Human life is more important
than property values.
All human beings deserve to be treated like human beings, not just straight white cisgendered males born in the US or its allies.
I hate how much more things matter to me when they happen directly to me than when they happen to friends, family or strangers.
Anyway, my laptop hd decided to fail suddenly today, and I feel extremely selfish for being more affected by that than by my partner's chosen family being on their deathbed.
Is it perhaps that you have more control over your personal situation in this case?
A hard drive failing is more immediately actionable than a loved one going through a rough time. In the latter case, the only thing you can do is be there for them. Unlike a hard drive, you can't buy your way to a solution.
But yeah, empathy is hard sometimes depending on your personality. I don't think anyone should feel bad for how their brain works nor how their feelings (or lack thereof) naturally fall into place. What actually matters is how you respond to it. Your actions. So long as you're supportive, or at the very least, so long as you do right by other people, I'd say you're a fine enough person. You can be there for someone and experience your own life at the time.
I'm pretty psychologically dependent on my laptop to help me cope w/ my various emotional issues, and I'd done bunch of optimizations like moving frequently modified vital system files off of the system SSD, and onto the larger HDD (which is now failing), leaving my entire laptop now crippled.
So I guess it's a bit more understandable for me to care as much as I do. Still makes me feel like a giant dumpster of a human being to be so much more affected by my own issues than other people's.
