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StrictlyRockers

(3,919 posts) Wed Oct 29, 2025, 05:17 PM Oct 29

"Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy." [View all]

“In my work with the defendants (at the Nuremberg Trials 1945-1949) I was searching for the nature of evil and I now think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants, a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men.

Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.”

-Captain G. M. Gilbert, the Army psychologist assigned to watching the defendants at the Nuremberg trials

â€œIn my work with the (Nuremberg Trial) defendants, I was searching for the nature of evil, and I now think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy... a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.â€

- Captain G.M. Gilbert, US Army
— StrictlyChristo ðŸ‡ºðŸ‡¦ðŸŒ»ðŸš«ðŸ‘‘ (@strictlychristo.bsky.social) 2025-10-29T21:37:32.448Z

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Highlight:

"Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy." [View all] StrictlyRockers Oct 29 OP

precisely true normalynn Oct 29 #1

Musk is a profoundly fucked up human, as is Trump, Miller, Vought, Johnson, Tuberville, Comer, etc. Blues Heron Oct 29 #2

And compassion. Clouds Passing Oct 29 #3

I'll believe that any empathetic human can be turned into a monster if their lives depend on it. erronis Oct 29 #4

If Schopenhauer's observations are correct, compassion is the basis of morality pat_k Oct 29 #5

I think that evil is much larger than the absence of empathy. milestogo Oct 29 #6

Like this guy...? Grins Oct 29 #7

From 65 years ago, Codifer Oct 29 #8

Trump could shoot someone on 5th avenue. Initech Oct 29 #9

Lack of empathy may be a requisite for evil, but not the definition of it Martin Eden Oct 30 #10

Lack of empathy was praised by Kirk too. Jbraybarten Oct 30 #11

There's lack of empathy & compassionate, plus Active Cruelty electric_blue68 Oct 30 #12