RE: What Does it Mean to Truly CARE About Something?
In my opinion, you got it the right way by pointing to the difference between saying "I (don't) care" versus "you don't care".
Let's go on with not caring about such "you"-sentences which in many cases (maybe most cases) are manipulative.
Nevertheless it is also possible to manipulate other's feelings by "I (don't) care"-phrases. This should not be forgotten. Whenever someone utters his/her emotions, there is a temptation to letting be involveld and therefore being manipulated.
But! I want to stress the difference between clearly uttering one's feelings ("I regret you could not participate in the way I want to live my religion") versus hiding them in apparently objectively and soberly arguing ("I DO care in my religion / my spirituality!").
Last not least: in discussions and argumentations, one can nearly every utterance use for a hidden, intransparent, manipulating meaning. In the end, we only have the choice to not participate in such games.
Indeed... and this hints at the roots of why (in my opinion) there are so many fights and wars in the world: People experience their perceptions and opinions as absolute facts, rather than what they actually are... one person's opinion, based on their experience.
What sometimes saddens me is the way dialogue becomes something to be "won" or "lost," rather than merely an *exchange of information.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment!
I cannot but fully agree.
One point to add, possibly:
Exchange of information is in its pure sense a thing for machines, not for men - since we have and associate feelings and emotions with some informations in an other way as with some other informations. We dislike certain informations. So we can rarely avoid to try to "win" a discussion. We could - if we gave this point attention enough. But our emotions carry us away from this...