Post by @mxchara@cyberpunk.lol

2026-08-25 04:19 UTC

@memewarrior@hear-me.social good heavens he was cooking with gas there, I love how acidly clearly he writes. I wish I were a tenth as forcible. And I see his point right away: pity is like the salve people apply to their own consciences to sweeten the taste of NOT helping. Yes it's probably necessary in some sense. Organic beings need to feel rewarded for doing things, rewarded in the moment if possible. But it's a terrible sort of thing to inflame. Nietzsche was dead on there.

Replies (1)

@memewarrior@hear-me.social 2026-08-25 04:56

@mxchara@cyberpunk.lol I agree with you on pity, but I don't think that was the point Nietzsche was actually making. It was a suicidal empathy point, with eugenicist overtones, straight up Elon Musk's alleyway in all the worst ways. I say "eugenicist" because he says, "By and large, pity runs counter to the law of development, which is the law of selection. Pity preserves things that are ripe for decline, it defends things that have been disowned and condemned by life, and it gives a depressive and questionable character to life itself by keeping alive an abundance of failures of every type". This is in the same book as he says "the weak and the failures should perish (...) And they should be helped to do this." Also, you do write exceptionally. Really really exceptionally. One level below Nietzsche & a lot closer to him than you think. I have not seen another contemporary who is as good at writing as you, although I am sure one must exist.

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