Outstanding noggin-stimulating psychobabble. I love your discussion illuminating the subjective effects empathy can have. Your description of how empathy can cloud our judgement and can focus our reasoning in the wrong direction is spot on. It can quite easily make us myopic, spontaneous, and even cruel.

While reading your post, an excellent quote from Davy Crockett, former U.S. Congressman from Tennessee, comes to mind:

"The man who wields power and misinterprets it is the more dangerous the more honest [and empathetic] he is."

Your post inspired me to add "and empathetic" in brackets for effect. The story behind this quote perfectly illustrates how empathy can cloud the judgement of even politicians in control of tax money. It was published in Harper's Magazine in 1867. Here is a recreation: https://fee.org/resources/not-your-to-give-2/. I highly recommend you give it a read. It is rather short.

Our politicians today make it a fine art in using empathy as a guilt trip and preach from Congress about helping some poor needy people while pounding their chest in collection of much self-righteousness. Their empathy and honesty is quite dangerous.

I thoroughly enjoyed your post and joining in on the pshychobabble fun fest with a bit of political philosophy sprinkled in by me.