This isn't a joke either, they genuinely believe this.
In the words of my dad "you were predestined to care too much about basically everything"
Anyone else have similar family "explanations" for their leftist views?
This is a dumb post but I'm stuck in bed sick and feverish, I have to kill time somehow.
My family says something like that. They believe there's a inherent balance between caring about yourself and caring about others and it can only work like a see-saw. Caring about others too much means you become gullible and you get taken advantage of, so you have to balance that out with only caring about others enough to a certain degree of scrutiny.
They also believe most people can get by with far less, less food, housing, etc.