That's before they apply the anaesthetic.

Honestly, there is so much terrible terrible terrible stuff going on in the world and happening to real people, I think it is safe to say that those brains are having a blast. Relatively speaking.

It just invokes a strong emotional response because it's so "abnormal", but if you think about it, there is so much more pain going on where no one bats an eye.

Perfectly avoidable pain even. So it's not even that aspect.

___

OTOH, this is HN, I guess. Having empathy for real people would be harmful to the business model of most people's employers.

So instead, mostly performative outrage/empathy with something that is effectively dead can fill in that gap.