Totally obvious insight of the day: emotions are subjective. I'm sure everyone is saying "Well, no shit, Sherlock", but with the sheer amount of people who try to trivialize others' suffering with "Children are starving in China" types of 'advice, many people just don't get it. I'll start with a simple explanation and go to a complex one.

A basic example would be math skills. I feel less intelligent as a person because I have low math skills. However, it is conceivable that some people could be neutral about a lack of math skills or even proud of it, as if they are cooler because they don't achieve in school.

A more complex example involves September 11th. When those towers came down, many people felt shocked and horrified. They did not go to themselves "Well, I didn't know those people" or 'More people die of the flu than died in that attack". In the press and in the homes of Americans, people felt like that was a singular atrocity. However, the supporters of say, Al Queda may have felt happy at the deaths of thousands and maybe some felt neutral, like Americans often feel if we see a news report of flood victims- Oh, that is too bad, but no real personal sense of horror.

I do not understand why people persist in thinking emotional intensity is controlled by anything rational. I have heard people get into intense arguments about the physics of real breasts versus breasts in computer games. Emotions simply aren't sensible things.