Ask HN: An "Empathy News Channel" that reports global tragedies as local ones?

1•amichail•1h ago

Most people hear about bad things happening around the world but don’t feel much because the events feel distant. What if there were an Empathy News Channel that retold world news as if those events happened in your own city?

For example: instead of reporting, “A market bombing killed 15 people in [country],” it might say, “A market bombing killed 15 people at [your local shopping mall].”

The idea is not to mislead — the channel would be completely upfront about what it’s doing — but to help viewers imagine what these events would actually feel like if they happened close to home, and therefore build more empathy for people who live through them elsewhere.

Do you think such an empathy news channel would be effective in making you care more about global tragedies?

Comments

toomuchtodo•1h ago

Search pubmed for empathy. People who have it, have it, those who don't aren't going to build it, because it's brain structure (anterior insular cortex). If you want to make change, you have to care (and be willing to expose yourself to the costs involved) to put yourself into positions of power to have more leverage to effect change at scale (to prevent the events from happening you mention; do you want to know about them if you cannot change them?). Do you care enough to seek power you don't want but need to make the change you believe in?

"One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." - Plato

MrCoffee7•2m ago

This sounds like doomscrolling on steroids.