Is it normal to have sympathy for unusual topics & lacking sympathy for others?

Its all normal. I myself only feel sad when an animal dies, I laugh my ass off when a human perishes.

I think a lot of people pretend to be sad when someone dies, but they don't really care.

Could be normal for someone on the autism spectrum.

Perhaps you feel like this because issues that you should feel sympathy for is so common that you have just become desensitized to it. The shock isn't new to you. We watch so much tragedy in the media we consume that we have become desensitized to reality. That's my take on it. I feel kinda selfish/egotistical too. Sometimes I think people make too big of a deal of their problems, until I experience those problems myself. Only then do I develop a greater empathy.

I think it's relatively normal to have your own unique feelings and preferences. For instance I am not really concerned with the opioid addiction crisis, because I have NEVER abused prescription drugs in my life. I'm more annoyed than anything, because my father, who is almost 82 years old has had two back surgeries, one of which didn't go well at all, and two hip replacements can't get much help for his chronic pain. I also have pretty serious anxiety, and find that it's much more difficult to get a prescription for Klonopin when I need it. I honestly don't care too terribly much about the opioid crisis! It's not that I want people to get hooked on pain medication, and then get hooked on Heroin, because I don't, but I'm so incredibly tired of hearing about it!

Last Night I called into a conference call phone meeting in order to get some information, a phone number, and a passcode to call into women's meetings for domestic violence survivors. Well, the procedure was pretty straightforward, but this woman was on the line, and seemed to want to talk. I felt sorry for her I guess. Anyway, I wish I had been smart, and just hung up after the screening portion of the call, because this woman was just talking on and on. She eventually got on the topic of opioid addiction, and just kept on going. I told her that it's not my problem, and it wasn't interested in talking. It was stressful, and annoying to me, but I was trying to be polite. At one point I even said that I needed to hang up, but she just kept on blabbering until I got angry, and said, "that's not my problem" repeated times, and she finally said that she had to go. I honestly hope I don't end up running into her again on a conference call. Whew! I'm sorry I unloaded on you there. I think my part in all of this is that I didn't get off the line when I should have, and I let feeling sorry for someone stand in my way of maintaining my boundaries.

I think whether, or not you feel sorry for someone, or sympathize with a cause is your own business entirely, and you have the right to feel however you want to feel!

I personally tend to have more sympathy for animals, because they just want to live life, be happy, and have food and shelter. Animals don't disappoint, or annoy me the way that a lot of people do. I'd rather listen to a dog bark all night about a possum in the backyard than to hear another person preach to me about their personal belief system, and why I need to change mine to suit their point of view.

Meh. Just be the best version of yourself, and try not to put up with too much bullshit.

It's pretty normal. I'm the same way with certain things. These days I just pretend to feel emotions for whoever died or whenever something bad happens.