Disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar has been stabbed multiple times during an altercation with another inmate at a federal prison in Florida. Nassar is serving decades in prison after admitting sexually assaulting athletes at Michigan State University and at Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics, including Olympic medalists.
I have to admit my first reaction was “he deserves it” but I immediately felt bad for thinking that. Same as when Trump got Covid. I wouldn’t call it a “perverse inner lust to hurt other people” though. I’m human, human reactions are complicated. Nassar inflicted unspeakable harm to hundreds upon hundreds of girls and young women. He doesn’t deserve to be stabbed, but I definitely have less sympathy for him than I would for someone innocent. I don’t think I’m a monster for feeling like that.
Perhaps I got a little poetic with it, but I do think there is a kinda twisted inner instinct in people that enjoys seeing harm come to those who we feel deserve it. A lack of sympathy is just that - a lack of something. But when you look at, for instance, the sheer joy people felt when seeing anti-vaxxers get COVID, I think there’s more going on there than just a lack of sympathy. It’s an active pleasure.
There’s definitely a difference between being unsympathetic about someone’s situation and wishing/celebrating vengeance against them. I’d like to think most most people fall into the unsympathetic group and that thoughtless comments celebrating his attack/antivaxxers getting covid are just that - thoughtless comments, not hateful ones. I’m not at all convinced everyone who makes a flippant comment actively takes pleasure in seeing harm come to others. Perhaps I’m naive.
I guess I’d just imagine that a mere lack of sympathy, and nothing more than that, would result in simply no comments. I don’t talk about things I don’t care about. Some random conservative anti-vaxxer in Texas dying of COVID has no more impact on my life than some random average person in Iowa dying of a heart attack. But if I saw two articles about those two events in a social media timeline, I know which one I’d be a lot more tempted to click on, and which one would get significantly more engagement. And I can’t help but think that it’s because, on some level, a part of us likes hearing about those we consider to be bad people “getting what they deserve”.
Yes, but feeling unsympathetic is not the same as feeling indifference. It’s not a neutral nothingness, a lack of interest - it’s actively not having sympathy for someone. Not having sympathy is also different from feeling glad about someone’s misfortune.
I’ve heard the sentiment “I don’t talk about things I don’t care about” before, but it’s not my experience or something I particularly understand. But then I’m chatty and I love hearing different people’s views and expanding my horizons. Tbh I’m not sure how people function socially by only talking about things they care for. What about friends/partners with different interests from you? How will you learn about new things if you aren’t open to discussing things beyond your current interests? And in this instance, talking about the criminal justice system and the human response to bad things happening to bad people, surely everyone should care about that at least a little bit?
I strongly disagree with you about antivaxxers. Their behaviour had a very real impact on the lives of other people. I don’t just mean the physical risk they posed to people around them, but the damage they did by spreading misinformation or straight up lies. Not to mention the strain they put on hospitals and other resources in your country - as well as the political divides that most antivaxxers sought to perpetuate and worsen. Antivaxxers impacted your life even if you didn’t realise it at the time. A complete stranger, someone relatively “insignificant” in the world, dying from a heart attack likely has absolutely no impact on your life at all.
Part of us does take pleasure in hearing about bad things happening to people we feel deserve it. There’s no direct word for it in English, but in German it’s “schadenfreude”, in Greek it’s “epicaricacy”. It’s common across all cultures and occur in all ages. You might find this article interesting, it discusses the possible benefits of experiencing schadenfreude. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/12/18/why-taking-pleasure-in-others-misfortune-can-actually-be-good-for-your-mental-health/?sh=783978836526