The Duality of Empathy and Manipulation

The insight suggests that the ability to empathize with others may have originated as a means to manipulate them. It discusses how President Johnson's legendary empathy was viewed differently by old-school liberals and conservatives, with liberals admiring his aid to the underprivileged while conservatives saw his ability to bend others to his will. The insight proposes that empathetic individuals may also be the most capable of manipulation because understanding someone else's feelings is a prerequisite for influencing those feelings.