Am i the only one with NO empathy for the Cinema Massacre?

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Well, I definitely have no sympathy/empathy, whatever, towards the killer. I don't care if he has any disorder, not even AS. There's no way I can be empathetic towards him. Maybe, just maybe, I might feel sad that he has been afflicted with such a disorder that prevents him from being a normal human being.

If he is psychotic, I can be understanding, although I admit I cannot empathise/sympathise with him either. I understand what psychosis can do and that his thought processes are perturbed.

If he is a psychopath, I cannot even be understanding towards him. Psychopaths can use their heads - alas, they use their brains in order to take advantage of other people. If one can use his head to engage in criminal activity, he is definitely able to use his head to not engage in it. So no excuse for him...

Can it be you don't know what a troll is ? Or do you just use the term because you are angry that he doesn't agree with your viewpoint ?

But here's one aspect you may not have considered. What will people reading yours and similiar comments posted here come away with in how they view Aspergers?

I don't know for sure, but my guess is that it won't be good.

You might condemn Joe Scarbouroughs comments, but I think comments like yours lend them credence. So in a way saying things like that makes you his supporter and will make things even harder for all Aspies in the coming years. People will view them with even more mistrust then they do now. Even fewer friends, even fewer jobs, even fewer positions of responsibility. Your managing to shoot yourself in the foot, heart, and head all at the same time. Impressive.

You can't take back words once they have been said, which is why it is important to choose them carefully in serious situations.

...

People are murdered every day and it doesn't bother new the only difference here is there theatricality, in conclusion I don't know anyone involved therefore I font care.

My apologies. I am too upset to talk about this reasonably any more.

Don't come down on gamers. We're not playing games to simulate killing; we play them because it's fun and because we like the challenge of out-thinking the game's programmers. In fact, some of the most altruistic, compassionate people I know are avid gamers. One guy refuses to PK people in a permadeath server because it would mean ruining their (possibly hours of) hard work to get their character built up. Another has used his online "fan base" (he plays games and records videos of it, and gives game reviews) to collect money for natural disaster victims. I've seen people team up in co-op games and literally take (virtual) bullets for their teammates.

I don't think that "violent video games" do a thing to make people more violent. When I play a game that involves killing things, I don't see potential murder victims; I see opponents in a game. You can't play a game like that if you're angry. If you lose your cool, your character's going to bite it. And that's true even for me. I don't play games that require fast reflexes; I just can't keep up with the speed required. But if I lose my cool while directing an army in Civilization 3, or fighting off goblins in Dwarf Fortress, I know I'd lose the game. You can't be vindictive and want to just tear things apart. Playing a game like that is like solving a puzzle, not like planning a killing. And it's not "practice" for mass murder, either. One of my online friends, who spent some years in the military and also likes to play games like Mass Effect, says that the combat in games, and the combat in real life, are totally different things, and totally different skills. If anybody ought to know, it's somebody who's experienced both.

Violent people are drawn to violent entertainment; that, we do know. But please don't blame this on gaming. If a person likes to play first-person shooters, that doesn't predict anything about them. They could be like one of the gamers I know--people who play because it's fun, because it's a way to get together with their friends, because it's an intellectual challenge. They play games for many of the reasons people play sports. If a murderer liked to play violent video games, it's a sure bet that he would've been violent without them--he just would've found some other kind of entertainment that suited his tendency toward antisocial acts.

This. Very well put.

But I also want to know why he did what he did. And why did it happen. I want to understand what happened and why, basically.

On another note:

I don't think that for Holmes, it was all about co-workers/researchers but intresting note, nonetheless.source

For me, I tend to go off on a philosophical/moral thought response rather than having an emotional reaction. This analysis is usually of the victims, criminal(s), AND the general public response. I think that the shallow display of emotions and media overload following these types of tragedies is disturbing. I wish that more people would just be quiet and THINK about things for awhile instead of reacting immediately. As some people have already mentioned, it is partially a cultural issue where EXTERNAL emotional displays are highly valued and expected in this kind of situation. Not all cultures are like this. So I think someone like myself is not a bad person. It's good that people think about situations in different ways.

I'm guessing that many Aspies are more of the "data collector and analyzer" type rather than the "emotional reaction" type (not that they are mutually exclusive - I am simplifying here). But, then again, that might be just a stereotype I happen to fit into.

G.

This I relate to much more than the original post. I clicked on this thread thinking, "oh good, it's not just me." Frankly, I didn't find the graphic in the original post funny, and don't even get it.

There's nearly 7 billion people in the world. There are about 100 deaths per minute world wide. And violent deaths at the hand of other humans is a regular part of that. There's no particular reason to feel bad about this particular tragedy. No reason to let this get to me when I manage to get on with my life despite many other tragic deaths occurring all the time on this earth.

People I don't know kill other people I don't know with guns all the time. That's life. Why should I feel bad about one particular instance of it?

It's not that death doesn't matter. "Every man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.", to quote I forget who. But these deaths don't diminish me any more than other violent deaths.

Ultimately, people feel empathy because, for whatever reason, these deaths are personal to them. They've made an emotional connection. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But it's also perfectly okay to not make that connection. I make emotional connections with real people. If my autistic traits make me not have empathy for people I don't know (in cases where others do), but don't interfere with making connections with people I actually have interactions with, well, then maybe here those autistic traits are helping me keep a proper perspective.

Just one thing that's bugging me, since I keep seeing this thread's title:

how can one feel empathy for an event? Events do not, to my knowledge, have emotions.

No, not so. It means people who don't know me shouldn't feel bad about me in particular being treated badly. It doesn't mean that people who know me shouldn't have sympathy if I'm treated badly. It doesn't mean people shouldn't care in general about people being bullied and such. But there's no reason people living somewhere else who don't know me should feel bad specifically about how I personally am treated when there's plenty of other people besides me out there also being treated equally badly and worse.

No. None of us here who have said we don't feel anything for this have gone up to people affected by the tragedy and said, well, anything at all. Nor have you any reason to think we would.

Just because we don't have empathy does NOT mean we wouldn't have empathy, or at least a good dose of compassion, if we were actually interacting with them. But we aren't.

Empathy is usually reserved for people involved in the event.

The event itself is a real and symbolic place in time associated with (in this case) a tragedy.

* People express empathy differently, too numerous to name, BUT social etiquette is broken when a tragedy occurs AND you make a statement basically saying you felt nothing.

TheSunAlsoRises

Yeah, I know, TheSun, just commenting on the wording. Can't help it. "Does anyone have NO empathy for the victims..." would make sense.

that's an aspie for ya

that probably has more to do with being an internet teenager than any neurological disorder, op.

In my case I didn't feel any empathy for the people who were killed, I did tho try to logically make myself realize that what happened was causing grief to their relatives.
I can't just mentally connect with the idea of those people dying. On the other hand, I feel a lot of empathy when innocent people are being killed in war or by their abusive parents etc
I do feel empathy for the killer, I believe he is mentally ill and I feel bad thinking how unfortunate the rest of his life is going to be. I read in an article, that one of his victims who got shot 3 times was saying he has forgiven him and that he feels for him, seeing how he comes across while in the courtroom and I really admired that victim for his ability to be so compassionate and selfless.
So, I felt empathy for the killer and for his victim who forgave him but not for the victims.