Beyond Selidor

what i got out of this article, which might or might not be what author had put in there, is that empathy, when applied willy-nilly, does not replace, mm, ethics? that when empathy is applied within the bigger context of oppression and injustice, turns into excuses for the oppressors and safely toothless misery porn for the oppressed. i think the short story tries to save its main character with empathy - the author keeps trying to make them more and more relatable, safe, harmless, good, engaging, pitiful, virtuous (i.e. easy to empathize with) - while it's in general not right that you should only not harm somebody if you empathize with them; you should not harm them because they're human.