Game changed.
It is time for Anti-Sociopath Activism.
The movie, “Milk,” which I saw last night, was a stunner, and inspirational even for us cynical straight people. So I’m stealing the late Harvey Milk’s rallying cry: “I’m here to recruit you.”
Anti-Sociopath Activism Mission Statement: Stop the promotion of sociopaths to positions of power. Find the ones in power and expose them.
This is what I want you to do:
1. Educate yourself. Read the blogs in my blogroll or click on the “psychopath” category in this blog, do a Google search, whatever. You know what to do. I prefer the biology approach, but if you like the shrinks more, then go with that.
2. Shine a light: Where you suspect a powerful sociopath, stay out of their way and do the minimum to support them. Don’t put yourself at risk, but do not take the “appeasement” approach. Question, question, question. Get answers.
3. Correct wrong PR: Where you see people in the press, blogs, etc. giving these guys a break, write a comment pointing out that some people are just incapable of having a conscience.
4. Stop victimizing victims: If you see a victim, you don’t have to say anything — but at least don’t work with the system to discredit the victim. Don’t let the sociopath know you know. Let other people know you know.
5. Get the word out. Talk to other people about sociopaths (psychopaths, whatever, pick your term). Don’t worry about being wrong on the details. The big picture is that some people lack the wiring for a moral center no matter how lifelike they appear.
6. GET THE WORD OUT. Put this “Anti-Sociopath Activism” logo (red devil graphic with slash) on your website: let them know you know.
Anti-sociopath activism
Background for those new here: For over a year, I’ve been blogging about white collar psychopaths (sociopaths, whatever, let’s decide on the terminology, I’m going to use sociopath for now).
What I knew: sociopaths breeze through the big money machinery. What I didn’t know: The financial system stinks from top to bottom. It was, until recently perhaps, a big cover-up, with everyone making money having a vested interested in keeping the scam going and silencing critics. Here are some very small snapshots: Federal agencies with a see-no-evil attitude; witnesses silenced either by arbitration clauses in employment agreements (but see here), or attempts to buy off silence (like the Paul, Hastings lawyer) or just plain vanilla stalking and harassment (as described here).
Now that powerful sociopaths have started cannibalizing their own, the mainstream press is poking its head up to see if its safe – here’s just some of the reports lately: Drs. Agin and Ackerman, in the Huffington Post, Peggy Noonan in the WSJ, Dr. Krugman and Dick Cavett in the NYT, NPR, even the Lake Country Reporter (Wisconsin). A year ago, mainstream press wouldn’t have risked offending their biggest advertisers while they were rolling in the dough. Now, it’s safe.
This is new: previously it was only lone bloggers metaphorically holed up in scrap wood shacks typing out manifestos or lonely hearts blogs bemoaning the sociopaths in our individual lives. Now it’s a cause. It sells. It’s ok to talk about.
I’m Swivelchair and I’m here to recruit you.
In Latin it is spelled with an I, so go f___ yourself brainiac.
Wow: “You are truly delusional if you believe you can beat us. Sociopaths are, in my opinion….”
I guess it sounds like we have lost already.
At lol and Wow:
“You two are delusional for what you typed. You think that you can get away from everything? How messed up you are. You ought to know that if you go too far with what you do, you’ll suffer the consequences.”
At St. Atheist:
“You’re the one who should f___ himself or herself. Everything you typed is wrong and the opposite of whats’ true. You think that you never everything about sociopaths? Think again.
It’s people like you who make other people’s lives hell. What gives you the right to pick on innocent people who have done nothing to you? If I hadn’t known any better, I’d say that you’re parents never taught you good values.
You’re also a hypocrite for telling anti-sociopaths that you’re not devils yet tell them to adopt swastikas. Hello! people who use swastikas are sociopaths and psychopaths.
Honestly, do you really think that psycopaths and sociopaths make the world a better place? If so, you’re completely delusional.
We people have evolved and aren’t beastly animals anymore. But you still behave like the whole world is primitive. In other words, you think that survival of the fittest means that only bullies are allowed to live and their victims aren’t. Shame on you.
True survival of the fittest means the ability to adapt and not to be brutal to anyone.
Another way that you’re a hypocrite is that you tell anti-psycopaths not to pick on your kind yet you and your kind pick on innocent people. Would you like other bad people terrorized you without stopping?
And what the hell do you know about conscience? Psycopath haters don’t create conscience. They’re born with it. If you didn’t have a conscience, you’d make lots of enemies and they’d gang up on you without mercy.
I apply the same words to you as I applied to lol and Wow.”
At all psycopaths, sociopaths, and their supporters:
“If you don’t change your ways by becoming better people, other people will come after you and do whatever it takes to get rid of you. If you think that you can do whatever the hell you want, then that means others can do harm you whenever they want.
I recommend that you get your mental illness diagnosed, checked, and cured. If you don’t do those, believe me that you will pay dearly with your lives and no one will care sorts of bad things happen to you. I myself won’t care if all of you die horrible deaths.”
At Doug Plumb:
“It sounds to me that you’re just as bad as sociopaths and psycopaths in that you seem to support them. I bet that you’re just as hypocritical as they are.”
“It sounds to me that you’re just as bad as sociopaths and psycopaths in that you seem to support them. I bet that you’re just as hypocritical as they are.”
You can bet all you want – I don’t care. There are as many uninformed opinions as there are a__holes.
BTW try “psychopath”.
Read some, then develop some educated opinions before attacking people. Where did you people go to school ? Have you ever read a whole book by yourself ?
Swivelchair checking in here: Thank you everyone for heart felt opinions but some of the comments have devolved to ad hominem remarks, perhaps not surprisingly given the topic. This can go on for a little bit more to give our readers some insight into how sociopaths think, but kindly refrain from f-bombs and personal remarks. Thank you.
I will stop, until someone adds a comment with substance. It is a very interesting topic.
S.C. Did you ever pick up a copy of Political Ponerology? I lost my copy and it had the original cover. That book sells now for between twice and six times what I paid for it.
My apologies for dropping the F-bomb so many times. I can be very civil, when I want. Hater, you don’t seem to understand. If you met me in the real world you would think I was a very friendly person, you would not suspect me, I blend in. I am a very intelligent person, if I weren’t I would be discovered, and that would be bad. Natural selection has nothing to do with survival of the fittest, Darwin was not even the one who said that. Darwin actually said it is not the strongest of the species who survives but the ones most responsive to change. In other words you are screwed, we are the change, and you are not adapting. And natural selection favors the violent (but not the violent to one’s own kind). Unfortunately for you we are like homo erectus, and you are like homo habilis, we will eventually exterminate you (homo habilis was herbivoric, and erectus was not, that’s why we are violent because our ancestor’s cousins were weaklings). We are splitting off, we are removing the useless conscience and are replacing it with a better world. A world where people don’t atrophy into fat globs that can’t even ****, we will remove genetic ailment, not by curing, by exterminating, only the strong will survive, the strong and those useful to the strong, we will still have scientists, we will still have artists, but might will be the new order of the day. I see doug would like some insight into the mind of an undiscovered psychopath, I will give you a peek. I am paradox, it is not true that we do not have emotion, it is only that we can understand the futility of emotion, it exists but it is hindered. I am still a teenager 15 years old, I have been taking advanced algebra since I was 12, I have never gotten lower than 100%. In all of the sciences (which I do at 20/30 levels) my average is above 94%. I occasionally feel a sensation which may be described as love (or being in love) it lasts momentarily, its a wonderful feeling, but utterly useless. I feel sexual attraction of course, but that is not the love I was previously referring to. When I was younger I taught myself to cringe during movies when people were in pain, I learned from observation. I only recently realized (about 2 years ago) that I didn’t really care about people being in pain, I was just putting out a show. Not all psychopaths are aware of their act, some believe it. Generally not for very long though. One can only deceive oneself for so long. I like art and patterns. Van Gough is one of my favorite artists. When a piece of artwork is ‘off balance’ it bothers me (such as when there is too much going on in one area, or when it reminds me of a pattern, but is missing pieces). I am not sure if this is caused by psychopathy, or if I am merely slightly OCD. I don’t care if people die, you might say my mind is rather reptilian (such as Carl Sagan compared politicians to, in his book Dragons of Eden). I am rather openly aggressive, but the people around me feel comforted rather than threatened by it (people used to feel threatened, I have learned how to manipulate their emotions). I claim to have deep beliefs, but I don’t really give a ****. My father was a psychopath, and so was his father, I do not know how far back it goes. I have inherited the trait, and am very thankful. I do not want to reveal more except that in all psychoanalysis I come out perfectly fine, because I can lie easily and make it convincing. Have fun trying to find and kill us.
DP, We’ve had some mention of Political Ponerology here in the comments section, and I took a look at the website — while many of the ideas are scarily enough probably true (e.g., a bunch of sociopaths in power, like Machiavelli but smoother), I think what I object to is the cult-like aspect of it, and attribution to a single individual. So I haven’t been promoting that on this site. But as far as organizational hierarchies being infested with sociopaths, particularly given the management practices of the 20th century, you’re preaching to the choir on that one.
You are completely missing the point of the book. Even the summary doesn’t do it justice.
The point of the book is not that there are a bunch of sociopaths in power, its what makes them operate like sociopaths and how the behaviour becomes self perpetuating under “fascism” and the physiological effects of fascism. The book has incredibly deep and far ranging conclusions. I don’t read garbage – I read philosophy and ethical philosophy – its rare that I pick up a book that hasn’t been in print for over 100 years.
The cult like aspects of the book are a direct result of the few of us that have read it and recognize its incredible importance. Stuff that was in Time and Discovery magazines announced as new discoveries a few years back is in that book written in the 30′s. I laughed when I looked at the Time rag revelations and thought “I wonder if these guys even know they are full of shit”.
The only problem with the book is that it is very hard to read – it is summaries of clinical findings of various doctors performing autopsies. Terms had to be invented in that book.
I’ve never known anyone to read it and not see how important it is.
Thanks for such a prescient and vital movement.
I could not help but notice you were a bio-pharma employee– an industry that is a huge part of the problem — The problems are growing from feeding the Newtonian Linear based reductionist machine — and biopharma big part of the problem. I really hate to sound judgemental, as if it were not for your employment how would you afford to keep up this blog. Read more about formation of conciousness and the quantum mind — it is not the stuff of woo woo — you won’t want to support biopharma when you experience the whole truth — thanks again for such wonderful work — you are a shining star
DP – Sorry I didn’t read the book, so no wonder I missed the point of it.
A-Agree, biopharma is part of the problem – but I put that at the exec. suite/board room, not at the science level.
Here we are. Labor day. What is being celebrated? That millions have lost their lives? Yes, we’re in a recession, but how come are the rest of the world’s workers not as appalling as those of the US? Why do our workers suffering so much more than those of the rest of the world? Our average gross domestic product is roughly 1% lower than that of the peak in 2008. This is compared to a drop of two percent in France and roughly 5 percent in Britain, Germany, and Japan. Now you might think this is all fine and dandy but US unemployment increased roughly by five percent since 2007, as opposed to 1 point in France and 2 in the previously mentioned nations. What does all this mean? I have no clue, but one reason for this craziness is the rise in productivity within the United States. Less people are required to do the work that have been needed to be done. Computers are replacing people and effectively outsourcing America’s workers.
Did you misunderstand the topic? We are talking about psychopathy, not economics.
The term I pick also use a log much like the one you point to. I actually thought I was about to read about sociopaths who were exchanging criminal endeavors and voting about who to appoint ‘King of Badass Socios’.
Maybe that’s part of your plan? To lure them here?
Anyway, you’re not doing anything new, my friend. You’re pointing to sociopaths in powerful positions – that would be the mob. But everybody already know about them. Why do you think they still have influence? Because they talk mice to the politicians and the police? And now you ask individual common folk to ‘blow the whistle’ on these guys?
“Don’t worry about being wrong about the details”.
I have rarely heard advice as bad as this. You are asking people to mimic the behavior that you want to get rid of. Do you know about habit forming dynamics? If your advice works people will use in other aspects of their lives as well.
You are a very good example of what psychopathic individuals are trying to put forth: You need the psychopaths! They are part of the human race, and by rejecting them you are rejecting elements of yourself that the human race needs in order to survive.
In other words: You think you’re trying to kill us, but you’re hurting yourselves more than you can ever hurt us. Why won’t you learn? I’ll give you a simple clue as to where you can find the answer to what you – and the other normal, non-psychopath people – are doing wrong:
Concentration Camps and ‘The Final Solution’. – Used with the purpose of eliminating the Jews, the Gypsies, the… you name it, everything not very normal and common at the time.
The hunted people were seen as not really human and the cause of all evil.
Medieval Witch Hunts. – This was used against people who were somehow different and didn’t seem to share the most common ideas and ways of living, in an attempt to eradicate the devil and those who were not Christians.
The hunted people were seen as not really human and the cause of all evil.
Your kind will never learn, author! That is why you need the few who can face what you cannot. Everybody have their place, it is you who create conflict by insisting that you are any better than others merely because of your numbers. You lack logic, how can you possibly hope to come up with any solution?
I rest my case.
Okay, here’s my actual website. I didn’t include it before for obvious reasons. But, I’ll take the first step and be the honest person here.
angel on September wrote:
“The problems are growing from feeding the Newtonian Linear based reductionist machine”
I disagree. The Newtonian Reductionist model is just that, a model. The problem is in the minds of those who use it, not in the model itself. It’s a tool, like quantum mechanics is a tool and as our cultural world view is a tool.
Understanding this does not mean you have to think it isn’t worthy of your respect or that it doesn’t deserve credit as a powerful force in every day life.
It’s just an opportunity for you to expand your awareness and understanding.
To be clear: we are not promoting violence of any sort.
objectively speaking, most of people will feel true love or attachment to just an insignificant amount of people. so say, most of the people are attached to a group of 100 people (thats a psychological phenomena, people don’t give a shit about outgroup ones), out of around 7 billion. sociopaths would be attached to 0 out of 7 billion -> not much difference. On the other hand, most of the people are able to do as much emotionally destructive things to outgroup people as sociopaths are able to do that to anyone. So combine with the obove ratios, and see that sociopaths are not so much worse then you are (probably). You might say that they kill, but, they don’t realy, only in very hazardous locations, where, normal people would also kill outgroup people just as easily (but for that to be sure, you should travell to such a place to see). If you are in a leading position, taking into acount your 100- or at best 500 group of people, you easily don’t give a ____ about the rest. And if there are no more then 100000 thousand highg level leaders, then probably, there will be significant amount of people who are not much important to leader people. all the people, sociopath or not, have trained behaviours however. Trying to invent a behaviour (habbit so to speak) which would make people non violent against eachother, is better then “fighting” sociopaths, since from the above estimations it is evident that most of other people are just as bad (if those estimations are close enough to reality, which i think they are).
z- thank you for the comment, we edited it to keep to G or PG.
Hey hey hey now.
Just because we have no conscience doesn’t make us all bad. I mean I’m a sociopath and I have philosophy and ethics and social contracts, I don’t just go around stabbing people for lulz or anything. I troll people for lulz but I don’t stab them :3
But seriously all being a sociopath means is that we lack or have an extremely diminished capacity for social emotions. We aren’t all antisocial, antisocials are a subset of sociopaths and may also include nonsociopaths such as narcissists and aspies.
A lot of us were born this way, I have a cortisol disorder myself. And just wanna point out, you empaths have very selective emotions, most Nazis weren’t sociopaths you know? Nor were most Crusaders, or most witch burners at Salem, nor are most soldiers who drop bombs on people. The guy who flew the plane to drop the Hiroshima nuke never lost a night of sleep and wouldn’t be made to feel guilty for anything he did that day, but he had an abundance of love and empathy for his family.
What I’m saying is, empaths commit all the crimes they project onto us, and we aren’t all monsters.
BTW for any sociopaths interested in modern philosophy, Sam Harris is a modern Epicurean Consequentialist worth checking out.
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