...is not that Trump is a sociopath, but how many people are apparently okay with that. I don't mean politicians in Washington, I mean voters. Trump can bring the same small group (they are "Deadheads", not discrete blocs in every city or state) to a rally, but his support stays above 40%. Why? How can a sociopath be that successful?Trump Is a 'Successful Sociopath' and a Predator Who 'Lacks a Conscience and Lacks Empathy,' Says Former Harvard Psychiatrist, our good colleagues, Dr. Lance Dodes https://t.co/tT1I4BrUn9— Duty To Warn 🔉 (@duty2warn) January 14, 2020
I heard some Trump supporters who were less than enthusiastic 3 years on, interviewed on the radio. One, in particular, while disappointed, said he still thought Trump "tells it like it is." Trump has more verified and publicized lies than any politician in my memory. He's also quite clearly no more trustworthy than a snake. And yet people think he belongs in the position of greatest power and fiduciary responsibility in the country. Why? Because they are that ignorant about the world, about governance? Perhaps. Because they are that disinterested in self-government? Maybe. Because sociopaths are that clever and seductive? Oh, that we were all so simple and so innocent.
The nice explanation is that we assume sociopaths think like we do; but sociopaths do as much. They certainly don't think they are different from us. They are incapable of thinking of others as people, as persons, as not-them. But that line is a thin one; and most of us find it easy to cross it. But we cross it; the sociopath doesn't know it's there.
Still, the line is thin. The distinction between us and the sociopath is one of degree, not kind. They are not unlike us; they are too much like us. Like knows like; and often approves of it. That is the precise problem with the sociopath: our approval is too easily given, our disapproval too much something we only grumble about. We recognize something we...recognize. Having seen that, how can we turn against...ourselves?
We are not all sociopaths. But we are sympathetic to them in ways we don't mean to be. Even against our self-interest? Oh, self-interest is the first thing to lead us astray. That's how the sociopath works among us. They work because they are so much like us. Because the line between us and them is so thin.
It is up to us to see it, because they don't. They can't, but we can.
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