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Letter From A Psychopath

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Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#331

Post by scott_s »

gohrt wrote: post #309
scott_s wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Psychopaths tend to fear negative consequences less than non-psychopaths. They are still people, but having less fear (not being literally fearless) than most is a defining trait.

They fear negative consequences less, or they fear social consequences less? That is, are they less afraid of car crashes and drowning, or just less afraid of pissing people off (because they don't care about other's personal needs, and because they can easily "fix" a relationship with the advantages of deception)

Negative consequences; less afraid of car crashes and drowning. Which also means they have a harder time learning from their mistakes.

Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#332

Post by dmoney »

Yhippa wrote: post #12

At one point in our evolution was there some advantage that being a psychopath conferred?

Think of it this way: You use your favorite social site, interact with friends, colleagues, acquaintances, or family members through it, and to a large extent it determines what interactions happen between you. Somebody saw how people previously interacted and how (or where) they wanted them to interact, came up with this system, and promoted it until it became popular. Things we've taken for granted at various points in history--moral systems, religions, monarchy, democracy, the nuclear family--were invented in the same way, by people who saw the system as an object to be manipulated, rather than reality itself.

Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#334

Post by DanBC »

undoware wrote: post #198
DanBC wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If your position is that all convincing self-accounts by psychopaths are themselves only convincing because the psychopath is somehow 'tricking' you, then you can take that statement and s/psychopath/any group you care to name/ and you'd never know the difference. Don't believe me? Try substituting various bogeymen of the twentieth century: crack dealers, pedophiles, etc. You see what I mean? It always works: You s…

So is being any sort of successful criminal. A pedophile, for example.

lots of successful criminals are lousy liars. I'm not sure what your point is?

Certainly lots of paedophiles are terrible liars.

Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#335

Post by chrischen »

im3w1l wrote: post #327
chrischen wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so?

For starters, it is a two player game. Secondly it will not always be crystal clear that you chose "defect" to your coplayers in the real world, since actions are subject to interpretation. Third, the real world is not a game of perfect information.

It is clear that you chose "defect" in the real world.. over time. It is in fact theoretically impossible to escape this consequence as time approaches infinity. Think about it, you are constantly leaving traces of you "defecting" and not leaving traces of not defecting. Eventually this catches up. This is also an example of the principle of karma, aka cause and effect. You can't escape fundamental effects of causes forever.

Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#336

Post by chrischen »

JanezStupar wrote: post #324
chrischen wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to be aware of the iterated prisoner's dilemma. My point is that as a psychopath screwing people over, you should realize that this strategy is suboptimal. You will lose out to people who do cooperate.

Oh, psychopath will play your prisoners dilemma. He WILL be the one to talk you into cooperation. He will not attack you in public unless he has public on his side. Thats what makes a psychopath so horrible. He will fuck you over then he will convince everybody else that you fucked him over. Psychopaths are Varelse in emotional sense.

He fucks you over and that is eventually a non-cooperation in an even bigger iterated prisoner's dilemma game.

Unless you willingly let him fuck you in the ass again, then his psychopathic strategy will no longer work on you, and you will at least not cooperate, and possibly retaliate resulting in a net loss. In fact, this is extremely likely because it's in your incentive now to disincentivize him from further fucking you because you want to send the proper signal.

Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#337

Post by Myrmornis »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #285
throwaway83294 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't tell if I'm a psychopath or not. Are those who desire power, control, and inflated egos always psychopaths? No. I, and I suspect most ambitious people, also desire power, control, and have inflated egos to some extent. Psychopaths are still human (though broken) and also have these traits, but since they lack other traits like compassion, generosity, etc., the former tend to show through more.

I have a problem with the whole notion that runs throughout this conversation -- the notion that psychopathy is a binary state. Everyone should do a mental find-and-replace of "psychopathy" with "homosexuality," and re-evaluate their views in light of the existence of the Kinsey scale. One thing you can say about the human mind is that there's nothing binary about it.

Yes, very silly. Why's everyone talking as if "psychopath" were a clear cut, clearly identifiable category?

Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#339

Post by tfb »

nostrademons wrote: post #196
tfb wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've known a few psychopaths myself. It is interesting how they react when you make it clear you know all about their deception. I personally find it hilarious that they think they're able to dupe everyone they meet, but I also feel sad that it still works on so many. It's hard though to differentiate true psychopaths from those who simply share a few traits. When I read about psychopaths, I tend to find common trait…

Usually the defining characteristic of a psychopath is an inability to feel shame, remorse, or empathy. If you catch someone with narcissistic personality disorder in a lie or situation where they've hurt someone and call them out on it, the response is usually bluster, a frantic attempt to shore up ego. If you catch someone with borderline personality disorder or just plain deep insecurity, they'll often deflate and…

Thanks for that explanation. That's a really effective way to look at it, I think.

Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#340

Post by ekkehardt »

Havoc wrote: post #214
dfraser992 wrote: post #106

Sociopaths are one of the fundamental threats facing humanity today. Such traits may have been beneficial in times past as group conflict was so prevalent, but if global issues like getting into space, climate change and the prevention of economic chaos are to be dealt with effectively, humanity is going to have to learn how to cooperate more effectively. And that means preventing sociopaths from getting into positio…

Well good luck with your witch hunt.

You personally won't be executed. But your type will either be controlled, annihilated, or humanity as a whole will cease to be.

Psychopaths aren't parasites. A parasite doesn't threaten the life of the host, because the parasite's life depends on the host's life. If psychopaths were just parasites they would not be an issue.

When society uses competitions to pick leaders, many of the leaders will naturally be psychopaths because psychopaths will go to lengths that good people won't go to in order to win. It's that simple.

You have a contest. The winner gets a huge prize and becomes a leader of humanity. Good person could murder or blackmail to win the contest, but good person won't do that because he's not a psychopath. Psychopaths will do that, they win the contest, they take control of humanity and then run humanity into the ground because a psychopath only cares about satisfying their petty lusts.

All human problems right now are caused by the fact that our competitive systems of picking leaders always pick psychopaths.

If we murdered all the psychopaths when they were toddlers, today we would have a proper response to climate change. We would have a proper response to mass poverty. Corporations wouldn't look like they are actively TRYING to make our species go extinct.

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