It's a really difficult word to find, in my view, but I believe, there has to be someone who could relate since it happens almost every time in social media mostly. Whoever has this word as their personality is probably morally bad, but not always. Which means, this can be owned by anyone whether they are nice or not.
The closest one I could find, unfortunately is the opposite of a word that I'm looking for. This is the discussion to which I've been directed: Saying for "people who are in a similar situation and understand each other"?
Two of the responders suggested the adjectives: empathy and empathetic.
They seem look alike to me, but after checking the antonyms of those words, I found these words from OALD and M-W… :
- Distance
- Unloving
- Unaffectionate
… which IMHO doesn't describe the personality of what I'm talking about. For clarity, below I provide two made-up conversations that has this personality. There will be a blank space to be filled with this word I'm looking for.
A with a good moral
A: Hey, take a look at this. Closer! My dad bought me this jPhone 14
on my birthday. I think you should ask your dad to buy you jPhone 14 too, like mine! We
could match the phone case since we're besties!B: That's cool. Probably not. I'm poor, remember?
A: Ah… I'll ask my dad if—
B: Don't bother!
(*B's conscience: What a ___ girl!)
A with a bad moral
Minding her own business, B wrote this sentence in her notebook:
"B, your awesome!"
And then A emerged
A: What are you writing?
Suddenly, A snatched B's book and read it.
A: All people should know the difference between "your" and "you're".
This is basic knowledge! I couldn't believe it.B: Sorry. English is my 99th language, so…
As you have read, they are basically the opposite of being "empathic". From the suggested antonyms, I don't think one of them fits. What is it?
Best Answer
If someone really can't understand other people's feelings it's a personality trait, not a moral failing (maybe they're on the autistic spectrum). They could be said to lack empathy or emotional intelligence.
If they are being deliberately careless of other people's feelings, they could be called thoughtless, tactless, unfeeling...