Faked Empathy

I was reading a thread on Datalounge a few days ago about faked empathy and compassion fatigue and I've been thinking about these terms ever since. Most of us probably fake empathy from time to time. A coworker or some vague acquaintance talks about a spouse/significant other/family member who got the flu or some kind of stomach virus and you express empathy for the ill person but the empathy is fake because (A) you don't know the person and/or (B) you don't care. I feel like saying "bless you" when someone sneezes is fake empathy which is why I don't say it often. (I also feel it's based on a superstition that you stop breathing when you sneeze, hence you need the blessing to stay alive.) It's not that I don't want someone to be blessed, I just feel like saying "bless you" when you sneeze is a hollow gesture. It's like saying, "Have a nice day!" to the cashier at CVS. Do I really want the cashier to have a nice day? Will I wonder if the cashier did have a nice day after I walk out the store? Will I think about the cashier at all after our transaction is done? Probably not. I hate to sound callous and uncaring, but I also hate to fake the funk. I know common courtesies don't hurt anyone, but sometimes I just get tired of all of the fakeness. Sometimes I just want to say, "I don't care how the rest of your day goes, random person, and I doubt you care about mine either!" There's so much to worry about in our own lives and the lives of our friends and loved ones these days that it's hard to muster much (or any) concern for folks you don't know personally or don't know at all. Compassion fatigue is real.