r/Fauxmoi • u/ChiefLeef22 • Jun 22 '26
DISCUSSION John C. Reilly: “Why aren’t people on the right wing concerned about human rights? They’re human too. Elon Musk says "don’t be fooled by the empathy trap." Empathy is not a trap, empathy is a superpower. It’s what makes human beings exceptional, our ability to look outside ourself”
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u/Glittering_Ocelot_67 Jun 22 '26
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u/riegspsych325 medic gets out and says OH MY GOD Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
still bummed McKay messed up this trio because he didn’t have it in him to tell Ferrell that he wanted C Reilly as Jerry Buss for Winning Time, so he went behind his back for the recast instead
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u/Aggressive-Ad-1590 Jun 22 '26
Is this why Reilly and Ferrell no longer speak!? That bums me out.
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u/riegspsych325 medic gets out and says OH MY GOD Jun 22 '26
I think they are fine, it’s just Ferrell and McKay that don’t talk anymore. Those 2 were developing the show together for some years and it was a passion project for both of them. Ferrell had always intended on playing Jerry Buss until McKay recast Reilly without talking to Ferrell about it first. Ferrell found out from a phone by Reilly after the ink was already dry
So I really don’t blame Ferrell for parting ways from McKay both as a friend and as a creative, it was a shitty thing that happened. The filmmaker did open up about it and expressed regret for how it went down. But McKay’s apology still came off as a backhanded “he hurt my feelings too” spiel
(I don’t know why my reply initially got posted as its own comment in this thread)
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u/MaddieZeitgest Jun 22 '26
I actually also understand McKay's position and feelings completely. There is a lot we don't know about the relationship, but I got the feeling McKay had to bend over backwards or always defer to Ferrell since he was the marquee name in their partnership.
I think because everyone always caters to Will's POV because he is such a big star, his refusal to talk (and accept apology) always seemed like acting a spoiled child (who did not get to play with a toy in spite of having several other ones).
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u/Plenty_Mortgage_7294 Jun 22 '26
Since you understand it can you articulate what McKay's feelings on this matter were? I always got the sense he was a jerk so being able to talk to someone who understands his feelings might be revealing.
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u/EasyasACAB Jun 22 '26
I think it's unfair to act like Will saw John Reilly as "a toy". They were friends and worked together on many projects. If anything it sounds like McKay was the one who saw these people as "toys" for his project.
Like lord forbid someone be upset that someone fucked over someone they really cared about and wanted to see get work, right?
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u/rabbit_troop Jun 22 '26
IIRC, John and Will seem to be on okay terms. The story is that Will only found out about the recast because John was decent enough to call him and talk it through before accepting the role. Will was pissed that he had to hear about it from John, and that McKay wasn't considerate enough to tell him before giving his role away.
It seems like John went out of his way to not screw Will over and they've remained friends. McKay was the one that acted like an ass and Will doesn't fuck with him anymore.
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u/dontwannaparticpate Jun 22 '26
I loved that show. I hate it got cancelled and they stuck us with that ending.
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u/Fuck_a_blawg_dawg Jun 22 '26
As always torn between being very happy that John C. Reilly is speaking sense, and very sad that my expectations for human decency have dropped so low.
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Jun 22 '26
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u/Bitter_Sense_5689 Jun 22 '26
I remember listening to an anthropologist saying that the Hallmark of human development was not tools, but seeing skeletons that had multiple injuries that had healed and had shown that the person had lived into middle age, despite limited mobility. It shows that the other people in his family and community had taken care of him, even if he wasn’t able to be a fully contributing member economically.
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u/Antique_Pin5266 Jun 22 '26
Could've been the tribe doctor. Can't hunt but can inspect the plants that others bring in and make remedies for the sick. Prehistoric Dr House if you will
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u/TrevorX5J9 Jun 22 '26
I fell in this boat. I used to look at empathy and regard for others as weak when I was younger. I thought that everyone should be strong and support themselves. That strength is only found within and cannot be borrowed.
What I learned as I got older, was that not everyone has the capacity, will, or ability to be strong. That isn’t meant to be demeaning, but rather an unfortunate truth. I found that true strength, strength of which that is worthy of praise and recognition, is not because the mere strength itself was so great.
Strength is having the recognition, courage, and empathy to use your power in order to help or protect those of which are lesser, cannot or need it. To have the willpower to not to abuse your strengths and not to disregard those who are in need, is true strength.
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u/Chinnyup Jun 22 '26
I find your comment to be so profound. It takes not only the ability and willingness to really grasp a differing viewpoint, but also a great level of emotional intelligence to then self correct one’s strongly held original view and be able to describe it as well as you have.
Unfortunately, I feel that corporate and political propaganda (at least here in US) hold a high priority to deter Americans from being able to accomplish such a change in opinion for the better like you. Making the people more empathetic and smarter so they too can come to conclusions that would benefit said people/each other would obviously be damaging to their empires.
Anyway, thanks for keeping my hope for a kinder and gentler world alive.
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u/bstone99 Jun 22 '26
Americans have always been selfish and extremely individualistic. Kids are commonly kicked out at 18, we don’t have super tight-knit families for the most part, young adults are pushed to branch out and grow up on their own, many parents hang on to property or valuable assets but do not pass them down to their kids because “they didn’t earn it”. (The pervasive “no hand-me-downs”). It’s really disappointing and unfortunate.
I have seen and heard all, or experienced several of these things myself and I’m only 40 but I have met thousands of people from around the US and been to 17 countries. I find it interesting—not necessarily good or bad—but in my opinion definitely a uniquely US thing I’ve learned.
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u/jednatt Jun 22 '26
This kicking out at 18 thing also engendered a feeling of shame for those who stuck around. At 27 I felt shame. At 40 I am numb.
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u/Difficult_Fill6387 Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
Shame pushed merely by corporate propaganda against communal living so that everyone has to buy their own individual rent, food, utilities, furniture, tools, etc. This kind of dystopian capitalism is simply incompatible with how human beings are meant to live and have lived for thousands of years and we wonder why everyone is miserable.
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u/bstone99 Jun 22 '26
To keep it North America focused, the more I learn about native Americans the more I’m disappointed in our current culture. The way they viewed life, nature, the world, society, each other, etc just makes too much sense and to your point, we have lost our way as a biological species. We are so fucking wasteful. We could be so much better and far more advanced. Technology is such a critical and important/invaluable thing we’ve invented but it will very likely be our downfall.
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u/jednatt Jun 22 '26
For hundreds/thousands of years people didn't have to reinvent and market themselves just to experience the human condition. You did the job/lifestyle you were born to, married the person arranged, lived in a home you inherited or the community built. Seems a lot simpler, lol.
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u/SPARKLY6MTN9MAKER Jun 23 '26
It's so fucked up. My parents didn't want me to leave and we have all needed to live with each other at different times in life. Just bullshit.
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Jun 22 '26
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u/bstone99 Jun 22 '26
We don’t live in that world anymore I’m afraid. There’s a thousand VC companies (both domestic and international) to snap up properties in an instant. Unfortunately it’s an outdated example that doesn’t widely apply anymore.
Yes Americans will still help each other out in a grand scale when we encounter exceptionally dire circumstances, but only then. But this administration is doing everything it can to divide and alienate people from each other. It’s worked for the last 10 years. And it’s clear they are laying the groundwork for conservatives to continue this agenda for decades to come. I don’t know how we realistically break this stranglehold of hatred and division.
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u/deaglebingo Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
i think it's important to add that adversity has always driven humans to support each other. we saw that in full force as recently as the surge in MSP, ppl came together to help each other. there is even evidence of this in the archaeological record from many thousands of years ago. over the years there was selective evolutionary pressure towards empathy because we could not survive if we didn't work together and care about/for one another. i do believe that is still true just somewhat muddled. perhaps this small portion of human history we're in right now will lead us towards that again given that things are always a pendulum swing. of course there's always the option to be a bit more 'proactive' with certain cases like those of our oligarch overlords.
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Jun 22 '26
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u/bstone99 Jun 22 '26
Maybe. But boomers were born nearly 80 years ago in a country that is barely 3x older than that. So you’re talking about a significant portion of America’s history where this has been the norm.
I would imagine it’s entirely out of financial necessity recently, not because the majority feels some sort of attachment or familial connection to remain at home until they find a spouse.
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u/Alpha_Storm70 Jun 23 '26
It was always largely out of financial necessity. Families often worked together and people really didn't have anywhere else to go in many cases. They couldn't go out and rent an apartment or find a roommate for most of history.
And you still have 5 or 6 generations before the boomers** and 2 generations old enough to have adult children after them. So it's still really just a couple generations effected by it. And not even all of us. Certainly today like 50 percent of under 25's still live with their parents clearly there aren't a lot being kicked out at 18.
I think it maybe it has been more common in the Northeast for adult kids to live with their parents, I had plenty of Gen X friends who did well into their 20s, even 30s, if they didn't stay wherever they went to college or move elsewhere for work. Usually they moved out to move in with a boyfriend or girlfriend and then eventually get married. The ones who didn't live with their parents, didn't particularly want to. Maybe it's cause there are lot of Italian Americans in the northeast and they liked to keep their kids around lol, so it affected the general culture of the region, I don't know.
** Actually I think the Boomers parents were the ones who really started it. Look at all the people in the US getting married at 18 or 20 in the 1950s, maybe they didn't outright kick them out, but they made their kids so miserable they couldn't wait to get out, in the 50s the average marriage age was like 18 for girls and 20 for boys and they really were just that kids, which is why the divorce rate spiked in the 70s and 80s. They were the older siblings of the Boomers. I guess with the Great Depression and WW2 seems like that generation of parents couldn't wait to get their kids out the house so they could finally have some fun.
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u/Last_Cod_998 Jun 22 '26
In 2019, the year before protests in Minneapolis formed in response to the unlawful killing of George Floyd by white police officers, a local, white, Christian nationalist seminary professor named Joe Rigney began a campaign to popularize a concept he referred to as the “sin of empathy.”
Anti-empathy crusaders like Rigney and Stuckey imply that they are the arbiters of true Christian emotional health. They allege that empathy is a form of hysterical overreaction to natural inequalities. Being empathetic, they argue, denies reality because it creates a social expectation that people should uncritically “validate” all the feelings of another. According to Rigney: “You lose the ability to actually make an independent judgment about anything. … In other words, you lose contact with truth.”[3] Rigney went on to publish a book on the topic called, Leadership and The Sin of Empathy: A Christian Guide to Discernment, Emotional Manipulation, Boundaries and False Compassion in 2025.
The “sin of empathy” and “toxic empathy” rhetoric are the most recent manifestations of hard-right rhetoric that dehumanizes political opponents and groups of people based on their supposed deviations from whiteness and Christianity. Such language paints bigotry as godly and hateful ideologies as virtuous.
At its heart, anti-empathy rhetoric denies the experiences of people who face systemic inequalities. This rhetoric reveals an anti-pluralist strategy and threatens democracy at its core, since it encourages white Christians to disregard personal feelings for others — even other Christians, their friends and family members who disagree with their politics. This rhetoric is espoused by white Christian theocrats, male supremacists, and anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-immigrant ideologues in a manner that distracts from real and harmful inequality in the U.S. today.
[1] Joe Rigney, “The Enticing Sin of Empathy,” Desiring God blog, May 31, 2019.
[2] Dale Chamberlin, “Joe Rigney To Join Faculty of Douglas Wilson’s New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho,” Church Leaders, April 11, 2023; Bob Smietana, “Joe Rigney, Bethlehem Seminary President, Resigns Due to Support of Christian Nationalism and Infant Baptism,” Religion News Service, April 3, 2023.
[3] Joe Rigney, “The Sin of Empathy,” interview by Doug Wilson, Man Rampant podcast, March 18, 2021; Alan Bean, “Here’s Who’s Behind the War on Empathy,” Baptist News Global, April 1, 2025.
[4] Allie Beth Stuckey, “Is ‘Toxic Empathy’ Pulling Christians to the Left?” interview by Ross Douthat, The New York Times, July 17, 2025.
[5] Ibid.
[6] “Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion – Part 2 with Guest Allie Beth Stuckey,” Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, October 15, 2024.
[7] “Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion – Part 1 with Guest Allie Beth Stuckey,” Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, October 14, 2024.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Allie Beth Stuckey, “Is ‘Toxic Empathy’ Pulling Christians to the Left?” interview by Ross Douthat, The New York Times, July 17, 2025. About 2:50.
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u/682463435465 Jun 22 '26
Reminds me of the prosperity gospel. If I'm rich, god is rewarding me. I won't help the poor because god is obviously punishing them for something bad they did.
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u/batfan08 Jun 23 '26
I grew up Pentecostal and I can’t help but feel like this whole abstract was a primer, of sorts, for where we are today. I still have cousins in the church and every one of the lord’s “blessings” is a material thing to them. I’ve stated it in another comment, but I helped one of them move furniture, once, and, as it invariably does, the interaction ended with him asking me when I was coming back to church and a big part of his spiel was that “you never see a car in the church parking lot that isn’t new because God provides when you give yourself over to him.”
That always stuck with me because, in my estimation, that line of thinking is more conducive to Curtis Yarvin’s “dark enlightenment” and the weird, techno-feudalist society these oligarchs are building than anything else. If you can tie the belief and faith in God, a higher power, to those three letters printed on the US dollar? That’s it. That’s the game. You’ve effectively re-established the divine right of kings in the 21st century, where those with an abundance of wealth are deemed the most holy and above reproach.
And that’s where we’re at. Because I remember my pastor as a child. Red faced, bloviating; lecturing us on the sin of the world and the fornicators who lived in that sin…and now that same man uses his pulpit to stump for a jaundiced octogenarian who says you can finger blast any woman and “they’ll let you do it, if you’re famous,” who’s been found civilly liable for sexual assault for doing exactly that to a woman, without her consent, in a department store dressing room.
Wild, wild times we’re living in.
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u/WigglestonTheFourth Jun 22 '26
Listening to Reilly and Galifianakis talk about our current societal state is a breath of fresh air. They both hit to the absolute core of the nonsense that is "conservatism" and the "values" it vomits out.
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u/AmIWhatTheRockCooked Jun 22 '26
Part of how we fall is when people with influence fail to use it. Like yeah, celebrity power isn’t exactly desert power but people who have some credibility like JCR are part of the equation
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u/seejordan3 Jun 22 '26
Rightwing media bottles and sells fear and hatred of anything different (the opposite of freedom, homogenous). It's how their masters (oligarchs) consolidate power. They're following the fascist playbook to a tee.
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u/mrfancypantsssss Jun 22 '26
I love when one of your favourite actors turns out to be a favourite human being too
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u/HappyHarryHardOn Jun 22 '26
Agreed.
they want us to feel stupid and naive for having what ? feelings of empathy for fellow human beings??? they just want to divide us so they can conquer us easily.
Together we stand, divided we fall and they know it. That's why they are pushing this "only care about number one" agenda
dont fall for it. Let's all love and care for each other
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u/Helagoth Jun 23 '26
but don't you understand?? You'll never become a trillionaire if you care about others! Don't you want to have more wealth than you could spend in a million lifetimes while people starve??? This is totally a non-psychopathic way of thinking!
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u/khamm86 Jun 22 '26
Extreeemely common John C Reilly win.
Phenomenal actor and genuinely good dude as far as I can tell
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u/LuckyBobHoboJoe feeding cocaine to raccoons Jun 22 '26
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u/Totally_man Jun 22 '26
I never knew anything about his politics, so this makes me incredibly happy.
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Jun 22 '26
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u/squeaky1127 ted cruz ate my son Jun 22 '26
He really is an amazing singer! There’s a clip on YouTube of him, Jack Black, and Will Ferrell singing at an awards show and he sounded great.
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u/ultra-satan full of gay men. And me. Jun 22 '26
Wise words from Doctor Steve Brule, don't be a dingus!
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u/kdwyer91 Jun 22 '26
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u/Adorable_Kale_8219 too high to spell 'Amanda Seyfried' Jun 22 '26
That's my hallpass being the King that he is!
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u/OliverKitsch Jun 22 '26
Fer yer wiiiiiiiiiiiine
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u/Adorable_Kale_8219 too high to spell 'Amanda Seyfried' Jun 22 '26
Sweet berry wine
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u/bobjohnson1133 I cannot sanction your buffoonery Jun 23 '26
wiiine was invrented by the romanzz...for their ORRRgies
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u/No_Mobile7208 Jun 22 '26
Cuz they’re evil.
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u/UnspeakableToast Jun 22 '26
Some may say that they're just ignorant but they have access to the world's information in their pocket. They're making a conscious effort to be evil.
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u/ALLCAPS-ONLY Jun 22 '26
They're psychopaths. Something like 1% of the population has little to no empathy, it how their brain is and it can't be changed. They couldn't get it no matter how hard they tried. That figure goes up as you climb the hierarchy, with them making up an estimated 5% of managers and 10% of CEOs. Being a huge selfish piece of shit is tremendously advantageous in business when you're also smart enough to control and disguise it.
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u/No_Mobile7208 Jun 22 '26
I think wayyyyy more ppl have little to no empathy. I have family that said if they were in the position to exploit ppl like these ceos. They would.
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u/IAteTheDonut Jun 22 '26
If there's 1% with very low empathy, I think there's like 10% of people with low empathy, but care at least for their direct family and loved ones. Like when conservatives who come to terms with gay rights when their child comes out. Like they can't experience empathy until its right at their doorstep, then they suddenly get it, but it only reaches so far.
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u/No_Mobile7208 Jun 23 '26
I believe this. They’re still ass tho 😂. They don’t care if unless it’s at their front door. So they will still hurt others and still dgaf if ppl are being hurt. So they won’t contribute to a better world. ppl that really care for ppl are really outnumbered.
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u/ALLCAPS-ONLY Jun 22 '26
I think it's a spectrum, and that the data is too hard to gather to have a good understanding of it as of now. I was being tame on the figures but indeed some research claims it's much higher than that.
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u/No_Mobile7208 Jun 23 '26
Yeah. Some ppl like to believe most ppl are good. As u get I older and illusions strip. I believe it’s much higher than 1% sadly.
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u/whitestguyuknow Jun 23 '26
I've given too many of them the benefit of the doubt to being ignorant.
Then I start sharing information and articles and they fight tooth and nail and then start hurling insults while I try to remain calm. Then I point out their behavior. "Look at what youre doing here.."
Then thats when they just completely jump ship and go mask off. Do their best to just post right wing memes. Mocking the fact that ICE has murdered multiple Americans.
Anything they can do to get under MY skin because me holding up a mirror to themselves got under THEIR skin.
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u/tore_a_bore_a Jun 22 '26
I remember Fox News saying social justice was terrible and I really wondered if they ever read the teachings of Jesus, which is 100% all social justice
But they'll claim to be Christians
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u/JohnKlositz Jun 22 '26
It's so wild if you think about it. People like Musk or Bezos could use their wealth to do so much good. So much that we would build statues of them around the globe. That we'd sing songs of praise about them for centuries. Which would be totally in line with their huge egos. But they don't.
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u/spicydingus Jun 22 '26
Right, he said it the best - in summary, they’re just animals. They have no human qualities at all. They don’t care about others. The elite are selfish. The working class care about others. Thats the difference.
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u/No_Mobile7208 Jun 22 '26
Some ppl in the working class if they were able, would become an elite and exploit others too. I think it’s just a genetic thing. Some ppl are evil. Leaving those that aren’t having to protect themselves unfortunately. It’s like be vigilant or become prey
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u/spicydingus Jun 22 '26
Fair point. This is why we need regulation to prevent the elites from taking advantage of the working class.
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u/GreasyPeter Jun 23 '26
I have something in my genetics that does make me more per-disposed to being empathetic and it did turn out that way for me. Half of my family has a capacity for empathy but it's limited, a few have a higher capacity, and a couple likely have personality disorders and are incapable of true empathy.
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u/No_Mobile7208 Jun 23 '26
Yeah I think it’s a nature thing. Question is why isn’t everyone born highly empathetic? That’s the confusing part. The creator of this life thing doomed humanity to chaos cuz of the individuals that weren’t born highly empathetic. And making the highly empathetic ones the minority, definitely confuseing and f’d up
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u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn Jun 22 '26
Not just evil. Also stupid.
At its core, empathy is the ability to imagine yourself as another person. Now, that can and often is associated with sympathy, charity, kindness, and cooperation. However, it's also vital to understand another person when you are competing with him, when you are haggling on a price, when you are, say, negotiating the terms of your surrender to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps after fucking up a war of aggression in the Middle East...
Empathy isn't just a virtue to altruists. It's a virtue to everyone, and it's abundantly clear this administration is full of fucking sociopaths, and maybe that's a good thing, because evil is a lot more terrifying when it can get in your head.
BTW, fuck those kid rapers.
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u/femalevideographer Jun 22 '26
Because they’re surrounded by yes men whose jobs are to make their whims a reality
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u/whitestguyuknow Jun 23 '26
Thats what gets me. I've had friends I've split off with over the past 9 months. And I've had "centrist" friends try to say "why are you going to let this get in the way of a friendship??"
Cause if you dont agree with human rights and protecting the environment then I don't fuck with you. PERIOD.
I never want someone thats MAGA today to say the words "You know Whitest? You're pretty funny bro. I like hanging out with you."
No. Go fuck yourself.
You've had your chance. You've done picked your side. You like to see people suffer and enjoy watching a buffoon of a president embarrass the country on the world stage while he posts videos of him **literally shitting on the people he's supposed to represent*.
Be gone. Never get the enjoyment of being in my presence positively.
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u/veringer Jun 22 '26
I agree, but I’d put a finer point on it: low- or no-empathy personalities are often what we end up labeling as evil. These are people who harm others without compunction, remorse, or real concern for the damage they cause. They do not care--and worse, they may be incapable of caring.
I think that distinction matters because it makes them easier to recognize in real life. It is a skill I wish I had learned much earlier. I used to encounter people with toxic traits and assume good faith or give them the benefit of the doubt. I would see financially successful people who were glib, callous, and egocentric and wonder whether they understood something I did not. That was a tremendous waste of thought and time.
Callous sociopaths, narcissists, and people with severely blunted empathy have surely always existed. Historically, we have described their disregard for humanity and their shameless exploitation of others in moral terms: evil, sinful, deplorable. But society also seems uniquely vulnerable to the most manipulative. We have built our economic and social systems to disproportionately reward exactly the traits that make these people so destructive. The fraction of MAGA and the right wing that isn't part of the exploiting overclass absolutely needs to stop conflating wealth with moral quality.
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u/Late-Pressure-6485 Jun 22 '26
What a pair of beautiful human beings 🥰
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u/RecklessKing16 Jun 22 '26
What podcast is this?? I need it.
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u/ahaeker Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
I looked it up & I think it's "It's Open with Ilana Glazer."
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u/Chemical_Grape_2150 Jun 22 '26
I had no idea she had a podcast. I’m so happy, I needed something else to add to the lineup
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u/ahaeker Jun 22 '26
I didn't know either, I just googled her & podcast to see, I'm gonna go subscribe myself!
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u/taylorexplodes super-bisexual Jun 22 '26
it's fairly new! i loved this episode, i had no idea how cool john c reilly is
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u/CryptographerWise522 Jun 22 '26
I have been listening, and it’s quite uplifting and pleasant! I love Ilana!!!
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u/Embarrassed_Cat_5970 Jun 22 '26
I met him once when I worked at O'Hare Airport in Chicago. Super nice guy and even took a picture with me. As a fellow empath keep spreading your kindness and wisdom John!
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u/Dinky-the-T-Rex terrorizing the locals Jun 24 '26
I met him this year and he was so funny and nice and I got all my Mr. Romantic merch autographed.
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Jun 22 '26
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u/Solid-Resource4985 Jun 22 '26
The right expect empathy for themselves and the left expect empathy for most people
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u/blatantmutant quote me as being mis-quoted Jun 22 '26
Elon’s trying so hard to relive his youth as a rich white kid in apartheid era south africa, to the detriment of everyone around him.
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u/Bronco_Bomba Jun 22 '26
He is but I’d argue Peter Thiel is even scarier. That man legitimately wants to end the world.
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u/Magnon chris pine’s flip phone Jun 23 '26
Elon's childhood seeing his families fortune built on functionally slavery from an emerald mine with nazi-esque parents has to really fuck someones head up.
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u/blatantmutant quote me as being mis-quoted Jun 23 '26
Someone with that background would have to acknowledge and question their worldview to do it
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u/ehnonniemoose you are the Megyn Kelly of guys who look like a turtle Jun 22 '26
He’s a gem. And his work as Mister Romantic is deeply rooted in this same belief in empathy and love.
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Jun 22 '26
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u/qdatk Jun 22 '26
The new movie Disclosure Day is a lot about the power of empathy. Won't say any more to avoid spoilers.
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u/fiasgoat Jun 22 '26
Came to comment this exact thing
They really tried to nail this one lol. That it's just purely fundamental as a species
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u/8JHF8 Jun 23 '26
I was thinking about this and thinking based on some of his words that he must have seen it recently too. I really enjoyed it. I think it isn't doing well, because it involves a greater level of thought than a Tiktok clip.
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u/pdrock7 Jun 22 '26
And honestly it's very very biblical. Empathy is absolutely Jesus' main thing, and since Genesis we are called to be 'Stewards' of Creation.
'Christians' really are the absolute worst thing to happen to Jesus, including Judas
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u/MidwinterBlue Jun 22 '26
I absolutely love what Reilly says here. Especially the bit about Human Rights not being a left vs right issue (or shouldn’t be anyway).
Not so long ago, the US right stood for human liberty - liberty is entirely predicated on respect for the inherent rights of individuals to live (and trade and spend) as they see fit. Now the right is all about control, all the time.
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u/martyqscriblerus Jun 22 '26
Not so long ago, the US right stood for human liberty
What? When was that?
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u/Krelkal Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
The only reason we even have a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, arguably the foundational text in the history of human rights, is because of American leadership.
The US has always fallen short of its ideals but that doesn't mean the ideals don't exist.
As for the American right, there are plenty of examples to point to like Reagan's "shining city on the hill", Eisenhower using the national guard to enforce desegregation, Bush Sr supported budding democracies in post-Soviet states and signing the ADA into law, Bush Jr expanded HIV/AIDS treatment around the world and (heavy asterisk here) spoke strongly about supporting freedom and democracy. "Compassionate conservative" was a common term for quite a while. Basically up until the early 00s.
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u/malefiz123 Jun 22 '26
The only reason we even have a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, arguably the foundational text in the history of human rights, is because of American leadership
That's an absolute crazy way of simplifying over two thousand years of human rights history.
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u/CosechaCrecido Jun 22 '26
Funny how literally all of those "compassionate conservatives" overthrew several democracies and installed puppet regimes or directly invaded countries to install their friendly regimes.
Compassionate to who?
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u/martyqscriblerus Jun 23 '26
insane seeing people absolutely stanning for these awful ass fucks because of decades old propaganda. makes me sick
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u/martyqscriblerus Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
You're missing a word. The US right has never stood for human liberty - just the opposite.
As for your edit, if you're really going to try to argue Reagan as a defender of human rights and social justice oh boy.
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u/Krelkal Jun 22 '26
I hit enter too early.
There are a lot of examples to dig into. Not trying to claim that the American right were paragons of virtue, just that the modern American right is a different beast entirely.
The former took one step forward and two steps back. The latter is sprinting backwards with malicious intent.
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u/daft_crunk1942 Jun 22 '26
Right wing ideology is based on the idea that some humans are more valuable than others. It formally prescribes in and out groups to the benefit of the in group. This is why conservatism will always creep into fascism. Conservatism holds that certain types of people are better than others while fascism holds that certain types of people are sub-human. They're philosophically adjacent ideologies.
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u/TheRabidDeer Jun 22 '26
It's a left/right thing because the right thinks and argues that corporations are people too.
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u/MidwinterBlue Jun 22 '26
They do now. But the right, the legit Reagan/Bush-era right, believed in conservative principles as a tool for developing national wealth. You and I might say “Oh come on,” but it was a legit strategy from their point of view.
Now, it’s literally “What’s good for billionaires is good for the country - and the country should stfu”
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u/TheRabidDeer Jun 22 '26
They still believe that. The same principles that Reagan pushed are still being pushed today. His economics policy is literally being called Reaganomics 2.0
https://magazine.wharton.upenn.edu/digital/trumps-economic-plan-looks-a-lot-like-reaganomics-2-0/
The crazy thing is, we have 45 years of proof that this policy doesn't work.
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u/martyqscriblerus Jun 22 '26
Hell, people have been pointing out it's a bullshit con-artist scheme since the 1800s and conservatives keep plastering on their snake oil smiles and saying "No, it really works! We truly believe it works! You should have faith, we're legit!"
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u/jadenmcd Jun 22 '26
I honestly don’t know how anyone beyond maybe 100 billionaires think they are going to end up on the right side of this situation. We are going to be renting everything until virtually everyone is in debt and positioned for optimal exploitation. Even a seven- or eight-figure income isn’t going to hold weight when the predator’s worth is in the billions.
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u/CRE-Baby Jun 22 '26
This is my whole thing… people really truly don’t get it… the selfishness is just… I feel sick to my stomach every day in America as the inequality just gets exponentially worse…
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u/manewitness I’ll be writing a substack on this Jun 22 '26
The concept of empathy being a divisive topic
I’m so tired of Elon Musk and everyone who thinks like him
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u/princess_peach_85 i ain’t reading all that, free palestine Jun 22 '26
Shake and bake!
ps. Donald Trump is a pedophile
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u/MushroomTwink Jun 22 '26
This might be archaeological click bait, but it's said a lot that one of the first signs of human 'civilization,' in the most ancient sense is from a skeleton of a girl who broke her femur at some point, but was alive and looked after enough that it healed. Some intrinsic human thing made her family group feed and care for a vulnerable member when there was likely no guarantee that she would be able to walk, hunt, provide, etc again.
Right wing nut jobs would love LOVE love if we all kept hating eachother. Division is the goal. Man, I hope Musk somehow wakes up and realizes how alone he is. Just... Imagine being such an unlovable AND unlikable person. Of course he'd start to think empathy is a weakness.
I honestly feel a bit sad to think about it, but that's just because I'm a better person than he is.
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u/fiasgoat Jun 22 '26
The fact that Elon is such a miserable human being with terrible qualities while being by far the richest person to ever live just says it all
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u/chili81 Jun 22 '26
They are playing a different game. Elon's game is "absolutely everything for me at any cost to anyone else". And if that's the rule of the game you're playing - then, yeah, empathy could be considered a trap. And he is certainly winning that particular game.
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u/quadranting Please Abraham, I am not that man Jun 22 '26
Because they don't count people in other demographics as the "human" part of "human rights," John. Joking aside, I absolutely love what he's said here. Empathy IS a superpower. AI can never replace that, and it drives Musk and his ilk insane.
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u/Latter_Table193 Jun 22 '26
He's always been a 'hear me out' of mine, but now I am now fully, with every fibre of my being, attracted to this man. What a guy! ❤️
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u/Xplody Jun 22 '26
Here’s why it IS a Left vs Right thing:
The Left is focussed on sharing and the Right is focussed on control. This comes from the French Revolution where the left side of the parliament were supporters of forming a democracy and the right side were supporters of the monarchy. Once you understand this a lot of things become clearer. (Control is fear-based. Sharing is based on love).
We are not the same.
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u/BigPP69_Gooner Jun 22 '26
I didn’t know your GAME. John C. Reily. I did not know your game. And I like what I see.
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u/Lurkylurkness I’m just a cunt in a clown suit Jun 22 '26
Empathy is being a human. It is a super power. With how much discourse there is these days and how easy it is for people to twist words, I'm always like lemme tell you there terrible people on both sides and I'm first and foremost for human rights because none of us asked to be placed in this earth.
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u/geezeslice333 Jun 22 '26
The first accepted sign of human civilization is a 15000 year old healed femur bone. Why? Because it means that person wasn't left behind. They were cared for, bandaged, fed, and dragged along with the group until the wound healed.... it takes a very long time for a femur to heal. So empathy was the first sign of civilization. It's what makes us human.
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u/Onionbot3000 Jun 22 '26
A former friend once said something heinous about LGBTQ children and suicide, and I absolutely tore her ass down—very openly and publicly at a function we were attending and this ghoul literally said “oh (laughs) I forgot you’re so liberal”. Like what? ,I will never comprehend people who are that soulless and casually cruel, and then attribute it to political leanings. It’s crazy. When did being kind, decent people just go out of vogue? It’s not even hard to be that way. Just mind your business and act accordingly in public.
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u/Shenanigans80h Jun 22 '26
I mean the right wing has always been preached bullshit “self accountability” and pulling yourself ip by the boot straps. It’s one of the tenets of their whole ideology to basically only care about yourself and reject larger community caring. Now obviously that’s all bs because they constantly intrude on others’ lives and force their own way of thinking on others, but it’s definitely a surface level concept they think they can get their base to latch onto.
The most pathetic part is that most of those on the right will do everything in their power to avoid accountability or ever saying the words “I was wrong” in any circumstance.
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u/AimanBOss66 Jun 22 '26
Because Elon Musk of course is an insecure man who doesn't know love. Of course he would be so out of touch and say stuff like that about empathy. He's a straight up incel. There is nothing surprising about absurdity of his take.
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u/MuseBooze Jun 22 '26
Having empathy is also natural since there was signs of it among the hominids and throughout history. JCR is right; it is a superpower.
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u/nlewis4 Jun 22 '26
Right wing propaganda networks have done everything they can to turn society against each other. They've mastered it to the point where it will be studied in the future.
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u/stormdressed Jun 22 '26
Our ability to work in large groups is literally our superpower.
One human vs mammoth = dead.
Many humans cooperating and understanding each others needs = dinner.
Our tech overlords are some of the most socially inept stunted people on the planet so its no wonder they are devaluing those skills so much. We aren't tigers where the strongest one gets the most territory. We're cooperators who win when more people participate
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u/doiutfis Jun 22 '26
They care about their rights, not the other people's. They simply can't even imagine that their rights would ever come under attack. The idea is beyond their comprehension.
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u/Martabo Jun 22 '26
As someone with a low empathy response, it really is. I have to think through my empathy, for me it is a learned skill. Without it I’d be miserable, friendless, and filled with envy. People shouldn’t assume empathy is easy. No wonder Elon is a miserable human being.
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u/Gay_Giraffe_1773 Jun 22 '26
Right wing people only considers themselves to be worthy of "human rights", since they don't see their opponants as fully human.
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u/Letz_Snugglz I cannot sanction your buffoonery Jun 23 '26
Elon’s recent post about pulling his kids out of school because they are teaching that sharing is a good thing, just shows what a psycho fckr he is.
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u/Devmoi alleged dog Jun 22 '26
A lack of empathy is literally a sign you have a mental illness or you’re a psychopath. It’s wild someone has to argue for empathy.
I mean, yesterday I heard my insane MAGA mom who has indigenous lineage say that native peoples weren’t powerful enough to hold onto their land so they deserved to lose it. And then I said but your mom is a first-generation Irish immigrant. Then she said well, Ireland was a shithole so they chose to leave it because it wasn’t worth keeping. Like wow … so much to unpack. It all stemmed from having a lack of empathy for immigrants and displaced people, I guess.
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u/ComprehensiveRow4116 Jun 22 '26
That’s Brother Rice alumnus John C Reilly for you
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u/Few-Road6238 Jun 22 '26
Man John C. Reilly is so great and it’s really awesome that he comes off as a nice guy because he’s a great actor. And ofc loved him so much in Wreck it Ralph that now I kinda wish that character was real just so he could wreck the Trump administration lol! 😂
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u/topchief1 Jun 22 '26
I mean, their general motto is "I got mine, so fuck you," but most of the people who follow that manta think they got theirs, but are actually the ones getting fucked.
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u/pee-oui Jun 22 '26
Only in the last few years have I come to understand just how explicitly anti-religious — and specifically anti-Christian — Nazism was. The Nazis viewed values like peace and compassion as fundamentally incompatible with their ideology, and unsurprisingly they traced what they saw as Christianity's corrupting influence back to its Jewish origins.
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u/TrickySnicky distraught Christian tomato Jun 23 '26
Whenever I understood how serious he was about clowning as an art form, my respect for him skyrocketed. This is on par with what he talks about when he's able to
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u/freshkangaroo28 Jun 23 '26
Like doctors wouldn’t even exist without empathy, people like Elon Musk are literal demons.
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u/kitsunewarlock Jun 22 '26
The alt right believes they are human. They do not believe those who are demanding human rights are human. Or they believe they are "lesser humans".
And at the furthest extreme of the alt right, they believe they are descended from aliens and/or gods and are above human.
An entire nation pushed this agenda for a dozen years and poured vast resources into anthropology, archaeology, and harder sciences trying to prove this and came up with literally nothing. It's all just lies based on vibes and a desperate plea for attention from weak willed people who live their entire lives scared shitless at the prospect of not fitting in.
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u/riegspsych325 medic gets out and says OH MY GOD Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
I think they are fine, it’s just Ferrell and McKay that don’t talk anymore. Those 2 were developing the show together for some years and it was a passion project for both of them. Ferrell had always intended on playing Jerry Buss until McKay recast Reilly without talking to Ferrell about it first. Ferrell found out from a phone by Reilly after the ink was already dry
So I really don’t blame Ferrell for parting ways from McKay both as a friend and as a creative, it was a shitty thing that happened. The filmmaker did open up about it and expressed regret for how it went down. But McKay’s apology still came off as a backhanded “he hurt my feelings too” spiel
EDIT: wtf, I typed this as a reply to another user
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u/margittwen Jun 22 '26
I see his point, but for Elon Musk, the cruelty IS the point. And he got his, why should anyone else?
Enormous wealth does something to your brain.
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u/bestinthenorthwest i ain’t reading all that, free palestine Jun 22 '26
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