07-02-2018, 09:46 AM
(07-02-2018, 08:19 AM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: You're just making excuses for left-wing violence. And referring to
Festinger's experiment, calling Trump a sociopath is the equivalent of
predicting the Guardians are coming in flying saucers.
The circumstances that excuse left-wing violence do not yet exist. Preemptive violence does not have justification. Violence has largely been by the Right, even if it is unorganized. Left-wing violence provokes right-wing violence; in view of the undeniably right-wing control of the American government, official violence might often be construed as right-wing. Note that I showed that even the Communist Party of the United States of America has urged people to not do provocative acts of violence. Do I trust Commies? No -- but in this case they have given us an excuse to disparage violent provocation of the police, the military (those are not at fault), government agencies doing bad things to people on behalf of Trump policies, Trump supporters, or even such fascist pigs as Nazis and Ku Kluxists.
Guardians are obviously not coming in flying saucers, and should they ever come to rescue people it will be after the horror (let us say the Inquisition or the Atlantic slave trade) is in the distant past. But when it comes to moral depravity, it is unwise to use so derisive a word as sociopath, psychopath, fascist, or even evil to describe someone different in moral values or political agenda. It's best to stop well short of that. Someone who stiffs waiters, tells ethnic jokes, ridicules disabled people, does sexual harassment, or burns an American flag as a protest of a government policy is better called an a$$#ole... and not a sociopath or psychopath.
Words have meaning, and the most dismissive words merit use only with the most rigid justification. It is not usually good form for a psychiatrist to say that someone is a sociopath or psychopath without a professional diagnosis, bit that word has been tossed around for the likes of Ted Bundy and Saddam Hussein.
[url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-psychopath-psychosis-mental-health-danger-us-president-goldwater-rule-psychiatrist-a8084726.html][/url]
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
