Empathy is easily used for propaganda as well. All those "immigrants are going to r your wife" and "radical elites transing your children" are the appeals to empathy that work very well (there are examples from the left too lets be honest, they're just less unhinged)

IMO you need empathy, rationality and introspection: empathy to feel for your fellow human, rationality to not fall for the grift, introspection to realize in what ways you were an idiot and self-correct.

The wave of scepticism that will inevitably come in 2030s will weed out the grifters, but I doubt it'll last. Time is a flat circle afterall.

I’m reminded of this article from a couple of days ago in the Globe and Mail, specifically as a response to Musk’s anti-empathy comments: Empathy is not a Weakness, it’s a Strength

We used to think pop ups were the worst that could happen. Good god were we wrong.