Are all Conservatives sociopaths?
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Intelligence Study Links Low I.Q. To Prejudice, Racism, Conservatism
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/intelligence-study-links-prejudice_n_1237796.html
Come across this before, I think it is self evident. But then most research is.
Can't see any mention of sociopaths in the article, just a possible link between intelligence levels and simple political world views.So to the question, "Are all Conservatives sociopaths?", I would say a definite, no.
'Conservatism'an illness? I'd say so. Support capitalism and risk being called "mad". It appeals to me. Reading some comments, on other froums (not here obviously) and Facebook
I think the word sociopath is often misused; and are better off starting of with the formal definition? The term sociopathy may have been first introduced in 1909 in Germany by biological psychiatrist Karl Birnbaumand in 1930 in the US by educational psychologist George E. Partridge, as an alternative to the concept of psychopathy.[156]It was used to indicate that the defining feature is violation of social norms, or antisocial behavior, and has often also been associated with postulating social as well as biological causation. Thus I think it is a bit problematic saying that conservatives violate social norms; new social norms perhaps but hardly old ones? Sociopathy is related to psychopathy which is perhaps is where it gets interesting? Psychopathy…………also known as—though sometimes distinguished from—sociopathy, is traditionally defined as a personality disordercharacterized by enduring antisocial behavior, diminished empathyand remorse, ……….. I think we can intellectually ignore “antisocial behavior” as subjective and another circular variation of ‘violation of social norms’. So a psychopath is an egoist (as differentiated from subjective egotism) who feels no, and does not believe in, empathy and remorse , and things like ‘justice’. Psychopathic and thus rational egoists [ eg orthodox SPGB?] are not automatically ‘anti-social’ or for that matter insane monsters locked up in Broadmoor etc. That become only obvious as such, in the vulgar interpretation, when they also have incidentally ‘irrational’, ‘dysfunctional’ and ‘antisocial’ ‘neurotic’ urges and drives which are not checked or held under control by empathy, remorse and ‘feelings of justice’. And when they feel they can get away with fulfilling them without discovery and social sanctions which would act against their rational egoistic interests; they do so. Psychopaths may in fact pursue and act out what we would consider ‘dysfunctional’ behaviour? like sending children into the gas chamber etc, without themselves getting any personal sadistic satisfaction from it, of itself. Not doing so in particular circumstances for the egoistic psychopath would seem ‘anti-social’ and irrational as far as his egoistic interests are concerned. I think the real question as it is probably meant is are ‘conservatives’ emotional sadists in the sense of that they get not material and purely emotional pleasure in and from the suffering of others. Maybe some of them do. But the exploitative capitalist is mostly a rational egoist and pursues material pleasures as the end through the suffering of others and injustice which for them is just the means to obtain it, left unfettered and encumbered by empathy and ‘justice’ etc. The psychoanalyst people will say that ‘sadism’ is displaced and transferred deferred revenge etc. As the Ferengi said in star trek; ‘there is no profit in revenge’. A recent study on psychopaths found that under certain circumstances, they could willfully empathize with others, and that their empathic reaction initiated the same way it does for controls. Psychopathic criminals were brain-scanned while watching videos of a person harming another individual. The psychopaths' empathic reaction initiated the same way it did for controls when they were instructed to empathize with the harmed individual, and the area of the brain relating to pain was activated when the psychopaths were asked to imagine how the harmed individual felt. The research suggests how psychopaths could switch empathy on at will, which would enable them to be both callousand charming. The team who conducted the study say it is still unknown how to transform this willful empathy into the spontaneous empathy most people have, though they propose it could be possible to bring psychopaths closer to rehabilitation by helping them to activate their "empathy switch". Others suggested that despite the results of the study, it remained unclear whether psychopaths' experience of empathy was the same as that of controls, and also questioned the possibility of devising therapeutic interventions that would make the empathic reactions more automatic.[68][69] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy#Sociopathy
If Ian Duncan Smith is not a murderer and sociopath I'll eat my shorts. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ten-thousand-benefit-claimants-declared-6333859But why only pick on conservatives. Tony Blair? Should be on trial.“…Line up the bodies of the children, the thousands of children — the infants, the toddlers, the schoolkids — whose bodies were torn to pieces, burned alive or riddled with bullets during the American invasion and occupation of Iraq. Line them up in the desert sand, walk past them, mile after mile, all those twisted corpses, those scraps of torn flesh and seeping viscera, those blank faces, those staring eyes fixed forever on nothingness."War Crimes Tribunal I think capitalist politics attracts psycopaths, sociopaths and child abusers.If capitalism requires some nasty measures then why not have an unfeeling sociopath like IDS carry the measures out. Its job satisfaction.You don't want politicians crying while going to war and attacking the disabled, not good for business.
Interesting article in yesterdays Guardian.http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/27/study-delivers-bleak-verdict-on-validity-of-psychology-experiment-results
Quote:A major investigation into scores of claims made in psychology research journals has delivered a bleak verdict on the state of the science.An international team of experts repeated 100 experiments published in top psychology journals and found that they could reproduce only 36% of original findings.The study, which saw 270 scientists repeat experiments on five continents, was launched by psychologists in the US in response to rising concerns over the reliability of psychology research.So unless the study regarding low intelligence and conservative ideology was confirmed by other research groups, it looks like there is a good chance it is probably bollocks.
In one Facebook comment, which got over 400 'likes', saying re immigrants: "that their boats should be sunk, and then they should be left to drown" unqoute. I don't know if the author was in fact trolling? Yet, if it were a boat full of cats or dogs, the author would suely be lynched?!
With regard to sociopathy/psychopathy vis-a-vis capitalism I recommend that you have a look at The Corporation- The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power written by Joel Bakan a Canadian Law Professor. The Corporation is akin to a psychopath in that its '…legallydefined mandate is to pursue,relentlessly and without exception, its own self interest, regardlessof the often harmful consequences it might cause to others.' Sounds familiar
There has been a few pieces of research into the lack of empathy for others within the ruling class, hasn't there?But to put the findings more crudely, scum floats to the top and, like smoking hash, the more you suck, the higher you get …
I think it is interesting when some capitalists themselves say that most members of their own class are sociopaths/psychopaths, can’t remember which term he used exactly; it is a fairly interesting interview in general as I remember it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05ndjm9 Then on a sort of class analysis? There is mirror neuron research with the bit more technological scientific procedure of watching bits of the brain lighting up in CAT scan type machines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron The theory/conclusion, in respect to the more specific topic of this discussion, is I think that; when Peter objectively observes Paul in a ‘particular situation’, Paul’s brain automatically ‘google’ searches his own memory bank for a pattern recognition ‘match’ from his own personal experience. The recalled best fit memory automatically also pulls out with it Paul’s memory of his own ‘emotional state’, that has also been filed away with it. So much for intellectual theory, is it true? When you remember/recall ‘factual’ stuff does the associated emotional memory automatically, as a ‘reflex reaction’, and unasked for, sort of come with it? Or; Do you actually automatically, as too fast to rationally stop it, actually wince when you see someone hurt themselves? Eg. I suspect people who have been hit in the bollocks by a cricket ball would wince more when seeing it happen to another. But then again perhaps the mere quantitative extrapolation of some lesser personal experience is sufficient to get a reasonable qualitative understanding of the experience, and that you can sort of ‘fill in’ to get a better ‘understanding’ of what has just occurred. Which might be useful in a more general sense, it is after all just information which perhaps later can be assessed or analysed in a more rational way. The quantitative extrapolation of some lesser personal experience is important I think. I haven’t faced the ‘exact word or phrase’ google advanced search engine experience of Syrian refugees. But just like I have been crunched in the bullocks once with a lacrosse ball whilst wearing ‘protection’, I have experienced a ‘close match’ of economic insecurity etc etc. I think abstracting from a personal experience, like an ‘apple falling from a tree’, and generalising and expanding it is part of the ‘human condition’. But in sympathy for the Imelda Marcos capitalist class and ‘let them eat cake’ what happens if they don’t even have some starting reference point to extrapolate from of being ‘crunched in the bullocks once with a lacrosse ball whilst wearing ‘protection’? I think the arch conservative Michael Portillo to his credit allowed himself to be very gently thumped in the bollocks when he agreed to live in a house of the poor working class for a week as part of a TV programme. It sort of worked after a fashion.
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