The June, 2016 issue of Discover Magazine contained a very interesting article titled, “Into the Mind of a Psychopath.” (“Fifty years ago, his chilling experiences as a prison psychologist led Robert Hare on a lifelong quest to understand one of humanity’s most fascinating — and dangerous — disorders.”).
The word (“psychopath”) has become a synonym for a certain type of evil, denoting a specific breed of cunning, bloodthirsty predator who lacks empathy, remorse and impulse control, readily violating social rules and exploiting others to get what he or she wants.
Among all those who campaigned this year, for President of the United States, which one(s) do you believe best fit that description? Any? Some? All?
Psychopaths are capable of the most heinous crimes, yet they’re often so charming and manipulative that they can hide behind a well-cultivated mask of normalcy for years and perhaps their entire lives. Only the ones who get caught become household names, such as Ted Bundy, “Killer Clown” John Wayne Gacy and “Ken and Barbie Killers” Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.
Research suggests 1 in 100 people are psychopaths who tend to blend in, like cold-blooded chameleons. We know psychopaths make up 15 to 20 percent of the prison population, at least 70 percent of repeat violent offenders and the significant majority of serial killers and sex offenders.
Any Presidential wannabes come to mind, yet?
We know so much about psychopaths because of The Hare — officially the Psychopathy Check List-Revised (PCL-R) — the test that Hare developed for researchers in 1980 and released publicly in 1991.
It’s now the gold standard used by researchers, forensic clinicians and the justice system to identify the hallmark traits and behaviors that make psychopaths chillingly unique.
Many are violent criminals, but even repeat offenders tend to do only short prison stints, or they are released from psychiatric hospitals because they are diagnostically sane, displaying “a perfect mask of genuine sanity, a flawless surface indicative in every respect of robust mental health.”
“My view is that psychopaths have the intellectual capacity to know the rules of society and the difference between right and wrong — and they choose which rules to follow or ignore,” says Hare. “They might even consider themselves more rational than other people. A psychopath I met in my research once told me that using his head instead of his heart gave him an advantage. He saw himself as ‘a cat in a world of mice.’ ”
Sound like any candidates so far?
The article continues in greater depth, but “The Hare,” the test for psychopathy, boils down to certain characteristics. Read them slowly, and as you do, try to imagine who you believe, among all the candidates, most displays them:
The clinician scores each item with 0 (no presence), 1 (uncertain) or 2 (definitely present). Psychopaths score 30 to 40 points. The general population typically scores less than 5.
- glibness
- superficial charm
- grandiose sense of self-worth
- need for stimulation
- proneness to boredom
- pathological lying
- conning/manipulation
- lack of remorse
- lack of guilt
- Shallow emotions (emotions felt in shallow and fleeting ways)
- callousness
- lack of empathy
- parasitic lifestyle
- promiscuous sexual behavior
- early behavior problems
- lack of realistic, long-term goals
- impulsivity
- failure to accept responsibility
- many short-term marital relationships
- juvenile delinquency and criminal versatility.
I don’t know about you, but for me, one candidate stands out, encompassing almost all of the signs.
Think about it.
I suppose most politicians have some measure of the psychopath in them. The lying and manipulation alone are qualifications. But, some are more psychopathic than others, and I suggest that this year, one is an extreme case — an extreme psychopath.
What do you think?
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..
MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
And speaking of psychopaths:
Apparently, this is what passes for intelligence and class in the world of the NRA.
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Then things got nutty:
And then:
Is it any wonder that the Republican Party wound up with Donald Trump as its nominee?
GO TO THE LINK FOR A REALLY GREAT VIDEO
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Oh, sorry. I thought you were talking about HRC … In my defense, it is an easy mistake to make.
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“Will our next President be a psychopath?”
Yes.
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Rodger, you intrinsic democrat you, do ya think Hill’s the more throne-deserving, more fit psychically + philosophically to be our PreZ? Holy cow, wise man, I wouldn’t trust her w a bag of my trash!
Trump’s far from an idyllic candidate. But, comparatively, come on — give the U.S. a break! Anyone who can’t fathom what Hill + Bill were up to re. TS
State Dept. E mails relative to their fraudulent Charity, needs to think beyond penny-ante misdemeanor to our ‘Racketeering’ statutes! Weighty penalties!
Trump will hiss and sputter but will finish at least 1 term in 2021.
Best health wise man! …………………………
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pinata and Dan,
Ah, so you don’t like dishonest people? So you’re all upset about Hillary using a private server rather than the government’s server?
O.K., I’ll see your Email scandal and raise you a crooked Trump University along with a Trump lie that he would release his tax returns and now refuses with the fake excuse he is being audited. (Even Nixon showed his tax returns while he was being audited. What is Trump hiding?)
And I’ll see your Benghazi, and raise you a ban all Muslims (which he now has denied he meant!)
And I’ll add his suicidal idea about negotiating with creditors for the interest they are owed on Treasury securities.
And then there’s his phony claim he is “self funding” his campaign. (He never was, and won’t in the future).
Ah, but maybe you’re a builder, who wants to get into the wall construction business for Trump’s phony wall.
Or are you in the security business, and want to get the contract for hiring thugs in jackboots to kick down the doors of 11 million men, women and children (many of them citizens), and dragging them, hysterical and screaming, into boxcars, so you can deport them to concentration camps?
Or it surely could not be that you like bigots? Please tell me it ain’t so.
Truth: Donald Trump is the least qualified, most dishonest man to run for President since Nixon. I cannot believe that you, an intelligent man, would fall for his endless line of BS.
Republicans would have been far better off with Mitt or Jeb than with the phony carnival barker. It’s amazing that intelligent people can fall for his lies and bluster.
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Any one who aims at high office, like being President has to have some part of a psychopath personality disorder. It’s a spectrum. Trump is one, but so would have been nearly all “winners” of high office. The job is such a hornets’ nest of unsavoury characters and lunatics, you’d need to be one to be there!
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In Logic, that is known as a “faulty comparison.”
It’s like saying, “We shouldn’t prosecute criminals, because everyone has some dishonesty in them and none of us is perfect.”
There are degrees of psychopathy, and Trump has exceeded his human allotment.
No “they all are” excuses, please.
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For the very first time, both candidates for President have unfavorable ratings above 50%. Separately, both candidates have the highest ever net negatives of anyone running for President.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-and-hillary-clinton-viewed-unfavorably-by-majority-cbsnyt-poll/
One candidate won’t show his tax returns, and the other candidate will not show her transcripts of speeches given to a Wall Street bank.
Has this country digressed from the lesser of the two evils voting to which candidate is the bigger psychopath?
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Good people don’t want to run for office, because politics has become a cesspool.
One of the several reasons is the media’s loss of a moral compass.
For instance, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Johnson and Kennedy all were known to have mistresses, but the media didn’t broadcast it, because it wasn’t relevant to the job. Today, that would be headline news.
No one has led a perfectly pure life, so no one wants their imperfect life broadcast.
You can’t get good people to run for President, if you’re going to rip them up in advance.
(On the other hand, Trump cheated on his wife and married his mistress. No one cares. Maybe that’s better.)
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From Tip Parker: “Rodger, you may not have seen this in relation to the psychopath test.”
Tip
This is the man who is the favorite of the religious right wing, the group so pious they despise gays because of the bible.
But apparently religion goes only so far.
Trump is immature, having never has advanced beyond high school. The people who vote for him have the same problem.
And that high school child is only a step away from the Presidency.
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