People angry that Superman represents kindness are outright admitting that they don't want to be good people
How is kindness a bad thing? I thought that was universally agreed to be a good message to have in a piece of media. I guess the excuse is they don't want media to have messages at all but like, how would you even have a movie where the hero has no values that they stand for?
That's the thing, isn't it? You either have empathy, or you are the other species. The one that can't comprehend that there is anything wrong with them, but the world would be better off without them.
Empathy can absolutely develop over time. This rhetoric is not useful. Even dumb fucking right wing pieces of shit feel empathy when their in-group is affected.
If hate can be learned so can empathy, what you're suggesting is dehumanizing
There's an underlying care instinct that needs to be activated. Its emotional; you can't explain it, they have to experience it.. There was a post years ago supposedly describing the empathic awakening of a white supremacist, which occurred as he was waiting to harm or harass a father and son on a bus, and the moment of awakening happened as he witnessed the father expressing his love for his son and something clicked for him, probably because he wanted that sort of affection from his dad and never got it.