".......Which are a mix of genetics and trauma inflicted during childhood", so true. Hello. I was led here by Christopher Cook. I was meant to stop reading for the night, but oh well. We have been suffering from their machinations for a long, long time. Part of this new era is correcting that. This is our legacy. We have a lot of work to do. Every action and every word spoken on the subject builds momentum. So, thank you.
Thanks! I think the psychopaths have gotten away with it for so long because they've hidden it so well. If we can reveal the psychopaths for who they are we'd be going a long way towards changing things.
In my research, psychopaths are 1–2 percent of the population. That is a small percent, but it produces a very large raw number when you take it as a percent of a large population. Three million psychopaths is a lot. As you note, you generally have to add in childhood trauma in order to get the serial-killer types, but even without that, they can still do a lot of damage.
I think it is more true when it comes to politicians, people working in intel, and really huge CEOs. I think it applies to some cops, though I wonder what percent. It is obviously unscientific, but the cops I have know personally have not been psychopaths. However, I think there is a set of other incentives that make cops dangerous anyway, which I lay out in part here: https://christophercook.substack.com/p/whos-right-about-copsconservatives
Yeah, 1-2% is plenty unfortunately, and then if you add in the sociopaths (the definitional differences between the two seem to vary depending on who you ask) you can easily get up to 4-6%. As far as cops and soldiers, I think some of them are psychopaths, some of them are sadists and want power over others, and many are just in the 65% of the easily influenceable population.
In the Milgram experiment two thirds of people, when told by an authority to do so, were willing to administer a fatal shock to a stranger in another room. All it took was a bit of pressure and the authority to wear a lab coat. Ideologies are similar in that way - they provide the pressure, authority, and excuses needed by people who don't think for themselves to follow orders, even if the orders are evil.
Most soldiers and cops are ideologically brainwashed. The good ones that recoil from the horror of what their job entails don't last very long, usually quitting after a couple of years, so the result is a self-selected group of people that are okay with aggressive violence against others, either due to peer pressure and ideology, psychopathic or sadistic traits, or some other reason.
The question is - how much of that is a result of childhood indoctrination by parents and schools who value obedience to authority from children higher than free thinking and independence; and how much of that is innate human nature? It's an important question, because if it's the former, that's great news - if we change the system, in a couple of generations we could have much healthier people (mentally) and therefore a more moral and just society. If it's the latter...
And then the other issue is that mental health has been going down among children and adolescents since the introduction of smartphones, social media, video games, trans-causing chemicals like Atrazine in our food, etc. So unfortunately right now the trend is not positive.
Milgram + Asch + psychopaths + Mattias Desmet + billionaire weirdos + ideologues = bad stuff. I just want to be left alone!
If you get a chance to read my thing re: cops, let me know; I'd like to know what you think. IMO, even normal police officers are faced with a series of incentives (to do the wrong thing) that is hard to surmount.
My last comment for this article is that bullies I knew at school most that were likely psychopaths did evil for its own sake. Me and other people that were bullied by the bullies would often make excuses for why they did things. But that comment by George Orwell was that they wanted power for its own sake. The object of persecution is persecution. The object to hurt someone is just to hurt someone. The object of power is just power. They weren't politicians but they had the same mindset. When I later fought back they left me alone. They just bullied for its own sake and all the reasons they gave were just excuses for sadism.
Sorry to hear about you being bullied - glad you fought back! And yeah, it seems like the same kind of psychology underlies politicians/control freaks as kid bullies.
That's nice! I appreciate the sentiment. I moved over to substack to see if I could make my blog better and maybe earn some money from my writing. Totally understand not wanting to share your credit card info! Have you heard of privacy.com? You can generate new and anonymous cards for every online purchase you make. No pressure though, and I plan to post lots of free content still.
".......Which are a mix of genetics and trauma inflicted during childhood", so true. Hello. I was led here by Christopher Cook. I was meant to stop reading for the night, but oh well. We have been suffering from their machinations for a long, long time. Part of this new era is correcting that. This is our legacy. We have a lot of work to do. Every action and every word spoken on the subject builds momentum. So, thank you.
Thanks! I think the psychopaths have gotten away with it for so long because they've hidden it so well. If we can reveal the psychopaths for who they are we'd be going a long way towards changing things.
In my research, psychopaths are 1–2 percent of the population. That is a small percent, but it produces a very large raw number when you take it as a percent of a large population. Three million psychopaths is a lot. As you note, you generally have to add in childhood trauma in order to get the serial-killer types, but even without that, they can still do a lot of damage.
I think it is more true when it comes to politicians, people working in intel, and really huge CEOs. I think it applies to some cops, though I wonder what percent. It is obviously unscientific, but the cops I have know personally have not been psychopaths. However, I think there is a set of other incentives that make cops dangerous anyway, which I lay out in part here: https://christophercook.substack.com/p/whos-right-about-copsconservatives
Yeah, 1-2% is plenty unfortunately, and then if you add in the sociopaths (the definitional differences between the two seem to vary depending on who you ask) you can easily get up to 4-6%. As far as cops and soldiers, I think some of them are psychopaths, some of them are sadists and want power over others, and many are just in the 65% of the easily influenceable population.
In the Milgram experiment two thirds of people, when told by an authority to do so, were willing to administer a fatal shock to a stranger in another room. All it took was a bit of pressure and the authority to wear a lab coat. Ideologies are similar in that way - they provide the pressure, authority, and excuses needed by people who don't think for themselves to follow orders, even if the orders are evil.
Most soldiers and cops are ideologically brainwashed. The good ones that recoil from the horror of what their job entails don't last very long, usually quitting after a couple of years, so the result is a self-selected group of people that are okay with aggressive violence against others, either due to peer pressure and ideology, psychopathic or sadistic traits, or some other reason.
The question is - how much of that is a result of childhood indoctrination by parents and schools who value obedience to authority from children higher than free thinking and independence; and how much of that is innate human nature? It's an important question, because if it's the former, that's great news - if we change the system, in a couple of generations we could have much healthier people (mentally) and therefore a more moral and just society. If it's the latter...
And then the other issue is that mental health has been going down among children and adolescents since the introduction of smartphones, social media, video games, trans-causing chemicals like Atrazine in our food, etc. So unfortunately right now the trend is not positive.
Here's a good study on smartphones and mental health https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/sapien-smartphone-report
Milgram + Asch + psychopaths + Mattias Desmet + billionaire weirdos + ideologues = bad stuff. I just want to be left alone!
If you get a chance to read my thing re: cops, let me know; I'd like to know what you think. IMO, even normal police officers are faced with a series of incentives (to do the wrong thing) that is hard to surmount.
Thanks for the smartphone study!
My last comment for this article is that bullies I knew at school most that were likely psychopaths did evil for its own sake. Me and other people that were bullied by the bullies would often make excuses for why they did things. But that comment by George Orwell was that they wanted power for its own sake. The object of persecution is persecution. The object to hurt someone is just to hurt someone. The object of power is just power. They weren't politicians but they had the same mindset. When I later fought back they left me alone. They just bullied for its own sake and all the reasons they gave were just excuses for sadism.
Sorry to hear about you being bullied - glad you fought back! And yeah, it seems like the same kind of psychology underlies politicians/control freaks as kid bullies.
I would give you money 8 dollars a month but I don't want to give my credit card information. I am sorry if there was another way I would do it.
That's nice! I appreciate the sentiment. I moved over to substack to see if I could make my blog better and maybe earn some money from my writing. Totally understand not wanting to share your credit card info! Have you heard of privacy.com? You can generate new and anonymous cards for every online purchase you make. No pressure though, and I plan to post lots of free content still.