Posted on 03/30/2012 10:34:28 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder
Casey’s train runs off the track with his over-generalization of events such as the Japanese Americans were put into “concentration camps”. They were “internment camps”, not the real killing camps of the Nazis and the Communists.
There are good people in govt and bad people. The “bad” ones are in control because their leaders have been able to bamboozle the masses, even the educated ones. They have played the race card very effectively, lied, performed massive cover-ups, and schemed. Some are communists, marxists and racists, and unfortunately they are in control.
However, there are others in govt (or who have now been forced out of govt) who oppose this totalitarian group/trend and are speaking up at grave risk to their jobs and reputations.
It is bad out there (I’m in the heart of the beast), but there is also hope and light (i.e. the Tea Party movement, Alan West, Michele Malkin, etc).
Casey knows nothing about the so-called “McCarthyism” period. If he did, he would have shut up before even referring to it.
Take his rant as “interesting” and then read something serious such as “Ameritopia” or “Liberty and Tyranny.”
Great article.
I tend to agree with you. There have always been people in power with anti-social intentions and there always will be. The very position of being able to exert power and authority attracts sociopaths to some extent even in our alleged Republic.
I wish not to throw the core sentiment of what Casey writes out with the bathwater, however. I think that we have entered an era where fantastic rewards have been passed out to flagrant criminals with a frequency never before contemplated nor experienced. I am referring to the banking crisis and the fact that practically zero prosecutions have occurred in that realm despite the horrific societal damage that has been done. And, I find it hard to be equivocal about it because I find it society-wide. It’s illustrated at the bottom with the “taker” and “entitlement” mentality, and at the top with the bankster looting of society and de facto takeover of the government itself. And I think that a pan-societal example has been set that prosecution need not be feared as long as the crime is brazen enough and widespread enough. Though Casey goes a little overboard as you say, it’s a formula for societal and national breakdown and it’s beyond an intellectual construct; it’s reality. Many times I get the feeling that a flock of vultures is attacking a still-breathing but soon-to-be-dead animal in the form of our society; lest there be nothing left unless whatever can be scammed is scammed while the scamming is good.
going to another country really isn’t a solution for the average lower to mid middle class family - it’s the same as moving to a town in a state you’ve never been - you will always be an outsider when push comes to shove.
I’d propose that it’s more beneficial to be around Family and close friends when it comes to surviving upheavals. Those in wagontrains that settled the West, for instance, were almost always interrelated families traveling together and then homesteading next to each other as groups. There is safety in numbers. imo jmo
I'll fight to defend my family but I won't get caught up in defending these POS in our government. The new brown shirts are the TSA,BATF, FBI, DEA, Dept of Ed swat teams and viper teams. They'll gladly kill, maim and destroy you for donuts and their pension. Ask Randy Weaver's wife and son or the children in Waco that were cooked by the BATF, FBI and US Army.
And far too many, as Casey has pointed out quite tellingly, are just garden variety sociopaths. I work for the government, and I've seen them first hand. These sociopaths use the other things you've described, marxism, communism, and racism as further camouflage to obscure their true nature.
He is eminently correct in his assessment that they are drawn to government for one reason, and one reason alone. They seek out the capability to dominate others with complete impunity, and get paid for it as a side benefit. No nation can survive this for long.
*YOU* are likewise eminently correct in your statement that there are others in government who oppose this. I count myself as one of them. That said, the stark reality is that the barbarians, the sociopaths, are in the ascendancy. I see this, I recognize this, hell, I *live* this every day.
My time in government is drawing to a close, and I will be glad to leave, for I've seen far too much that is just flat out wrong, and am in no position to remedy. I've grown weary of trying to stand in the gap, to hold the sociopaths at bay...
the infowarrior
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Interesting, thank you. What would you say are the quickest ways to spot a sociopath?
The work lacks an essential wisdom I'm sure the author would not recognize as wisdom at all, apparently not allowing even for the possibility of Providence. Practical and pragmatic discernment by men and women with common since and those who had contemplated long and hard over the Christian Gospel were both necessary to come up with our Declaration of Independence, for example. Too many Libertarians wrongly discount God as a tool used by unfeeling power hungry people to pacify "boobus americanus." It is not a logical outlook, and as such the Libertarian must be as disheartened as any at the alliance between academic (the sciences in particular) with the Ruling Party.
The dismissal even of the possibility of Providence taking an interest in our lives as individuals takes off the table an army willing to lay down their lives for their friends, those, in the best traditions of American history, preferring to die where they stand over living on their knees.
The author might think such an attitude not to be a demonstration of action in self-interest, though no greater love there be than laying down one's own life for one's friends.
The situation in Britain's North American colonies in 1775 is a good example of the value of persistence in resistance without regard to the transitory opinions of the majority not in favor of taking up arms.
I ask because where I am, sociopaths seem to skate into disaster for the company and staff with impunity. It’s almost like mgt. *prefers* sociopaths to ‘normal’ people.
The quickest way to spot a sociopath is to trust your gut.
Most of the time, there’s no “there” there. It’s missing in the eyes.
They don’t come with a blinking “S” on their foreheads.
A book, “The Gift of Fear” discusses this.
The reason they seek control over others is because they cannot control themselves. They are dominated and subsumed by compulsion.
We’ve come a long way from our founding. Great men served out of a sense of duty, “payback” for the great and free land that was recently won.
Now, a gubmint job is for “me” (excepting our fine FReepers who possess courage and character - your posts make me sad).
It’s all about the bennies and the perks. Cushy retirement.
It’s magical thinking -
where no moral duty is owed to the payor(s), money is just magically “there”.
The quickest way to spot a sociopath is to trust your gut.
Most of the time, there’s no “there” there. It’s missing in the eyes.
And their eyes only sparkle when something bad happens to someone in their workplace periphery? I’m starting to worry there are way more sociopaths in America than I thought.
"There are seven characteristics I can think of that define a sociopath, although I'm sure the list could be extended."
It can be:
8. Sociopaths inspire fanatical loyalty. I have identified some because of this marker.It was 420 years from Cincinnatus to Julius Caesar.9. Sociopaths exploit chaos, disaster, and social unrest, which they willingly create or exacerbate, emerging as saviors, heroes, and leaders to adoring incognoscenti.
10. Sociopaths not only lack the capacity for remorse, but they are also incapable of love, gratitude, sympathy, or empathy. Although they pretend the opposite.
11. Sociopaths are manipulative and paranoid.
12. Under peaceful and ordinary circumstances, most circumstances yield to social preassures and remain invisible; however when they are provoked to violence they are capable of the most hideous and unimaginable atrocities.
13. Sociopaths are unrecognized by most non-sociopathic people, mainly because non-sociopaths cannot imagine that such people could exist.
14. Sociopaths are highly resistant to any attempt to change their personalities. They tend to be very pleased with themselves exactly as they are.
15. Sociopaths tend to have a sixth sense, which can give them certain awareness almost like and idiot savant.
An excellent source of information about the sociopathic personality is The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout. The statements I have made about the sociopathic personality are based on my own extensive experience with such people; they are not paraphrases of Mrs. Stout, whose writings speak for themselves.
That’s part of it...our brains receive everything. Subtle clues that during the course of a normal person’s day-to-day encounters, we’d file away and forget.
But it’s the dissonance, the disconnect, that niggles the gut with a “something’s not quite right” vibe.
Yeah, like eyes sparkling at others’ misfortune.
Investigators, LEO’s, etc. are trained to spot these things. Also, those of us who’ve had too close encounters become sensitive, develop “radar”.
A rule of thumb continuum I use, in ascending order of pathology:
- Narcissists (NPD) & Borderlines (BPD) note: remember Borderline is borderline psychopath
- Sociopaths
- Psychopaths
I use “appearing on a police-blotter most frequently” as my measure.
It can be argued that NPD’s & BPD’s cause more damage, due to their greater numbers, and the fact that their victims often have nowhere to turn to, also, their victims quickly learn to remain silent because they’re the ones perceived as crazy.
It’s the psychos & socios that more often turn up on the news doing crazy, evil stuff: killing their children, random murders, you know, the awful stuff.
Without quibbling over terms too much, I think we’re talking Narcissists. I’ve thought about it. What else could be the product of decades of advertising to “get it now” & “you deserve the best”? Decades of “entitlement”?
I am astounded by the parallels btwn the diagnostic criteria for Narcissists and liberals.
A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. Believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
4. Requires excessive admiration
5. Has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
6. Is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
7. Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
8. Is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her
9. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
Remarkable, isn’t it? You could cite examples from every point on this checklist to prove most garden variety leftists are in actuality - Narcissists! (at LEAST they’re Borderlines, because really? They’re not that charming lol).
Yes, they do drift up along the continuum, displaying more rage (How many examples of that do you know? Right.) & many DO perform murderous, evil deeds. (again, you know & can cite many instances!)
The other diagnostic differential I think, is “charm” (funny you should use just that word)...
N’s are the most charming...then B’s, socios, and lastly (if at all) psychos.
Trust your gut. If you get a sick, queasy feeling & it ain’t the beans, you’re probably around a leftist.
The signs that Casey wrote of are a good place to start...
the infowarrior
I don't think so. What he has said is absolutely on target, and his insights are astonishing.
13. Sociopaths are unrecognized by most non-sociopathic people, mainly because non-sociopaths cannot imagine that such people could exist.
...and this is the main reason their victims learn silence, because you’re trying to explain “crazy” to “normal”. It’s almost impossible, unless someone has experienced this first hand.
Good post, Beast.
Because like seeks like, and the true horror of what is happening is that far too many *in* management have sociopathic tendencies, if not are outright examples of sociopaths themselves.
Where *I* have been working, it isn't 'almost like management prefers sociopaths to normal people', it is fact that they *do* so...
the infowarrior
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