We all got betrayed by almost everybody. Empathy and trust go hand in hand. I still have empathy for unvaccinated friends and a lot of my family.

It's hard not to treat strangers as if they're the "average" person. And when the average is low, that's not good. If you simply treat strangers neutrally instead, regardless of what you perceive as average, then things might turn around.

But yeah, it feels like we all discovered that empathy is earned.