The Sign Says Not to Feed Them

They look just like you and me, but they have no emotional center, no way to put the brakes on their wants and desires. They are not burdened by care for others, and they are quite willing to exploit the empathy of other individuals if this will further their own selfish aims.

"It has often been noted that psychopaths have a distinct advantage over human beings with conscience and feelings because the psychopath does not have conscience and feelings. What seems to be so is that conscience and feelings are related to the abstract concepts of "future" and "others." It is "spatio-temporal." We can feel fear, sympathy, empathy, sadness, and so on because we can IMAGINE in an abstract way, the future based on our own experiences in the past, or even just "concepts of experiences" in myriad variations. We can "predict" how others will react because we are able to "see ourselves" in them even though they are "out there" and the situation is somewhat different externally, though similar in dynamic. In other words, we can not only identify with others spatially - so to say - but also temporally - in time. "


They realize that they are different, yet also generally play-act as if they sincerely do have the same feelings the rest of us have. They wear the "Mask of Sanity." This can be stressful for them, though, and tell-tale slips often occur.

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

—Bush addressing a group of witnesses at the signing of the Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2005 in Washington, DC on Aug. 4.

The article linked above even contains a suggestion that the psychopath is a new kind of hominid, with the survival advantage of lack of a constraining conscience. That scares the heck out of me, and I'd hate to see what the planet would end up like after Homo psychopathosis became the dominant species on our once-fair Earth. I don't think it's yet too late for us to take our country, all countries, back from these monsterous people.

The points bearing repetiton here are that psychopaths are all around us, and they are making a miserable mess of things, and we should do our best to recognize and contain them. We should stop electing them. We should see to it that their political party ceases to have power over us.

This next quote comes from one of the comment moderators for the political blog called "Red State," which was at the center of the fleeting Ben Domenech fiasco at the Washington Post.

"For the record By: Thomas

I repeat: Should the entire American Left fall over dead tomorrow, I would rejoice, and order pizza to celebrate. They are not my countrymen; they are animals who happen to walk upright and make noises that approximate speech. They are below human. I look forward to seeing each and every one in Hell.

To those conservatives who couldn't wait to find wrongdoing where none existed: Gee, funny you didn't get all hyped up about this with Bob Bork. Or Sam Alito. I guess maybe your common sense detector -- or decency reserve -- only kicks in when it gets you something you want?

You're all dead to me, as well. Too bad: One lady in particular was a favorite writer of mine. Ah, well.

If this is mastery, then I'm a donut. - Mike Krempasky

Personally, I think it might very well be that "Thomas" is himself a bit of a psychopath. In that quote he certainly espouses the tone of one. If you hold your nose and peruse that thread you will see that other posters there call him to task, but with the expected futility.

A psychopath of the more severe variety could slaughter a whole dormitory full of schoolgirls and similarly order a pizza, no? And the projection is also a common sign amongst these unholy bretheren; to repeat Thomas:

I guess maybe your common sense detector -- or decency reserve -- only kicks in when it gets you something you want?

I believe he might be trying to tell us that he feigns common decency only on occasions when it would appear to be advantageous for himself. And of course, he tries to weasel out of things later by posting this:

Properly, by the way, I was not "expressing approval of harassment, arrest, immprisonment, torture, or death of liberals and Democrats." I was stating preemptive joy at the sudden, accidental death of the American Left. I'm frequently told by liberals that liberal does not equal Left; I took that as a given.

Yes of course, that's much better. Whatever.

Anyways, the next time you get flamed by some illogical rightwing freeper-type keep in mind that they are most certainly a psychopath. Treat them as such, protect yourself, and above all, discourage their reproduction, both figuratively and biologically.

They have also their disadvantages. They are predictable, they are unclear in their desires, except perhaps to repeatedly harm others, they can be sloppy, and they can be beaten, as they must be.