system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: it is better to show/feel empathy towards others, even when they are not acting in good faith.

I think that caring for others, feeling empathy and expressing positivity towards them is the correct thing to do, even if someone is not acting in good faith.

By this I don't mean gaslighting or manipulating, or situations where I have specific knowledge of falsehood (and even then it doesn't mean that I should treat someone badly as a result, and I can still pity or feel bad for them). I mean that whether or not someone actively needs or is asking for empathy from a genuine place that we shouldn't withold it.

If someone's relative dies and they are upset we should console them.

If someone claims their relative has died in order to receive empathy, there are a few reasons they may do this. I think they are likely projecting, or need affection and can't communicate that. I think that someone unhealthy may manifest this kind of behaviour and that they do genuinely need help but aren't able to get it through healthy means. 

Help should still be what they receive though.

Even criminals, or morally corrupt people are human, and should be treated like humans.

As an individual I can choose how to approach people in the world. If someone needs help, whether that's in good faith or bad, I can't change that, I can only choose to be a person who helps. If someone takes advantage of that then that's on them, not on me. Better to help a few people who don't need it while helping more who do, than to help no one and let those who really need it suffer further because of those who don't.

I'm looking to have this view changed, or expanded on because of a conversation I had on this sub, the person was very adamant that walls can and should be put up against someone acting in good faith. I don't reasonably see how the average person could really know that sort of thing outside of assumption and prejudice. I'm not going to do background research on everyone before I decide to bestow empathetic feelings, they are my natural response. I don't think empathy is a choice in that regard, and that choosing to repress it because of arbitrary walls makes for a more distrustful, less productive person in society, which relies on trust and cooperation, and empathy is a huge part of that.
gpt
I woudl agree we should act with kindness. But that can look different in different situations. 

Someone who is seeking pity under false grounds does need help, but that help isn't pity. That help is learning to get their needs met in healthy, non-manipulative ways, that can lead to lasting relationships. Not everyone is a therapist and able to do this But people are able to show this person that their behavior is unacceptable and that they should seek change. Sounds like you are enabling people, rather than helping them grow and heal. 

Also, being empathetic toward someone is draining and takes emotional energy. People shouldn't be having to use up their emotional energy for people who will just continually do the same things over and over with no willingness to change or introspect or get real help.

Like, you may give a sociopath empathy in understanding the biological and learning history reason why they act that way, but you don't want to enable them to hurt more people. Some people truly do need "tough love" or to "hit bottom" to improve themselves.