I also didn’t expect

[conuly]

Such an open and bald admission that this is about the oil.

Comments

[conuly]

He's had the lack of empathy (both in understanding other people and in feeling compassion for other people) and poor judgment a very long time. I agree that he certainly seems to be getting worse, cognitively - but his character was always crappy.

(There are people who don't understand other people or feel compassion for them who are, nevertheless, able to use their reasoning to emulate that pretty well. As near as I can tell, DT has never even considered it worth trying.)

[mildred_of_midgard]

My sister, age ~25: "Guess what?! Good news: my husband's mother had a heart attack, and had to go to the hospital, and started giving away some of her stuff, and I got some jewelry!"

[conuly]

Um….

[mildred_of_midgard]

Some people can emulate it with reasoning, some people can't/won't.

I'm actually sort of in the former category. I don't really feel empathy as an emotion, but I do my best to abide by a code of ethics that involves individual rights. And sometimes I make the effort to mask and convey emotions I don't feel, in order to make the other person feel better, even if what's going through my head is "People make no sense."

[conuly]

Which speaks to your character - you don’t want to be horrible, so you put in the work.

I don’t think DT has done it even for those he claims to care about, his own family.