drethelin comments on [LINK] Why I'm not on the Rationalist Masterlist - Less Wrong Discussion
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I think a lot of people lose sympathy when they feel like there's nothing they can do. You see this pattern with people who have addict relatives or friends who make bad romantic decisions. At first they try to offer advice and money and various kinds of help but as this doesn't work, they revert to not even feeling sympathy anymore. I think ascribing genetic inferiority to underprivileged groups is likely to work like this for a lot of people.
I don't think so.
Sympathy tends to extend more for lack of capability than poor choices.
And it takes some non-intuitive insight to understand that in some situations "poor choices" are caused by a "lack of capability". Specifically, a capability to think or act sufficiently rationally. (Where "sufficiently" depends on the specific situation.)