The universe is quite a nasty place. Sometimes I look up at a distant star in the night sky and wonder if there’s a habitable planet around it and whether some uniquely nasty life form lives there that does nasty things to other nasty life forms that live there
Almost all the Star Trek aliens are kinda mild-to-medium more nasty than humans. Only Vulcans come off looking better. But the worse ones are all G-rated. The real ones out there… probably total assholes
Do birds and reptiles have empathy? 🤔
There is a certain machine-like coldness to their cruelty.
Mammals seem to have a cruel mode with emotions designed to suppress empathy. Lady Macbeth gene or something.
I did dodge the question a bit, but I believe I have seen my chickens go out of their way to help new chicks learn the ropes. I think that's at least empathy-adjacent.