Back when I was heavily into studying psychology, the studies involving 'feral children' were great examples of this debate, one key individual would be Genie who was abused through isolation throughout her childhood by her abusive father and neglectful mother.
From my own hypothesis, we aren't starting as blank slates (Tabula Rasa) but what we have is fundamental building blocks and instincts, like your starter kit in a survival game. Nurture however, determines how developed these basic tools become or which skills are developed. With the feral children, a lot of it was developing fir survival such as withdrawing to protect mental functions or in another case where a child was essentially raised by dogs a more pack like mentality.
People aren't born evil, they can have the basic kit to easily become it like psychopathic tendencies but there's probably thousands if not more that live like the rest of us despite having no sympathy to everyone around them. Likewise on the otherside, a person who is extremely empathetic could easily be twisted to evil acts believing that their actions will help people more.
I saw this frequently in college. On the surface, most examples I'd seen were benevolent in their intent, but it doesn't take a genius to see how easily this could be abused or exploited.
There's a specific psychological term for how this can create an emotional vulnerability on the part of a person who feels aided, helped, or rescued. I want to say transference, but that doesn't look quite right when I read up on the definition.
Back when I was heavily into studying psychology, the studies involving 'feral children' were great examples of this debate, one key individual would be Genie who was abused through isolation throughout her childhood by her abusive father and neglectful mother.
From my own hypothesis, we aren't starting as blank slates (Tabula Rasa) but what we have is fundamental building blocks and instincts, like your starter kit in a survival game. Nurture however, determines how developed these basic tools become or which skills are developed. With the feral children, a lot of it was developing fir survival such as withdrawing to protect mental functions or in another case where a child was essentially raised by dogs a more pack like mentality.
People aren't born evil, they can have the basic kit to easily become it like psychopathic tendencies but there's probably thousands if not more that live like the rest of us despite having no sympathy to everyone around them. Likewise on the otherside, a person who is extremely empathetic could easily be twisted to evil acts believing that their actions will help people more.
Commies enforce/propagate through weaponized empathy, so that makes sense.
I saw this frequently in college. On the surface, most examples I'd seen were benevolent in their intent, but it doesn't take a genius to see how easily this could be abused or exploited.
There's a specific psychological term for how this can create an emotional vulnerability on the part of a person who feels aided, helped, or rescued. I want to say transference, but that doesn't look quite right when I read up on the definition.