The assumption of “putting yourself in someone else’s place” is that it will create sympathy. But I’ve been poor, struggled with mental health issues, etc. I never started robbing stores or punching random grandmas. When I imagine the edits to my psychology I’d have to make to get to those behaviors, it makes me less sympathetic, not more.
The proponents of “empathy” engage in no such thing. They do not realistically model the psychologies of the most dysfunctional people in society. Rather, they tell themselves a little fable totally unrelated to other people’s actual minds, feel an emotion in response, then congratulate themselves for this solipsistic exercise and vote to give away other people’s money.
“Do unto others and you would have them do unto you.” What I want done unto me is to be held to a fair, uniform standard of self-reliance and good conduct. And that is what I do unto them.