Psychologist Robert D. Hare, Ph.D. in his book "Without Conscience" poses the

[Cal33]

question: "Is Gov. Scott Walker a psychopath?"

"...We are becoming much more educated these days about psychopaths and as was stated above, there are many more of them than many people had realized - and they are running around free, they are living lives as if they were normal people, yet, still causing us all to live lives which are dramatically different than we would be able to live without them causing us the trouble that they do. Another expression or term that has been applied to psychopaths recently is that they are 'anti-human beings'. In some studies on the subject, psychopaths are described as non-human beings, but beings of a different sort, meaning they may look or have the appearance of ordinary human beings, but that they are in fact, another species - one that preys on humans.

There may be as many as five genes which psychopaths have which are different from normal (real) human beings. This could make them as different from us than an entirely different species, as if they are actually like (land) sharks which happen to look like us. And I think that this is the real danger for us when it come to psychopaths, IS that they look like us. We know to avoid sharks and other dangerous creatures, but what if those dangerous creatures look and act just like us? That, is what I feel that we are really dealing with when it comes to psychopaths.

Some of the items that called my attention to Scott Walker as a psychopath is that he has done many things the same way that I have seen psychopaths do things. One thing that they do is to use 'disclaimers'. That is, that they will tell you (to some degree that seems reasonable) what they plan to do. But they are thinking of things not as a normal human being, but as if this were like a chess game where they are always about 5 to 10 moves ahead of everyone else. they know ahead of time, for instance, what they will be forcing their opponents to do and they have already thought out how they are going to exploit the situation at that point. ........"

http://iswalkerpsycho.webs.com/

[Puzzledtraveller]

1. I believe it speaks worse

when a discipline is used to purport or affirm a particular bias against a person of group of people when there really is no basis in fact.

[Cal33]

3. No basis in fact? Really? Ask the teachers of Wisconsin, the firemen, the state

government employees, the union workers.... Then read up on what Walker had done to get into power in the first place. It is known that at least five of his aides are in
serious trouble with the law. And this "touble" is getting closer and closer to the
governor, himself.

Psychopaths are criminals. Just looking at how they behave and what they do to people
will let us know that they are without conscience. There is a high population of them in
jails. It's the smarter ones who know how to do all of the above, and still avoid jail.

Our nation is in the vast mess we are in because there are too many psychopaths holding high positions, both in government and private industry, and ruling our country.

We are being ruled by sick people, who have no business ruling. That's why we're in this mess we're in!

[DCKit]

5. And, when caught red-handed, they don't comprehend that they've done anything wrong.

The ability to justify, in their own minds, any evil perpetrated against another human being is a gigantic red flag. An authoritarian mindset is also another indicator - believing themselves to be better, smarter or, somehow, more worthy. And they rarely admit to being wrong - you're supposed to forgive and forget, even when they won't let up... because they can't help themselves.

They may believe they're always 5-10 steps ahead of normals, but their brains don't function the same way. Much of what they do is either offensive, or just doesn't make any sense to the rest of us.

In my experience, they will always look for personal advantage, in every possible situation. They are not the folks you want to be with in a foxhole, in business, in a relationship.... They're bad for our physical and mental health.

[Cal33]

6. Right you are. You really do understand what psychopaths are. They are dangerous and

do enough harm to people even in ordinary daily life -- not to say anything about holding positions of great power and responsibility. They are totally irresponsible.

[Cal33]

4. You apparently haven't read the link. He gives many facts that back up his statements.

[laundry_queen]

7. He's very famous

for his study on psychopaths. I doubt that particular poster has ever read his book. A great read, full of facts.

[Cal33]

11. Dr. Hare has a whole website devoted to studying sociopathy, psychopathy and antisocial

personality disorder.

His works are timely - perhaps a little on the late side. I agree with him that today's
so-called Republican Party has become a home for sociopaths, psychopaths and people with antisocial personality disrder. What the corporatists, neocons, libertarians and
teabaggers offer are as attractive to the psychopaths as dung is attractive to flies.
The psychopaths finally have found people who welcome them like long lost
brothers. They've finally found their true home where they feel accepted as one of
their own.

It's well past the time that the average American should understand what having too many psychopaths holding high positions in government as well as private industry really
means for our whole nation.

What Dr. Hare has published is informative, and quite thorough. And his studies
are on-going. They are by no means over.

It's up to us to keep ourselves informed of what they have already done to our nation, and
intend to have more in store for us -- if we allow them to.


http://www.hare.com/

[whistler162]

9. Now now bigotry always has some basis

in percieved facts!

Weird how so many try to emulate the greats of history. You know like the writers of Mein Kampf or Protocols of Zion and how many suck it down without a thought.

[backscatter712]

2. This is exactly what I mean when I refer to various right-wingers as subhuman.

I make no apologies.

[Cal33]

8. Not all sub-human creatures are dangerous to humans, but psychopaths definitely are.

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. Pseudoscientific bullshit

Today's phrenology.

In fifty years, people will laugh at the late 20th centruy early 21st century obsession with "psychopaths" and the so-called "sociopathology." It's patent nonsense.

[Egalitarian Thug]

13. On what do you base this pronouncement? n/t

[felix_numinous]

12. Top 10 Classic signs of a sociopath

from The Sociopath Next Door, by Martha Stout psychologist

http://voices.yahoo.com/10-sure-signs-dealing-8765275.html?cat=5

Interesting article, 'Can a psychopath be taught values and morals?'

http://www.askdrrobert.dr-robert.com/valuesandmorals.html

[Cal33]

18. These are great articles, but how many are willing to read them? :)

[HiPointDem]

14. I don't see that any knowledge is gained by labeling scott a psychopath. Scott serves his masters.

He's anti-labor and serves capital. Most of our leadership is little different; scott is simply more virulent in how he displays his allegiance to monied interests.

The psychologization of political discourse puts down to individual neuroses things that are inherent in the political and economic system. To survive and "thrive," "you gotta serve somebody" and stab others in the back.

It's the nature of the system, not the individual. Though some individuals are more aware of the game than others.

[Cal33]

15. I think that is because it hasn't hit you yet how crucial it has already become for our nation,

when such a high percentage of the Right-Wing leadership (both in government and in
private industry) is made up of sociopaths.

Let me give you two examples of the depths of degradation to which the immorality of our
nation has sunken:

(1) Some ten years ago GW Bush started giving huge tax-breaks to the extremely wealthy of our nation at the expense of the middle-class and the poor. He also lied our nation into war against Iraq.... During his two terms, he doubled our national debt from 5+ to 10+ trillion dollars.

(2) The Right-Wingers have been fighting against and succeeded in preventing the
American people from having Universal Health Coverage for generations.

Do you see the gravity of these situations? It's not only immoral, it is also insanity to
make the extremely rich even richer. Why do the rich want to get even richer? One main reason: So that they can better dictate to and control the lives of the average Americans.
They have the money and the power that goes with money to carry out fraudulent elections and manipulate our voting system. And they corrupt everything they touch -- including our Judiciary System. Bush actually lost the election in 2000. We know the rest.

The Right-Wingers want more money so that they can have more power to use against
the American people. That's how the 1% can control the 99%.

Because of the tax-breaks for the rich, millions of middle-class have now become poor,
and the poor have become even poorer. In the minds of the psychopathic leadership,
the poor are used to serve as cannon fodder in Bush's wars. We know that not a single
son or daughter of the Right-Wing leadership served as an ordinary soldier in Iraq. Correct?

On the industrial front, 50,000 Americans needlessly die each year because they couldn't afford or were denied medical treatment for whatever reasons the health-insurance people
saw fit. This means that over the past 20 years, roughly 1 million Americans have died
needlessly. Over the past 40 years roughly 2 million..... The number of American
soldiers killed in Iraq numbered in the 4,000+. Have you ever thought what the sociopathic Right-Wingers are costing our nation in these terms? Only very recently is Obama's health-care reform beginning to make a few dents - here and there.

Today, the American people have become so used to the results of the Right-Wing's
SOCIOPATHIS VALUES, that most of us have lost our bearings. Many of us don't even know
where we stand -- much less where we are heading.

It might help if we tried to look at the big picture once in a while, and not only look
at the small details.

Over the past 3 years, Obama repeatedly gave in to the plainly immoral and evil demands of the Right-Wingers in order to salvage some little good for the American people. It seems as though one has to be almost apologetic in order to do what's right for our people. IMMORALITY has become so common that it has now almost become THE NORM. We are so used to seeing it that we are no longer aware of it as such. How could we have become deceived to such a devastating extent?

This is what is happening because our nation is being ruled by too many sick people
-- the sociopaths -- who have no business ruling!

It looks like we are at the point where Germany was in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
American Right-Wingers are doing now what Hitler was doing then: the propaganda,
lies.....etc.....all of it. Since the Right-Wingers already own the Supreme Court, if the Democrats should lose the presidency as well as both Houses of Congress in November,
it could spell the end of Democracy in America.

God forbid that THAT should ever happen. Let's make sure that it never will happen.

[HiPointDem]

16. you didn't respond to the content of my post, which was basically that these labels offer no

additional explanatory power and actually place the blame for the normal workings of capitalism on individual "bad apples".

It's a distraction from the real causes of things. And to top it off, you locate all the bad apples in a single political party.

[Cal33]

17. Capitalism began in Europe. It was an improvement over Feudalism, when the nobility

owned their land and all the people living on their land. The nobility had everything,
the people had only what their liege lords allowed them to have.

Capitalism was better than feudalism in the sense that more people were able to have
something. But human weakness is human weakness. More people fall to temptation
than not, and they, too, began to behave like the nobility who used to rule over them. But, there are some capitalists who are not greedy.

Sociopaths are exceptionally greedy for money and the power over people that can be
exercised with money. Where can money and power be most easily found? In
politics and business corporations. And that's exactly where sociopaths are attracted
and drawn to -- like flies are drawn to feces. There is a high percentage of them in
these two, as well as other, fields. Prisons are full of them, although the brighter ones
manage to stay out of prisons, at least stay out for a longer period, and some manage
never to get caught at all.

Yes, there are sociopaths among Democrats, too. But I'd say these are fewer in number and less vicious in degree. The basic philosophy of the Democrats -- making life better for
everybody -- is not that attractive to the basic instincts of the sociopath, which is to
grab as much as possible for oneself. This is one reason for the lower numbers of them. I
agree that there are also those who are Democrats in name only. Some of them might
even be moles for the GOP -- just one of their many dirty tricks.

For your information, between 2% and 4% of the general population have sociopathic personalities. You can be sure that this percentage is much higher among people in professions like politics and corporate executives, because these professions offer the best chances for acquiring exactly what sociopaths are most interested in: money and power over people.

Regarding "individual bad apples": This terminology makes it sound like there are only
a few of them. They may have started off that way, but today, I think the majority of the
Righ-Wing leadership is made up of sociopaths. Not too many succeed in getting into a leadership position among the so-called Republicans of today without being a sociopath.
And some who are not sociopaths are finding life being made so unpleasant for them that
they can no long stand it, and decide to leave - Sen. Snowe of Maine, for instance.

You seem to feel that Capitalism is intrinsically bad. I feel that Capitalism, in and of
itself, is neither good nor bad. It depends on the people using it, just as a gun can be
used for a good as well as an evil purpose. Briefly stated: Greed largely influenced
capitalism from the beginning in the US. Change came mainly with FDR (although others
also have played a role).

Capitalism must be closely watched by the government (a good government, of course)
with the necessary rules and regulations, to see that capitalists do no harm, neither at home nor abroad. Under these circumstances, America did make huge advances in upgrading the lives of all Americans. Capitalism did make America prosper under a system of government that is for ALL the people.

The Republicans have always fought against having rules and regulations for business to follow. And today's "Republicans" are far more adamant in this respect than those of yesteryear. There are far more sociopaths among the Republican leadership of
today. Yes, Capitalism becomes a definite evil under sociopathic leaders.

A sociopath is, by definition, a person who has a defective conscience, disregards the
rights of other human beings, does not hesitate to lie, cheat, steal and harm others for
his personal gain. Putting such a person into a leadership position only allows him to
do all this on a larger scale. Yes, I repeat what I've said above, a large percentage of
the Republican Party leadership of today is made up of sociopaths. Their leadership has brought, and can only bring chaos and disaster to our country.

This ought to make my position clear: I think we are in the mess we're in today because
there are too many sociopaths holding positions of power. The Republican Party of
today is being ruled by sociopaths -- and there are some of them in the Democratic
Party, too, but not in significant numbers.

[Junkdrawer]

19. Kurt Vonnegut recommends "The Mask of Sanity"

It's $75 used at Amazon, but if you Google, "the mask of sanity", the PDF is at the top of the list.

My next beach book.