This topic has been well discussed for years but given the recent spat of hate-mongering that has arisen from the far right, it bears regurgitating if only to assuage my depression about why anyone would attack a 12 year old and his family or lie with seeming impunity about the sacrifice of a soldier with no thought to the effect it would have on their lives.
I am constantly in appreciation and awe of the willingness of those who would publicly stand up to dispute the decisions of our war making government only to be slammed with hate filled speech by those who often cannot see that they live in a Faux news bubble.
Sociopaths *are* their base, ouch!
Who would stand up and spout such vitriolic hatred toward another human being and ostensibly also identify as a Christian? Who would then take these un-Christian-like folk at their word, without question?
"Psychopaths lack a sense of guilt or remorse for any harm they may have caused others, instead rationalizing the behavior, blaming someone else, or denying it outright. Psychopaths also lack empathy towards others in general, resulting in tactlessness, insensitivity, and contemptuousness.
All of this belies their tendency to make a good, likable first impression. Psychopaths have a superficial charm about them, enabled by their low self-consciousness, a willingness to say anything without concern for accuracy or truth. This extends into their pathological lying and willingness to con and manipulate others for personal gain or amusement."
So what are we talking about here in terms of numbers so of people? How about an estimated 80% of incarcerated people [snip (the percentage of incarcerated criminals that meet the requirements of Antisocial Personality Disorder is somewhere between 80 to 85 percent of incarcerated in the U.S)], and how about 4% (same linky as above) of the U.S. population (1% female and 3% male)? Not very many people at all really, but the squeaky wheel...
So many mental health issues are fairly easy to notice; at least once you have spent some time talking with that person.
But not this pathology, nope, you can be anybody, perhaps even a radio talk show host, in fact, as referenced in the Wikipedia article, these folk may even appear at first to be an asset in such roles "The manipulative skills of some of the others are valued for providing audacious leadership. Some have argued that psychopathy is adaptive in a highly competitive environment, because it gets results for both the individual and the corporations they represent".
For example, I have a friend who self identifies as a sociopath (not the language he uses, but the symptoms and the diagnoses from his psychiatrists are consistent with this pathology, he says he has no ability to feel remorse or empathy and at the same time is very charming and friendly).
Why write a diary about this? This is my way of reaching out to those who may have been negatively impacted by this particularly harmful mental illness, such as the Frost family, or new Dkos user Broken Skull (of VoteVets.org).
Rather than identify all of neo-cons as crazy, I give you something to think about in terms of what may motivate such passionate responses from these people and why they might say they are Christian and do very un-Christian-like things.
This is not to say that any one "news" figure on the right is a sociopath, because without a diagnoses, who can say? But my as my mom says, if all signs point up, you should look up.