Reply #69: Agree that this guy's a sociopath, but I don't know about all Americans [View All]

[belle]

I mean, I can see it both ways. Yes, there's a trend toward narcissism and worse in the greater culture, and it's a BIG worry.

On the other hand, sociopaths will always be with us. They range from your garden-variety jerk (like this neighbor, apaprently) all the way to people like, well, most if not all of the current administration. And, okay, your Ted Bundys, Ed Geins, etc.

What interests *me* is that of all the people who say they're voting for * that I've talked to and/or heard other people's reports of talking to extensively, just about all of them seem to be showing signs of a personality disturbance over and beyond their political choices. Like this guy: "no, I don't understand why defacing your private property is a problem, or why you'd be upset about it. *I'm* not upset, so *you* shouldn't be. Also, this is making me feel powerful."

The examples I know of--I mean, the ones who aren't terminally out of it and are voting for * because I don't know they like Laura's hair or something--I swear I'm not just saying this because i disagree with them about this so strongly, there *does* seem to be something seriously wrong with them. In several cases, they are the people who used to be Democrats or liberal, self-described, and suddenly did a 180, surprising and upsetting all their friends, and becoming total jerks in the process. But I'm thinking about the way these people were before 9/11, and I'm now thinking: you know, this was part of their personality all along. It's just that before, it didn't have an opportunity to emerge. Whatever else you can say about national tragedies and times of crisis, it really tells you something about peoples' core personalities. Some people became heroes. Others--well, they became freepers. Flag-waving smug assholes who, *none* of them that I know of, have elected to go off to fight in iraq themselves, or indeed done anything that would cost them the least little bit of pain; but rather are using this as an opportunity to let their assholery flower to full bloom.