. I overcome the idea of empathy overload by looking at what I consider important and I focus on that. And then I block out the background noise. Oh noes, but Trump will undo all of these gains for X group. Not my problem. Oh noes, Israel is mistreating Palestinians, eh, not my problem, etc. The way i see it, I focus primarily on a handful of issues I really care about and I block out the rest. Now, most of the time, if my issues dont conflict with those issues I block out, I'm more than happy to be a passive supporter. But when cynical agents or these empathy driven do gooders try to pressure me in a way that does conflict with other, higher ideals, well, that's when the problems start. And I will turn off my empathy like a light switch, just to prove a point. So don't try to do that.

On the flip side, is too little empathy a bad thing? Sure. Some people are the total opposite. I notice this a lot among right wingers, for example. Some people have this set of principles that they just deem so important that they ignore all human suffering in order to push their ideals. And their ideas aren't that good and don't work. Like gay marriage again. Christians will push their moral code without thinking about the real effect their policies might have on peoples' lives and how that's negative. Well being and suffering simply don't calculate into their views at all. And it's scary. You can get pretty sociopathic ideologues pushing ideals that do nothing to help people this way. While I value principles over empathy, my principles are also guided by my own sense of empathy. I at least try to tie them to a form of consequentialism or utilitarianism where I believe, in their own way, that they maximize well being, and minimize suffering. Are they perfect? probably not, again, I don't try to solve all of the world's problems at once, but I do focus on a handful of problems I consider pressing, important, and that would help millions of people and improve their lives. If we had my way, there would be virtually no poverty in America, and people would be freer of oppression than they are today. And I believe I can do it without a societal collapse, gulags, and significant reductions in personal freedom or well being. Isn't that a good thing? 

That said, i guess the answer is balance. Obviously if you are this unguided ball of empathy, you run the risk of burning yourself out and being taken advantage of by others. if you have no empathy, you might be a dangerous ideologue who doesn't care about the suffering of others. Achieving a happy medium somehow is important.