To think that most people who call themselves “empaths” are actually just manipulative?

[ByFluentPombear]

The ones who always claim they “feel other people’s pain” seem to be the most emotionally draining and self-centred.

I don't claim to be an empath but I've just heard John Hunt's statement regarding the effect of his wife and 2 daughters being murdered by the hideous excuse for a human being, Kyle Clifford, cowardly to the end, refusing to be present in court. It has made me cry. Imagine how Mr Hunt feels OP. You may shed a tear yourself.

It's part of being human to feel sad, sometimes very sad, when hearing about tragic events or to be able (to a degree) to imagine what someone suffering is going through. You can't actually feel their pain though, it's impossible, and part of real empathy is the humility to know that what they are going through is their experience.

I think some people are hypervigilante because of ACEs and very good at reading others/atmospheres. These IMO tend not to be the ones going "I'm an empath!" when what they actually are is a self centred, shallow attention seeker.

But that just sounds like normal empathy which most people feel to greater or lesser extents. I don't think the OP was claiming that people don't really feel empathy, or shouldn't feel it, it was just about people announcing themselves as empaths.