Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues The Obama Administration IRS Surrenders, Won't Check Whether Political Nonprofits Are Breaking The Law

I think it is important to be clear that Obama is not accurately described as a Marxist. The label does not become accurate as a catch all expression of contempt for Obama

Likewise. People are not sociopaths simply because I find their political views deplorable. Nor are they sociopaths because I fail to find a label that expressed my distain accurately

I think the problems of this country are not well served when we resort to ad homonym attacks.

Has sociopathy become more pervasive in the last 39 years. I doubt it
Accepting a diagnosis of widespread sociopathy seems to me to be giving up the fight. Since if that is the problem there is no conceivable solution

I do some of my best thinking on the stairmaster at the gym, and it occurred to me that conservatives in general but to the extreme with teabaggers the condition is on a spectrum from fear to deep paranoia.

For all the bravado about how great this country is, etc, lies a deep fear that it isn't so for them and can be taken away at any moment.

Absolutely and science bears your hypothesis out: Conservatives Big on Fear, Brain Study Finds

Study Link

Is it any wonder that conservatives and T-Baggers hate science.

Update: Differences in negativity bias underlie variations in political ideology

Across history and across cultures are abundant examples of masses of people being swept up into a mass delusion. Frequently xenophobic. Sociopathy is not required

Brave post Siannan. I’ve got one or two in mine. Extended.

It’s a tough gig.

Weapons of Mass Destruction? Perchance. The “Selling of a War”…………... It does come back to haunt.

I remember greeting a neighbor in the late 1980’s who was taking his daily stroll past our house and the topic came around to what was then the Soviet Union. He was a worried sort of a cold war fearful type and I ended the conversation with the quip “If the Soviets can’t build a decent refrigerator, how in the hell (heck) can you think they can beat us militarily?”

He continued on perplexed...

Tell me about it. Here's the fun history:

It's not like we didn't try. We did everything when he was a teenager (we were aware there was a problem but the therapists hesitated to put a name to it when we asked). He had individual therapy, group therapy, court ordered therapy (for 5 years).

Then it occurred to him, if he conformed for a long enough period of time, everyone would think he reformed, and eventually the state and probation would cut him loose from therapy and random drug testing. They patted him on the shoulder for being good, but we sat back and waited because we knew him.

Two years later he started stealing from the girls. And from us. That's when I got a lock box for my meds and a special lock put on my dresser drawer where I kept the lock box. Two weeks later my husband threw him out because he was done with people calling complaining he stole from them. Since he was almost 21, they were all told to file charges with their local police.

He fled to Arizona, had a child, came back and returned to AZ. Then returned and started stealing again. Left his suitcase in our home and then told a young lady he had a gun and was going to shoot himself. Since the suitcase was in MY home I was going to search it and make damned sure if there was a gun, it was going to be turned in to the police. What I found was a birth certificate and social security card that belonged to a young man he used to be friends with when we lived on base. We turned them over to the local police. He left town the next day and returned to AZ.

Two months later he was arrested for murder. Of course, he called us. But there's no bail money in my house. Nor lawyer money. Not for him. I'm done. So is his father.

Such a tragedy, so sorry for you Siannan

Ardy I wish I could agree but there is a recklessness in the air these days which is palpable.