Saturday, October 8, 2016

Republicans Praised for Reducing Stigma for Psychopaths

Dateline: WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Institute of Mental Health congratulated the Republican Party for helping to accustom Americans to those with mental illness, by elevating obvious psychopaths to positions of high office.

Doctor Fernando Lamas, chairman of the institute, said at a press conference that Republican voters have done the United States “a great service, showing more so-called progressive Americans that those with antisocial disorderswho are typically demonized in popular horror filmscan be entrusted with political power as long as we shirk our civic duties and learn to keep lowering our standards for acceptable public behaviour.”

According to Dr. Lamas, the Republican Party began this initiative in the 1980s when Republicans found that they could concoct excuses for Ronald Reagan’s declining health, which he suffered due to an onset of Alzheimer’s. Prior to that, Republicans were embarrassed when President Nixon’s megalomania was unveiled by the Watergate scandal.

“But their reverence for the mentally ill really ramped up,” said Dr. Lamas, “when Republicans managed to keep a straight face as they elected George W. Bush as president. Perhaps inadvertently at first, but surely with a charitable intention thereafter, Republicans worked tirelessly to teach mentally healthy citizens not to ignore the deranged, as George Bush Jr.’s cornucopia of follies left the whole world dumbfounded.”

By excusing Bush’s daily embarrassments and epic fiascos, Republicans brought mental disorder out of the shadows. Dr. Lamas compared this Republican initiative to gay rights advocacy: “both Republicans and homosexuals flaunt their peculiarities, whether on the national political stage or in Gay Pride parades, forcing everyone else to become inured to that which they might once have loathed.  

"After Bush there was Sarah Palin, John McCain’s vice presidential nominee. With her bizarre turns of phrase, her unabashed ignorance on all relevant matters, her clueless mix of Christianity, family values, and sociopathic Republican boilerplate, she took hysterical mean-spiritedness to a higher level.

“But it’s that party’s fearlessness in spotlighting such palpably-malignant personalities,” continued Dr. Lamas, “as though they could be entrusted with vast political power, that’s done wonders in removing the stigma from mental illness.” Republicans have been particularly generous with sociopaths, not just by thrusting them into mainstream discourse, but by “coaching them to be evermore lax in disguising their inhuman lack of empathy.”

“Sociopathy, an extreme form of Antisocial Personality Disorder, is a mainstay of the political world,” said Gwendolyn Bianca, political scientist at Fancypants University, who also spoke at the press conference. Bianca argued that since it’s axiomatic that power eventually corrupts even the most moral of individuals, we can expect that a disproportionate number of politicians (as well as businesspeople and other wealthy or powerful persons) lack the capacity to feel complex emotions.

“Conscience is a luxury they can’t afford,” said Bianca, “because a politician’s duty demands that he or she sacrifice others for the greater good, a burden that would be intolerable to anyone with some moral sense.”

Dr. Lamas said that because Donald Trump, the 2016 Republican presidential nominee, has “given the game away, displaying no trace of shame or compassion, all Americans owe the Republican Party a debt of gratitude for its service to the mentally ill.”

Bianca added that “whereas Democratic leaders have opted for the traditional approach of hiding their elitist contempt for humanity behind feel-good messages and empty socialist promises, psychopathic Republicans have refused to sit at the back of the bus. Unlike Barack Obama or Hilary Clinton, whose antisocial personalities were formed when they were indoctrinated into the neoliberal technocracy and who thus mistake loss of conscience for exceptional rationality, Republican lunatics have shown no deference to the public’s prejudice against human predators.

“Republican elites wear their insanity on their sleeve, whereas Democratic politicians pretend to care about the little people. And bless the American voters for their bottomless tolerance for the absurd! Thanks to that recklessness, mental health issues have come to the fore, which has flooded the clinics across the nation with much-needed donations.”

7 comments:

  1. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/07/eritrea-gold-mine-abuse-case-canada

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    1. Anon, are you the individual who keeps posting disparaging links against Canada? If your point is that Canada is as bad as the United States, I don't think your links come close to establishing that. But anyway, I'm not a fan of either American or Canadian culture.

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  2. Mr.Cain,
    As usual your blog has interesting and illuminating comments. This is off the topic. ¿ Have there been spree killers in Canada? Greetings from Paraguay. Raúl

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    1. Raul,
      Here's a list of serial killers by country:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serial_killers_by_country

      Canada has had some, Paul Bernardo being the most famous, I think.

      It's sad that the US needs a separate page to list its serial killers. England's had many as well.

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  3. Rape laws are getting out of control.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/21/arab-guilty-rape-consensual-sex-jew?CMP=share_btn_tw

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  4. To see where this all started, let's take a look at the highlight reel pulled from security tape at "Some Rich Kid's Academy" many years ago. This transcript was obtained by making a deal with Julian Assange to provide Direct TV to the Ecuadorian Embassy in exchange for a "leak".

    “Hey, Fat Head! A little help here! Throw me the ball!”
    “Who are you calling ‘fat-head’, Shorty?”
    “I’m calling you fat head, Fat Head! Now throw me the ball!”
    “When I’m good and ready, Shorty. And I’m not ready.”
    “What’s your problem, kid? You don’t know who’s boss here?”
    “Hey, I’m the new boss here. I got your ball, don’t I? And my problem happens to be that I’m a sociopath. My therapist says I don’t have a basic understanding of social interaction.”
    “Yeah, well big deal. My therapist says I’m a psychopath. I don’t understand the basic worth of human life. That’s better than you!”
    “Yeah, well my mom doesn’t even like being in a room with me alone! Mine’s worse than yours! What’s the difference anyways?”
    “You just want to step on people, I kill them.”
    “Yeah, well I’ve killed things before. I crush every bug that gets in my way! I can become a psychopath, too. Hold on, let me tweet this, ‘I will become a psychopath!’”
    “Oh, big words, Fat Head. You have me quaking in my Valenkis. Why don’t you just go back to picking your nose and let me do what I’ve always done?”
    “Hey, I’m not just a nose picker anymore! Hold on, let me tweet this, ‘I’m not just a nose picker!’ You’ve got to deal with me now. I’m the big kid here. I’m calling the shots!”
    “Oh, like who died and made you the boss?”
    “Bruce Springsteen?”
    “God, you are so stupid! How did you ever get so full of yourself?”
    “I always get my way, Shorty!”
    “Typical spoiled American rich kid!”
    “Na-uh!”
    “Da-huh!”
    “I’ve got all the kids behind me, they all worship me!”
    “You’ve got nobody. More than half these kids don’t even want you around. And, besides, they all fear me. That’s way better.”
    “They do to want me! You’re just listening to that unfair gossip spread by everyone. And I can make everyone fear me if I want to. Dogs won’t come near me!”
    “I hear dogs are good judges of character, Fat Head. So you are like some big cheese now, eh?”
    “The biggest!”
    “Well, maybe you want to see me cut the cheese, da?”
    “Look, why don’t we just combine our efforts and take this place over? We don’t need that many on our side. Just the freakishly uninformed.”
    “Da. It has worked that way for me. An organized mob can bring chaos to the interminable masses.”
    “So let’s just agree to get along like friends, huh? You do what you do, I’ll do what I do. Nobody will stand a chance.”
    “Like I can trust you. What do I need you for anyway?”
    “You know we want the same thing. Some of the great attempts at world domination started with a partnership. We’ll be in the history books!”
    “It would be a sweet deal. Even the teachers wouldn’t be able to stop us!”
    “We’ll be kings of the school yard! First in line in the lunch room!”
    “I’ll be first. I was here first.”
    “Yeah, whatever. We’ll see about that.”
    “Da. We’ll run the place. But just don’t get in my way, Fat Head. Or else.”
    “Or else’ what? You better watch your mouth Shorty or I’ll give you a fat lip! Hold on, let me tweet this, ‘I will give Shorty a fat lip!’”
    “I will make a blini out of you!”
    “Yeah, says you. And I’ll sue you for being unfair to me!”
    “You just try, I will put a firework in your lunch!”
    “I will destroy everything with which I have been entrusted to get you!”
    “I will bury you!”
    Kids start to fight; teacher intervenes.
    “We’re going to meet again someday, Shorty! You’re gonna pay for crossing me!”
    “You can count on it Fat Head! I’ll be waiting!”

    Antisocial Personality Disorders (often represented as including sociopathy and psychopathy) are described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders. At this point in time, it should be required reading; alongside any good world history book.

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    1. But do those kids form the partnership for world domination or not? You left the reader in suspense!

      We should indeed all be informed about antisocial personality disorder, especially in the Trump Era. Will Trump be able to partner with Putin or will they screw each other over like these schoolyard kids?

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