Of course we're ruled by sociopaths. It's evident that if Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton were not sociopaths, they would not have been permitted to occupy the offices they attained. The bureaucracy, Blob, or whatever you want to call it, is fundamentally sociopathic. In capitalism, we compete for more stuff and more power; the kind of people we see at the top of our social pyramid are the result of this competition.
True...but sociopaths have always ruled throughout history no matter what the political or economic system. It is human nature that the sickest among us seek unlimited power and resources. That kind of success requires an absence of empathy and a willingness to destroy anyone perceived to be in their path. What's sad is that the rest of us are ignorant about this and happily support the very people who will destroy humanity. How many people know, for example, that charisma and charm are found in higher rates among sociopaths, narcissists and psychopaths? Instead of following such people, it should raise the index of suspicion and cause us to look deeper. Most of the world's ills could be better managed if societies educated themselves about cluster b personality disorders and stopped allowing these people to atain or amass power.
very cogent and clear assessment, all I would add is that politics is a finely tuned mechanism to give the sociopath what they want. Political systems are built by sociopaths.
Indeed, and it's not just politics. Any organization or human enterprise that offers power draws them like honeybees. For example, you will find a higher than average number of sociopaths running corporations, police departments, and clergy. They are driven to seek power in any way they can. There are a couple of them running my HOA. That's not to say that there aren't sincere individuals who wish to help society. I'm just suggesting that there needs to be an awareness that, in politics and big business, for example, there needs to be a process for psychological assessment. Mental health has to be screened. Of course, if Americans were smart, they'd also take money out of politics and insist on publicly funded elections and term limits, to start.
"Any organization or human enterprise that offers power draws them like honeybees."
In a crowded restaurant of a predominantly Catholic city, I overheard the complete dinner conversation of three evidently high-ranking clerics. They didn't talk about theology, philosophy, nor service to the rank-and-file believers. The entire conversation was about church politics and each one's strategy for advancement. Disgusting and enlightening.
No, I wouldn't I suggest that the mental health community world bear sole responsibility for this. In fact, I would make the case that the psychiatric community remains largely in the dark about the existential danger posed by the cluster b's. They abandoned the country years ago when they failed to warn the country - en masse - about Trump, the most obviously mentally ill politician this country has ever seen (this is not a statement about his politics). This is a complex problem that would need input by many people with varied qualifications.
"... it should raise the index of suspicion and cause us to look deeper." - not going to happen. Just look at celebrity worship, groupie mentality, childish adulation by otherwise adult-looking humans.
Mental maturation of the majority of population stops at about teenage level and is actively maintained arrested by the rulers. Indeed, once again - the people deserve their governments.
If people are so controlled by the rulers, how is it their fault that they can't think past puberty? Who has control of the narrative has control. Hence the need for massive censorship due to a threat coming from substack.
Does inability of the people to engage negate the notion of their deserving their governments?
Somehow you and most of the commenters in this forum are able to tell the difference. The "disabled" majority, though, effectively imposes *their* government on us. And there's not a damn thing we can do. As has always been the case throughout centuries.
Well, I have to agree with you. A significant contributor is the dumbing down of the population by the ruling class. And yes, media and Hollywood have, over decades, glorified narcissism and selfishness to an absolute art form. That's why someone like Trump could get elected in the first place - narcissism and sociopathy had already been normalized. Then he made things infinitely worse. Like Caitlin wrote, WE are now the crazy ones. Agree with you, humanity is going to get what it deserves. But I feel bad for those of us whose eyes are open, and the beautiful species in our natural world who suffer at our hands.
The people who like Trump are obviously not put off by his narcissistic personality. They might even think it's cool. That's not just Hollywood. That's ego driven man since there were men. But isn't it a tad worse to worship someone who poses as a healthy loving individual and then invades countries causing millions of deaths and plenty of destruction??
Sociopaths to the left of me, sociopaths to the right...they've both been tragic for the country. We're at the mercy of a city (Washington, DC) that is overrun with the mentally ill. But the unpleasant truth is, they couldn't stay there if the general population wasn't similarly challenged and tolerant of their pathological behavior.
Let me help you out here because you seem to be under the impression that voting for someone to be the President means that you must think that person is cool or likable or infallible or w/e.
I vote trump because he is as far from a war-mongering, government-profiteering POS as we have. He wants what's best for the people of the nation the same way I want what is best for my local public school district, despite the fact I would never have sent my kids to it, because it is for the general good.
Biden is a moronic, corrupt, asshole. How anyone that doesn't love aborting or molesting kids could have ever voted for him is beyond me.
Amen STOP BEING BAMBOOZLED PEOPLE. We can & should have such a beautiful shared abundance but ,catch 22 is they only understand threat & power & change from fear. We cant resort to their ways . To defeat them we need to be compassionate & treat them. What i do not what i say. Not become them. Solidarity is our superpower
It’s maddening, that this profiteering Murderous grift is so simple just manifest anger & hate & misdirect the needy sheeple anger, misery & frustration at ea other. brainwashed American dream delusions they too can be a part of the “Good” Team A or B duopoly doesnt matter. We need to start & maintain a huge General strike NEAR ZERO COMERCIAL COMERCE SHUT THE MF’ING Money machine down. 🤷♀️Jmho
At a sufficiently large scale, the excesses of power all look alike. It matters not whether that society is capitalist, socialist, aristocratic, theocratic, or “democratic”. It matters not whether it is an empire, a nation state, bureaucracy, corporation, English department, diocese, or book club. If there is hierarchy, there is domination of the many by the few (or by one). History proves there is a 100% certainty that all pyramidal organizations devolve into tyrannies, which is the best argument for anarchism—where anarchy simply refers to a political system “without a ruler.”
The overarching narrative of all authoritarian systems is that authority equals order and anarchy equals chaos. If there is a root of all evil, it is that false dichotomy. Anarchy is the optimal system--perhaps the only system--that would eliminate or mitigate domination of the many by the few, especially by the small minority of sociopaths and narcissists.
Yes, bk to tribes or individuals respecting the sovereignty or autonomy is a mindset we must guide back in but its tough w/o huge numbers & brainwashed people delivered their own children to the gov much less the abomination of support for Zionazis Israelis Genocide in Palestine . We need this new generation to SEE the exponential slide deeper into the hell of Empire since Nam
I’m not exactly sure what you’re asking. The nature of all social orders/governments is that they are relatively short-term. Thomas Jefferson had it right when he wrote that a constitution “naturally expires at the end of 19 years—if it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right.” This scheduled change might be fraught with some danger at first, but it would become routine and procedural with time, and it would be far better at solving the inexorable problems that a standing legislature only makes worse over time. The U.S. government is the oldest in the world, but that does not make it the best. Too much emphasis on maintaining a system can make even beneficial change impossible.
There are countless species of anarchism, but IMO practical anarchy does not mean there are no collective, rules, norms, values, law, or even “governing” organizations, leaders, or a constitution. Practical anarchy simply lacks a centralized, coercive state or unitary leader. So collective decision-making—in those rare instances when it’s actually necessary—would strive for concensus, which would probably include direct democracy but with supermajority requirements. Since power would not be vested in central, permanent institutions or positions—no standing legislature, no persistent bureaucracy, minimal courts, no president—all elites and authorities would be transient.
Had the anti-federalists prevailed over the federalists during the Revolutionary War, we probably would have avoided the Civil War and would likely have had a fairly decent version of a practical anarchy today. And, most importantly, we wouldn’t have the western empire we have today.
By "maintain an anarchy" I was mostly concerned with possible anti-anarchistic tendencies among the population. States usually maintain themselves by force, but my vision of anarchy excludes that possibility. You seem to be imagining a sort of culture above, which is also my (vague) idea, so the question would then be "How do you get this culture started and continued?" I am familiar with a few models, for example the Dukhobors.
I find it hilarious and just a touch sad that you think capitalist societies are the only ones engaged in competitive politics that lead to societal ruin..
I don’t think they said that lust for power & psychopathy is exclusive to capitalism. But specific traits of certain mental illness ARE rampant in the US & directly reflective of this society. Im not anti gun but heres a good cultural example Our gun Obsession is WAY over the top. Different cultures do have some unique mental illnesses specific to their lived experience & cultural beliefs ie. Asian koro syndrome is a doozy.
In our culture Amassing wealth, & power, fame, is the feature here everyone can have a big piece of the pie. Perhaps in corrupted “free states” such as the US it’s easier to aspire to wealth & fame & power. We are seduced w/ consuming 24/7 taunted to covit all & told repeatedly you can have it all. For most its a lie. so theres that too?
Thank you. Competing for more stuff and more power, often called "capitalism" in America, is _our_ problem, but we're hardly the only ones on earth with a problem.
No its greed in any form but Crapitolism based on colonialisms death cult is mass murdering us & our brothers & sisters in our face .were becoming a fascist pig nation? We are ALL close to the ovens People
and what's more it is the same whatever political system they are in - Communist, Dictatorship, Military Junta, Dynastic, Nepotistic, Empire, Kingdom, Capitalist, One Party State, Democracy - it is irrelevant. They are the type who a) think they know better than others and want to impose their will, b) are willing to attend meetings, join a party or faction, and sacrifice integrity to claw their way up a greasy pole, c) believe that they are 'deserving', and anyone who opposes them are traitors, d) will condone or tolerate any expediency, from gulags to black rendition torture sites to genocidal war, and e) lose touch with reality and go mad in the end.
I thought about the subject a bit more and it occurred to me that I don't really have a good definition of _sociopath_ and _psychopath_. This is not good because if "we have met the Enemy and he is us", we had better learn to understand him (or her or it). The literature on the subject available through casual Google searches seemed confused. The central idea between both types seems to be a lack of sympathy and / or empathy for others, especially in one's community. (When I was a boy, _sympathy_ was feeling what another feels, while _empathy_ was knowing what another feels, but the terms have changed somewhat and now _sympathy_ means a kind of greeting card or political stance. In any case psychopaths and sociopaths seem to lack the mental circuitry to have the aforesaid types of perceptions. So _psychopath_ and _sociopath_ are not moral categories but pathological perceptual deficits. The deficit could be dangerous to the persons who carry it as well as to those around him, since in many cases they will lack the mental equipment to perceive when they are offending, angering, or threatening others, and will encounter reprisals or worse. Yet many sociopaths are highly successful, indicating that either sociopathy is not as fatal as I guess, or that it can be successfully compensated for, as by con games, deceptions, pretense, camouflage, etc.
This brings us to Mr. Obama. If he is a psychopath, he is a very successful, highly compensated one, and we seem to live in a society where such people thrive. Is that a characteristic of the individuals or the society? Can one say that such a society exhibits the aforesaid perceptual deficit as a society?
Robert Hare the inventor of the PCL-R (psychopath check list revised) which is basically standardized criteria for diagnosis of that particular personality disorder wrote a book my prof recommended to me called 'Snakes in Suits' that speaks to how such people tend to rise to certain positions in power. I think it focuses largely on Wall Street but money and politics tend to blur away any lines b/t the two at those levels.
Power is to sociopaths what catnip is to cats. Except catnip is basically harmless, while power attracts precisely the sort of people who should not have it.
Some people in Australia think that the desire to be Prime Minister should immediately disqualify that person from the position. Personally, I go along with that.
The one action that would add a level of respect to the USA would be to drag Hilary Clinton out into a public street, put her in irons and clamp her into a pillory and allow those who had a grievance...... from any geography, anywhere, to cast a stone in her direction.
There is something to be said for those medieval punishments. But are there enough stones available in the USA for the Neocons, fifth columnists, corrupted politicians, extremists, compliant journalists, past Presidents, military profiteers and senior bureaucrats?
Were I to be consulted, HRC would be given a one-way all-expenses paid vacation to Tripoli, there to explain to the locals her humanitarian motives. Doubtless she would be welcomed with colorful folk dances as she was ripped bodily to shreds.
Lest I be accused of partisan bias, Bush, Cheney, et al. would be shipped off to Baghdad or Sadr City, where doubtless a similar traditional welcome would be prepared for them.
I ask only that the long-suffering people of these countries be so kind as to put the grisly footage on YouTube. This is not because I am so bloodthirsty, but because sociopaths learn from reward and punishment
I don't know if they do learn, or they simply distort the education system to their own ends. Although in that case I suppose, you could say they did learn something.
Do they ? You may have something but we need a punishment like clockwork orange ?no death no beating, therapy of a dif kind cheap to make those gadgets hold eyes open for days. What shall we play for them while they consume their bugs?
and people like Blinken, Roger Wicker, Mark Esper, who toy with or even advocate tactical nuclear strikes will cry "I was right, it was worth it" as their flesh melts into what left of the gutters of Washington DC and the Pentagon.
War criminals are very careful about taking trips overseas - Libya hasn't signed the Rome statute....however the moment it does the ICC would have jurisdiction.
We are most certainly ruled by sociopaths (or rather by psychopaths) if by 'we' you are referring to the international captive people who are the collective of capitalist rule. And you could add to that the people of the Soviet Union for the first 30years of its existence under the rule of a psychopath put there after a Jew assassinated Lenin. But after Stalin's death that began to change and confused incompetence took over until its American assisted collapse. But after the last of US placed buffoons (selected to destroy the place ) at his drunken exit declared one of his vice presidents -Putin- the new president that all changed. Nor is China ruled by sociopaths (although Mao was almost in that category) . Capitalism is actually A sociopathic condition masquerading as a democratic socio-economic system.
It's important to remember that sociopaths and psychopaths do not relate to the world in the way normal people do. Add to that the fact that Obama is/was arguably the most narcissistic president in history, completely incapable of sympathy or empathy, unable to make a single mistake in his lifetime, and you can see where he could urge people to donate (matching the Obama Foundation's donations?) to a country he personally destroyed without seeing either the fact that he did the destroying or the irony of the entire situation.
Are you aware she tied her stagecoach to Barry Goldwater as an intern just when he was campaigning to nuke the peasants of Nam? How attractive she must have found that!
How a man with African blood running through his veins could endorse the nakedly brutal murder of a Head of State, the takedown and devastation of Africa’s most prosperous and literate nation is beyond my understanding and is quite unforgivable. Nothing he’s done or can do will ever remove the stench!
How a Jew - Zelensky - can openly promote and implement Nazism in Ukraine. How Israel - a Jewish state - can openly support the rise of Nazism in Ukraine.
Sorry about that, it seemed a natural inquiry. Kinda of like how some think Hillary, arguably a woman, would comport herself differently from a man were she President. I would naturally wonder what would be different.
No worries; it's a legitimate curiosity. As for Hillary (or any first woman POTUS) my fear is that she would feel the need to prove her 'mettle' by governing like a man, only more so, which could have unintended consequences. As Secretary of State under Obama, Hillary showed her foreign policy bellicosity, so we know what she'd be like in that arena, and it's bone-chilling.
The fact is, except for physical actual differences, I do not ascribe actions to gender or what is called race or height or eye color or hair color, but to individuals.
In other words, while your contention, if I understand it correctly, that Hitlary's bellicosity was to appear tough because she was a bitch among testicled dogs, may well be accurate, I think she's just an evil person and her predilection for evil suffices for me.
Wait, your thesis is that people with African blood don't murder African leaders and/or a prosperous state? Next, are you gonna assert that African leaders don't kill, maim, and/or enslave other Africans...
To both of you ( Third-Eye Roll, and, neill_here), it is nothing to do with being half black or total black. It is all to do with where power resides. The previous colonisers and now the neocolonialists were/are vile enough to have created a collaborator class to facilitate their domination of cultures and nations. Frantz Fanon the Algerian philosopher ( who lived in the time of French colonialism ), wrote about this class as having "black faces with white masks". They will betray their own kind to serve the powerful whites.
If the colonizers and neocolonialists weren't trying to dominate the culture the natives would have been and were, frankly. Do not imply that the natives were some sort of unified culture, they were disparate groups, some living in harmony, others killing and eating each other.
Look to modern USA and see the warring black factions killing each other to the tune of nearing 10,000/year.
You make cogent points. Suffice it to say that Obama did nothing different than his many POTUS predecessors. To assume that position is to adhere to the policy of Full Spectrum Dominance and the global system of white supremacy. Doesn’t really matter how much melanin the holder of the office has in their system! It doesn’t absolve him of his crimes in any way!
In Italian, two nouns denoting con man or swindler are imbroglione and truffatore. In my understanding, the first denotes the sloppier, less-sophisticated variety of swindler, who's ultimately more obvious, not as slick at disguising their manipulative harm to others -- Hillary the imbroglione. The latter, the slicker con man, gets away with it looking more well-ordered, polite and respectful -- Obama the truffatore. But ultimately, the distinction is meaningless -- as you point out so clearly: both of these soulless echo chambers for human misery deserve to share the same fate, namely "rotting in a maximum security prison cell." Amen.
Like the difference between a fast talk and a con. In a fast talk, the mark knows that there is something fishy but is pressed to go along. In a con, the mark lacks this awareness.
those at the top of the pyramid in Clown World will never be held accountable for how they carried out their murderous assaults on innocent souls around the world.
Yes they will. Maybe not in this life, but they will stand before a Just and Holy God. "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Matt 10:28
I must humbly say, this thought of maybe not in this life, but they will stand before a just and holy god, would be true justice indeed. However, I'd like to see justice here on Earth. Perhaps that doesn't exist for those that run this planet as their personal empire and play act with the lives of others, like they ARE Gods.
There is no country for which US intervention or aid is not the worse off for it. The light went on for me when my best friend, a Peace Corps medic in Borneo related the following. He was travelling up the jungle rivers to attend to Peace Corps vols helping the locals. He was strongly urged to make maps of all rivers and storage depots which were to enable revisits. He did it but his superiors demanded he hand them all over. He didn’t like their tone nor their demonstrated priorities and several years after he got back, after a four year stint, he used FOI to get his records. He discovered to his horror that the maps and guides were sent straight to the CIA without his consent or knowledge. Nor of the host country.
This is a pretty routine story now of how honest volunteers were used and abused by the CIA under the pretext of humanitarian aid. No country should ever, under any circumstances let Americans in unless there are closely supervised and the family silver is accounted for before they leave.
Of course the Borneo jungles posed a clear and present danger in the 1960s.
Its the American way .... every president is an unindicted war criminal. When Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize he had already authorized more drone assassinations than any other president.
Born: 4 August 1961, Honolulu, HI, USA [Yeah, right.]
Residence at the time of the award: USA
Role: 44th President of the United States of America
[Rolled: United States of America]
Barack H. Obama, the 44th President of the United States, had been in power for less than eight months when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.
Its a joke that he received under any circumstances and of how the prize has been discredited by the wrong people receiving it. Nobel was the inventor of Dynamite and he is still blowing up the world.
I may disagree with some of the things you write, but one thing is certain, we share the same spirit of love, justice and truth. What has transpired in Libya is horrendous, including the most recent flooding. The loss of life, the heartache and pain felt so acutely by so many, all promulgated ( or made worse in the case of the flooding) by psychopaths who we must watch being paraded around on our TVs as heros, rolemodels , and according to some.. saints/saviors. The worst part, the vast majority of people are "tuned" into that channel and adopt the narrative.
90 percent of my church voted for a mass murderer. Which President you ask? All of them.
I applaud your relentless efforts to calling it all out. There aren't many like you, especially of your quality of writing and analysis.
I knew one week after voting for the fucker I made a mistake, since he changed no one in George Little's cabinet. Before my Dad died, he apologized to me for voting for Bush; I apologized to him for voting for BO. Here's your hope, keep the change...
which is a bit like Charles Manson saying the Manson Family killings were everyone’s fault.
At a certain point complaining about our leaders obvious faults needs to get channeled into changing it to something non-psychopathic. We need to stop following.
I don’t think anything puts it into perspective like seeing how not only are they aware of their crimes... but that they’re proud of them and laugh about them in public,
There is no surer sign that one’s society is sick than this.
St. Obama and Hillary are major US criminals -- equal to current national tragedy and embarrassment, corrupt Joe Biden. Libya had the highest standard of living in the entire Africa -- before its destruction by NATO.
Libya tried to transform the entire country by using huge underground water aquifers -- by building an enormous water infrastructure -- first to be destroyed by NATO bombing -- itself a major war crime and among many country tragedies.
Like weeping over an orphan when you murdered both his parents in cold blood.
Cynical, even by Obama's standards.
If further proof were needed that we are ruled by sociopaths...
Of course we're ruled by sociopaths. It's evident that if Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton were not sociopaths, they would not have been permitted to occupy the offices they attained. The bureaucracy, Blob, or whatever you want to call it, is fundamentally sociopathic. In capitalism, we compete for more stuff and more power; the kind of people we see at the top of our social pyramid are the result of this competition.
True...but sociopaths have always ruled throughout history no matter what the political or economic system. It is human nature that the sickest among us seek unlimited power and resources. That kind of success requires an absence of empathy and a willingness to destroy anyone perceived to be in their path. What's sad is that the rest of us are ignorant about this and happily support the very people who will destroy humanity. How many people know, for example, that charisma and charm are found in higher rates among sociopaths, narcissists and psychopaths? Instead of following such people, it should raise the index of suspicion and cause us to look deeper. Most of the world's ills could be better managed if societies educated themselves about cluster b personality disorders and stopped allowing these people to atain or amass power.
very cogent and clear assessment, all I would add is that politics is a finely tuned mechanism to give the sociopath what they want. Political systems are built by sociopaths.
Organizers in almost any arena are power seekers.
Indeed, and it's not just politics. Any organization or human enterprise that offers power draws them like honeybees. For example, you will find a higher than average number of sociopaths running corporations, police departments, and clergy. They are driven to seek power in any way they can. There are a couple of them running my HOA. That's not to say that there aren't sincere individuals who wish to help society. I'm just suggesting that there needs to be an awareness that, in politics and big business, for example, there needs to be a process for psychological assessment. Mental health has to be screened. Of course, if Americans were smart, they'd also take money out of politics and insist on publicly funded elections and term limits, to start.
"Any organization or human enterprise that offers power draws them like honeybees."
In a crowded restaurant of a predominantly Catholic city, I overheard the complete dinner conversation of three evidently high-ranking clerics. They didn't talk about theology, philosophy, nor service to the rank-and-file believers. The entire conversation was about church politics and each one's strategy for advancement. Disgusting and enlightening.
We have term limits; they are called elections. Blame voters.
Your prescription would just allow sociopathic psychologists determine who could run.
No fix.
Courage, (which I do not possess), tar, feathers, righteous indignation are all a part of some solution.
If voting changed anything it would be made illegal.
No, I wouldn't I suggest that the mental health community world bear sole responsibility for this. In fact, I would make the case that the psychiatric community remains largely in the dark about the existential danger posed by the cluster b's. They abandoned the country years ago when they failed to warn the country - en masse - about Trump, the most obviously mentally ill politician this country has ever seen (this is not a statement about his politics). This is a complex problem that would need input by many people with varied qualifications.
"... it should raise the index of suspicion and cause us to look deeper." - not going to happen. Just look at celebrity worship, groupie mentality, childish adulation by otherwise adult-looking humans.
Mental maturation of the majority of population stops at about teenage level and is actively maintained arrested by the rulers. Indeed, once again - the people deserve their governments.
If people are so controlled by the rulers, how is it their fault that they can't think past puberty? Who has control of the narrative has control. Hence the need for massive censorship due to a threat coming from substack.
Does inability of the people to engage negate the notion of their deserving their governments?
Somehow you and most of the commenters in this forum are able to tell the difference. The "disabled" majority, though, effectively imposes *their* government on us. And there's not a damn thing we can do. As has always been the case throughout centuries.
Well, I have to agree with you. A significant contributor is the dumbing down of the population by the ruling class. And yes, media and Hollywood have, over decades, glorified narcissism and selfishness to an absolute art form. That's why someone like Trump could get elected in the first place - narcissism and sociopathy had already been normalized. Then he made things infinitely worse. Like Caitlin wrote, WE are now the crazy ones. Agree with you, humanity is going to get what it deserves. But I feel bad for those of us whose eyes are open, and the beautiful species in our natural world who suffer at our hands.
The people who like Trump are obviously not put off by his narcissistic personality. They might even think it's cool. That's not just Hollywood. That's ego driven man since there were men. But isn't it a tad worse to worship someone who poses as a healthy loving individual and then invades countries causing millions of deaths and plenty of destruction??
Sociopaths to the left of me, sociopaths to the right...they've both been tragic for the country. We're at the mercy of a city (Washington, DC) that is overrun with the mentally ill. But the unpleasant truth is, they couldn't stay there if the general population wasn't similarly challenged and tolerant of their pathological behavior.
Let me help you out here because you seem to be under the impression that voting for someone to be the President means that you must think that person is cool or likable or infallible or w/e.
I vote trump because he is as far from a war-mongering, government-profiteering POS as we have. He wants what's best for the people of the nation the same way I want what is best for my local public school district, despite the fact I would never have sent my kids to it, because it is for the general good.
Biden is a moronic, corrupt, asshole. How anyone that doesn't love aborting or molesting kids could have ever voted for him is beyond me.
Amen STOP BEING BAMBOOZLED PEOPLE. We can & should have such a beautiful shared abundance but ,catch 22 is they only understand threat & power & change from fear. We cant resort to their ways . To defeat them we need to be compassionate & treat them. What i do not what i say. Not become them. Solidarity is our superpower
It’s maddening, that this profiteering Murderous grift is so simple just manifest anger & hate & misdirect the needy sheeple anger, misery & frustration at ea other. brainwashed American dream delusions they too can be a part of the “Good” Team A or B duopoly doesnt matter. We need to start & maintain a huge General strike NEAR ZERO COMERCIAL COMERCE SHUT THE MF’ING Money machine down. 🤷♀️Jmho
Hardly. In every workplace in the world people do their best to enjoy and help one another. They are always opposed by the capitalists/communists.
Where do they find communists?
At a sufficiently large scale, the excesses of power all look alike. It matters not whether that society is capitalist, socialist, aristocratic, theocratic, or “democratic”. It matters not whether it is an empire, a nation state, bureaucracy, corporation, English department, diocese, or book club. If there is hierarchy, there is domination of the many by the few (or by one). History proves there is a 100% certainty that all pyramidal organizations devolve into tyrannies, which is the best argument for anarchism—where anarchy simply refers to a political system “without a ruler.”
The overarching narrative of all authoritarian systems is that authority equals order and anarchy equals chaos. If there is a root of all evil, it is that false dichotomy. Anarchy is the optimal system--perhaps the only system--that would eliminate or mitigate domination of the many by the few, especially by the small minority of sociopaths and narcissists.
Yes, bk to tribes or individuals respecting the sovereignty or autonomy is a mindset we must guide back in but its tough w/o huge numbers & brainwashed people delivered their own children to the gov much less the abomination of support for Zionazis Israelis Genocide in Palestine . We need this new generation to SEE the exponential slide deeper into the hell of Empire since Nam
Our brains have been washed, and we have been hung out to dry.
How do you maintain the anarchy? This is not a rhetorical question.
I’m not exactly sure what you’re asking. The nature of all social orders/governments is that they are relatively short-term. Thomas Jefferson had it right when he wrote that a constitution “naturally expires at the end of 19 years—if it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right.” This scheduled change might be fraught with some danger at first, but it would become routine and procedural with time, and it would be far better at solving the inexorable problems that a standing legislature only makes worse over time. The U.S. government is the oldest in the world, but that does not make it the best. Too much emphasis on maintaining a system can make even beneficial change impossible.
There are countless species of anarchism, but IMO practical anarchy does not mean there are no collective, rules, norms, values, law, or even “governing” organizations, leaders, or a constitution. Practical anarchy simply lacks a centralized, coercive state or unitary leader. So collective decision-making—in those rare instances when it’s actually necessary—would strive for concensus, which would probably include direct democracy but with supermajority requirements. Since power would not be vested in central, permanent institutions or positions—no standing legislature, no persistent bureaucracy, minimal courts, no president—all elites and authorities would be transient.
Had the anti-federalists prevailed over the federalists during the Revolutionary War, we probably would have avoided the Civil War and would likely have had a fairly decent version of a practical anarchy today. And, most importantly, we wouldn’t have the western empire we have today.
By "maintain an anarchy" I was mostly concerned with possible anti-anarchistic tendencies among the population. States usually maintain themselves by force, but my vision of anarchy excludes that possibility. You seem to be imagining a sort of culture above, which is also my (vague) idea, so the question would then be "How do you get this culture started and continued?" I am familiar with a few models, for example the Dukhobors.
I find it hilarious and just a touch sad that you think capitalist societies are the only ones engaged in competitive politics that lead to societal ruin..
Canada was right in there bombing Libya along with those previously mentioned.
But Canadians bomb a lot more politely than the Americans do so......
I don’t think they said that lust for power & psychopathy is exclusive to capitalism. But specific traits of certain mental illness ARE rampant in the US & directly reflective of this society. Im not anti gun but heres a good cultural example Our gun Obsession is WAY over the top. Different cultures do have some unique mental illnesses specific to their lived experience & cultural beliefs ie. Asian koro syndrome is a doozy.
In our culture Amassing wealth, & power, fame, is the feature here everyone can have a big piece of the pie. Perhaps in corrupted “free states” such as the US it’s easier to aspire to wealth & fame & power. We are seduced w/ consuming 24/7 taunted to covit all & told repeatedly you can have it all. For most its a lie. so theres that too?
who said “only capitalist” countries do that?
Starry Gordan said: In capitalism, we compete for more stuff and more power.
okay but it still doesn’t say “only capitalist” it’s just defining some of the machinations of capitalism.
Thank you. Competing for more stuff and more power, often called "capitalism" in America, is _our_ problem, but we're hardly the only ones on earth with a problem.
No its greed in any form but Crapitolism based on colonialisms death cult is mass murdering us & our brothers & sisters in our face .were becoming a fascist pig nation? We are ALL close to the ovens People
and what's more it is the same whatever political system they are in - Communist, Dictatorship, Military Junta, Dynastic, Nepotistic, Empire, Kingdom, Capitalist, One Party State, Democracy - it is irrelevant. They are the type who a) think they know better than others and want to impose their will, b) are willing to attend meetings, join a party or faction, and sacrifice integrity to claw their way up a greasy pole, c) believe that they are 'deserving', and anyone who opposes them are traitors, d) will condone or tolerate any expediency, from gulags to black rendition torture sites to genocidal war, and e) lose touch with reality and go mad in the end.
I thought about the subject a bit more and it occurred to me that I don't really have a good definition of _sociopath_ and _psychopath_. This is not good because if "we have met the Enemy and he is us", we had better learn to understand him (or her or it). The literature on the subject available through casual Google searches seemed confused. The central idea between both types seems to be a lack of sympathy and / or empathy for others, especially in one's community. (When I was a boy, _sympathy_ was feeling what another feels, while _empathy_ was knowing what another feels, but the terms have changed somewhat and now _sympathy_ means a kind of greeting card or political stance. In any case psychopaths and sociopaths seem to lack the mental circuitry to have the aforesaid types of perceptions. So _psychopath_ and _sociopath_ are not moral categories but pathological perceptual deficits. The deficit could be dangerous to the persons who carry it as well as to those around him, since in many cases they will lack the mental equipment to perceive when they are offending, angering, or threatening others, and will encounter reprisals or worse. Yet many sociopaths are highly successful, indicating that either sociopathy is not as fatal as I guess, or that it can be successfully compensated for, as by con games, deceptions, pretense, camouflage, etc.
This brings us to Mr. Obama. If he is a psychopath, he is a very successful, highly compensated one, and we seem to live in a society where such people thrive. Is that a characteristic of the individuals or the society? Can one say that such a society exhibits the aforesaid perceptual deficit as a society?
Robert Hare the inventor of the PCL-R (psychopath check list revised) which is basically standardized criteria for diagnosis of that particular personality disorder wrote a book my prof recommended to me called 'Snakes in Suits' that speaks to how such people tend to rise to certain positions in power. I think it focuses largely on Wall Street but money and politics tend to blur away any lines b/t the two at those levels.
Power is to sociopaths what catnip is to cats. Except catnip is basically harmless, while power attracts precisely the sort of people who should not have it.
Some people in Australia think that the desire to be Prime Minister should immediately disqualify that person from the position. Personally, I go along with that.
Our society is like a murky pond - the scum rises to the top.
The one action that would add a level of respect to the USA would be to drag Hilary Clinton out into a public street, put her in irons and clamp her into a pillory and allow those who had a grievance...... from any geography, anywhere, to cast a stone in her direction.
There is something to be said for those medieval punishments. But are there enough stones available in the USA for the Neocons, fifth columnists, corrupted politicians, extremists, compliant journalists, past Presidents, military profiteers and senior bureaucrats?
Alternatively, there is always a bayonet.
Were I to be consulted, HRC would be given a one-way all-expenses paid vacation to Tripoli, there to explain to the locals her humanitarian motives. Doubtless she would be welcomed with colorful folk dances as she was ripped bodily to shreds.
Lest I be accused of partisan bias, Bush, Cheney, et al. would be shipped off to Baghdad or Sadr City, where doubtless a similar traditional welcome would be prepared for them.
I ask only that the long-suffering people of these countries be so kind as to put the grisly footage on YouTube. This is not because I am so bloodthirsty, but because sociopaths learn from reward and punishment
But they do learn.
I don't know if they do learn, or they simply distort the education system to their own ends. Although in that case I suppose, you could say they did learn something.
Do they ? You may have something but we need a punishment like clockwork orange ?no death no beating, therapy of a dif kind cheap to make those gadgets hold eyes open for days. What shall we play for them while they consume their bugs?
and people like Blinken, Roger Wicker, Mark Esper, who toy with or even advocate tactical nuclear strikes will cry "I was right, it was worth it" as their flesh melts into what left of the gutters of Washington DC and the Pentagon.
They figure they'll be snuggled up, safe and cozy in their bunkers when The Big One hits.
War criminals are very careful about taking trips overseas - Libya hasn't signed the Rome statute....however the moment it does the ICC would have jurisdiction.
O wait - the new chief prosecutor is a dud.
We are most certainly ruled by sociopaths (or rather by psychopaths) if by 'we' you are referring to the international captive people who are the collective of capitalist rule. And you could add to that the people of the Soviet Union for the first 30years of its existence under the rule of a psychopath put there after a Jew assassinated Lenin. But after Stalin's death that began to change and confused incompetence took over until its American assisted collapse. But after the last of US placed buffoons (selected to destroy the place ) at his drunken exit declared one of his vice presidents -Putin- the new president that all changed. Nor is China ruled by sociopaths (although Mao was almost in that category) . Capitalism is actually A sociopathic condition masquerading as a democratic socio-economic system.
You don't think Xi is a sociopath?
It's important to remember that sociopaths and psychopaths do not relate to the world in the way normal people do. Add to that the fact that Obama is/was arguably the most narcissistic president in history, completely incapable of sympathy or empathy, unable to make a single mistake in his lifetime, and you can see where he could urge people to donate (matching the Obama Foundation's donations?) to a country he personally destroyed without seeing either the fact that he did the destroying or the irony of the entire situation.
I didn't even want to bring up Obama fundraising off the tragedy, which is itself some next-level chutzpah right there.
Perfectly in line with his MO. The man has no shame; never has.
But he has a Foundation that is "on the ground"! (another in a long line of gross abuses by Foundations)
I literally cannot look at Hillary anymore.
Are you aware she tied her stagecoach to Barry Goldwater as an intern just when he was campaigning to nuke the peasants of Nam? How attractive she must have found that!
Yes.
I don't know which feeling of revulsion is stronger, seeing Hillary or hearing Kamala.
No contest Kamala would generate a few laughs at a party. Hillary would wind up making another enemy and we all know how that turns out.
I never could nor hear her evil cackle.
She looks 20 years younger and she's like 80 now?!
All that insider trading allows one to hire the best plastic surgeons.
I feel the righteous fury in this piece. It’s cathartic and heartbreaking, I can only hope these elites will one day have their karmic retribution.
How a man with African blood running through his veins could endorse the nakedly brutal murder of a Head of State, the takedown and devastation of Africa’s most prosperous and literate nation is beyond my understanding and is quite unforgivable. Nothing he’s done or can do will ever remove the stench!
How a Jew - Zelensky - can openly promote and implement Nazism in Ukraine. How Israel - a Jewish state - can openly support the rise of Nazism in Ukraine.
Et cetera. The examples are numerous in history.
This one is easy, self-interest. see: Soros.
I know it is. The OP seems to be baffled.
Sociopaths have little to commend them, but they are not as a rule loyal to tribe.
They engage in "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" with other sociopaths. When their interests diverge, alliances break down.
We forget that OhBombUs is only half black, which happens to be the half he kept locked in the basement while his white half occupied the Oval Office.
What, pray tell, would have differed had he 1.) allowed the black unlocked, white in basement, 2.) allowed both black and white to operate together?
You're overthinking it. My comment was just a quip on how Obama campaigned as a black man and governed as a white man.
Sorry about that, it seemed a natural inquiry. Kinda of like how some think Hillary, arguably a woman, would comport herself differently from a man were she President. I would naturally wonder what would be different.
No worries; it's a legitimate curiosity. As for Hillary (or any first woman POTUS) my fear is that she would feel the need to prove her 'mettle' by governing like a man, only more so, which could have unintended consequences. As Secretary of State under Obama, Hillary showed her foreign policy bellicosity, so we know what she'd be like in that arena, and it's bone-chilling.
The fact is, except for physical actual differences, I do not ascribe actions to gender or what is called race or height or eye color or hair color, but to individuals.
In other words, while your contention, if I understand it correctly, that Hitlary's bellicosity was to appear tough because she was a bitch among testicled dogs, may well be accurate, I think she's just an evil person and her predilection for evil suffices for me.
Wait, your thesis is that people with African blood don't murder African leaders and/or a prosperous state? Next, are you gonna assert that African leaders don't kill, maim, and/or enslave other Africans...
To both of you ( Third-Eye Roll, and, neill_here), it is nothing to do with being half black or total black. It is all to do with where power resides. The previous colonisers and now the neocolonialists were/are vile enough to have created a collaborator class to facilitate their domination of cultures and nations. Frantz Fanon the Algerian philosopher ( who lived in the time of French colonialism ), wrote about this class as having "black faces with white masks". They will betray their own kind to serve the powerful whites.
If the colonizers and neocolonialists weren't trying to dominate the culture the natives would have been and were, frankly. Do not imply that the natives were some sort of unified culture, they were disparate groups, some living in harmony, others killing and eating each other.
Look to modern USA and see the warring black factions killing each other to the tune of nearing 10,000/year.
You make cogent points. Suffice it to say that Obama did nothing different than his many POTUS predecessors. To assume that position is to adhere to the policy of Full Spectrum Dominance and the global system of white supremacy. Doesn’t really matter how much melanin the holder of the office has in their system! It doesn’t absolve him of his crimes in any way!
In Italian, two nouns denoting con man or swindler are imbroglione and truffatore. In my understanding, the first denotes the sloppier, less-sophisticated variety of swindler, who's ultimately more obvious, not as slick at disguising their manipulative harm to others -- Hillary the imbroglione. The latter, the slicker con man, gets away with it looking more well-ordered, polite and respectful -- Obama the truffatore. But ultimately, the distinction is meaningless -- as you point out so clearly: both of these soulless echo chambers for human misery deserve to share the same fate, namely "rotting in a maximum security prison cell." Amen.
Like the difference between a fast talk and a con. In a fast talk, the mark knows that there is something fishy but is pressed to go along. In a con, the mark lacks this awareness.
Pretty close. Your analogies are spot on today. Me, I'm just trying to practice my Italian on the war criminals [criminalità della guerra]
those at the top of the pyramid in Clown World will never be held accountable for how they carried out their murderous assaults on innocent souls around the world.
Yes they will. Maybe not in this life, but they will stand before a Just and Holy God. "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Matt 10:28
I must humbly say, this thought of maybe not in this life, but they will stand before a just and holy god, would be true justice indeed. However, I'd like to see justice here on Earth. Perhaps that doesn't exist for those that run this planet as their personal empire and play act with the lives of others, like they ARE Gods.
I would like to see justice here too, Leesy, but realistically it may not happen. Eternity is a long time though, to be on the wrong side of God 😔
"eternity is a long time to be on the wrong side of God" - indeed!
Hillary Clinton like Victoria Nuland is an evil war pig.
There is no country for which US intervention or aid is not the worse off for it. The light went on for me when my best friend, a Peace Corps medic in Borneo related the following. He was travelling up the jungle rivers to attend to Peace Corps vols helping the locals. He was strongly urged to make maps of all rivers and storage depots which were to enable revisits. He did it but his superiors demanded he hand them all over. He didn’t like their tone nor their demonstrated priorities and several years after he got back, after a four year stint, he used FOI to get his records. He discovered to his horror that the maps and guides were sent straight to the CIA without his consent or knowledge. Nor of the host country.
This is a pretty routine story now of how honest volunteers were used and abused by the CIA under the pretext of humanitarian aid. No country should ever, under any circumstances let Americans in unless there are closely supervised and the family silver is accounted for before they leave.
Of course the Borneo jungles posed a clear and present danger in the 1960s.
"Barack Obama Belongs In A Fucking Cage".
Yes! Certainly so but leave any 'fucking' out. No perks for O'Bomber. None whatsoever.
Its the American way .... every president is an unindicted war criminal. When Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize he had already authorized more drone assassinations than any other president.
Are you sure? Didn't he win that in like his first week in office?
Dang!
Barack Hussein Obama
The Nobel Peace Prize 2009
Born: 4 August 1961, Honolulu, HI, USA [Yeah, right.]
Residence at the time of the award: USA
Role: 44th President of the United States of America
[Rolled: United States of America]
Barack H. Obama, the 44th President of the United States, had been in power for less than eight months when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2009/obama/facts/
I think he was awarded it in advance so he could later proceed with droning. Otherwise the prize would be more difficult to dispense.
Its a joke that he received under any circumstances and of how the prize has been discredited by the wrong people receiving it. Nobel was the inventor of Dynamite and he is still blowing up the world.
The prince of this world takes many forms.
I may disagree with some of the things you write, but one thing is certain, we share the same spirit of love, justice and truth. What has transpired in Libya is horrendous, including the most recent flooding. The loss of life, the heartache and pain felt so acutely by so many, all promulgated ( or made worse in the case of the flooding) by psychopaths who we must watch being paraded around on our TVs as heros, rolemodels , and according to some.. saints/saviors. The worst part, the vast majority of people are "tuned" into that channel and adopt the narrative.
90 percent of my church voted for a mass murderer. Which President you ask? All of them.
I applaud your relentless efforts to calling it all out. There aren't many like you, especially of your quality of writing and analysis.
I knew one week after voting for the fucker I made a mistake, since he changed no one in George Little's cabinet. Before my Dad died, he apologized to me for voting for Bush; I apologized to him for voting for BO. Here's your hope, keep the change...
Not enough cages to keep all the ruthless political degenerates captured.
We have over 2 million people in prison in the US. We have no lack of cages.
which is a bit like Charles Manson saying the Manson Family killings were everyone’s fault.
At a certain point complaining about our leaders obvious faults needs to get channeled into changing it to something non-psychopathic. We need to stop following.
Hillary Clinton’s cackled laughing and her remark: “We came, we saw, he died” about Qaddafi still haunts me.
I don’t think anything puts it into perspective like seeing how not only are they aware of their crimes... but that they’re proud of them and laugh about them in public,
There is no surer sign that one’s society is sick than this.
St. Obama and Hillary are major US criminals -- equal to current national tragedy and embarrassment, corrupt Joe Biden. Libya had the highest standard of living in the entire Africa -- before its destruction by NATO.
Libya tried to transform the entire country by using huge underground water aquifers -- by building an enormous water infrastructure -- first to be destroyed by NATO bombing -- itself a major war crime and among many country tragedies.