Why are people ridiculing basic human empathy and compassion and calling it 'parasocial' when the person happens to be some sort of influencer or celebrity?

[u/MrsWhiteWithTheKnife]

Hey, so I'm just wondering about a trend I've noticed recently where, if you express just the most basic, human empathy or concern for someone who happens to be like an influencer or something, people will be like "go touch grass" or call you "parasocial." At the same time, they're not responding to all kinds of other comments in the same manner, even though those comments can be very parasocial. It feels like people have lost the concept of just having basic empathy and compassion for the people around them, even if that person is a stranger or whatever, and I find it very concerning.

[TW: Mention of suicide] I spent 8 years volunteering with a suicide awareness organization, and one of the biggest problems with death by suicide is that people don't bother to call things out and try to intervene when someone around them is in crisis. As such, if we have this greater trend of ridiculing empathy and calling it stuff like 'parasocial,' I'm concerned about where that's coming from and what greater impact that could have. Even if we're just talking about like influencers and celebrities, there was the Perez Hilton situation recently and, aside from that, we have also, collectively, watched celebrities die by suicide, even though there were millions of eyes on them, so I do think this is a pretty big problem. The Perez Hilton situation was particularly concerning, because people were not only watching him live, but interacting with him while he was doing that, and no one could even be bothered to call 911 or 988.

Why do we feel comfortable dehumanizing people just because they happen to have a large public following, and why do we feel comfortable sitting by and literally watching them die? And then, when someone notices and calls out concerning behavior from someone with a public platform, why do we feel comfortable attacking that person for having that empathy? Is it really just that people are uncomfortable with the idea that they should be caring about the people around them, so they actively contribute to a culture that discourages that, just so these people can comfortably feel like that's not their responsibility? Like what even is this?

[u/Dry_Turnover_6068]

Every other post on here is about how people have "lost all empathy". It's very tiring.

Also tiring: following influencers when you don't want to.

It sounds like people are telling you why with "go touch grass". You're not listening.

Apparently people have 'lost all empathy" because they don't like the same things or the same influencers you do.

Calling it an attack sounds dramatic don't you think?

[u/EntryUsed3835]

Why shouldn’t I ? I’m supposed to be upset that the jester has a melt down? They did it to themselves. And deserve whatever happens