I've realised that there's the following false notion as a part of general knowledge:
Only someone who's been pushed around and always had to sacrifice themselves will understand how it feels and therefore be able to have empathy and compassion for others in that position - wrong.
First of all, people who haven't been pushed around can also have compassion for people in that position. But also, what makes us think that a person who never had to negotiate their boundaries, who has never been in a position to take advantage of someone else, that this person will know how to respect the boundaries of someone else?
It's an emotional allegory to the story about a poor farmer who won a million dollars in a lottery. One could think it's a good thing and the farmer will live happily ever after, but sadly it's more likely that he'll spend and/or lose the money very fast.
It's similar counterintuitivity to the one in the saying "if you want to have something done, ask the person who's the busiest".
If someone is always the underdog it doesn't mean that they're more compassionate, I dare to claim that it actually means the opposite. It's two sides of the same coin. Only a mature person can be compassionate. A mature person will not become a pushover. It's really interesting to think that it may actually be a rule. Always letting others take advantage of you is a sure sign of underdevelopment which in turn compromises the capability for compassion and empathy.
So I'd rather be careful with the "poor ones". It's not that they're malicious, they're just as clueless as the evil ones.
It's interesting that it stands in opposition to what religion taught me. Or maybe it's a good idea to reevaluate what I've learned there. Maybe it's a misconception: Jesus pictured as a martyr. Maybe the martyr concept has something sick to it, something toxic. Why not to say that Jesus was a mature compassionate human being. He could have still have done what he did, it's not contradictory. Before the day of his death he asked his Father if it's possible to quit the whole idea. That's not what a martyr would do, right, once you're a martyr you go full force, otherwise it destroys the glory. I've already started to understand how the whole idea of romanticism destroyed love, it's not unthinkable that middle ages destroyed the faith.