Someone who was truly raised to not have empathy I would still classify as a sociopath. Sociopathy is a personality disorder. It’s not a mental deficiency. It very well can be influenced by upbringing.
Whether this applies to Romney, I don’t know.
Emphasis added. Well, that rules out Romney right there!
I agree, but I would say it depends mostly on what is the reigning party and ideology. A (high functioning) sociopath in New York City would probably join the Democratic Party; a (high functioning) sociopath in Boise would probably join the Republican Party. A (high functioning) sociopath in Muskogee would probably be careful to go to church every week. A (high functioning) sociopath in Russia in the 1920s would have joined the Communist Party.
In any event, a (high functioning) sociopath would probably pretend to hold fast to whatever the popular beliefs are. If he lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, you can bet he will profess support for gay marriage, environmentalism, social justice, and so forth.
I actually find it unlikely that either Cheney or Gingrich are Sociopaths. Actually the politician I think is most likely to be a sociopath is Bill Clinton. I never got the feeling that anything he said was derived from any inner conviction rather than a calculation or political advantage. Also his treatment of women seems to display classic sociopathic behavior.
Cheney seems to be totally uninterested in hiding his inner nature and Gingrich often seems far too forthcoming about his ideas. The fact that you hate and detest their ideas doesn’t make them sociopaths. A person who never says anything you disagree with is a far more likely sociopath.
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Of course, this doesn’t mean that a sociopath might not make a decent president. Carter was a honest, earnest man and our worst president in recent memory. It might be an interesting discussion about whether a non-sociopath can actually be elected president anymore.
What about it displays classic sociopathic behavior?
I think actual honest-to-goodness sociopaths only succeed in fooling people for short periods of time. The more scrutiny on them, the worse they function. This is why they have a hard time keeping a job, or obeying the law, or having long term friendships or relationships. I seriously doubt a sociopath could end up in the presidency.
Max Mosley, mostly based on the completely erratic way that he led the FIA.
Of those politicians I have seen mentioned, Rod Blagojevich strikes me as a very obvious example.
Did anyone mention Richard Nixon?
Psychopaths are born, sociopaths are made. You’ve explained quite well why Romney and Cheney aren’t likely to be psychopaths- but you’ve pretty much outlined exactly why Romney is a sociopath.
There is no neurological disorder that results in “I have no emotions”. A sociopath would have no feeling at all about fellow humans if said sociopath already had everything they wanted. When they don’t get what they want, they start looking for someone to blame.
Yes there are such disorders (and brain damage), and at one point such people were called “sociopaths”; as someone said above though I think the definition has been changed since then. Such people are unlikely to become leaders in politics or anything else however, as they don’t function very well in society. An emotionless person can’t even win a card game, much less rise to power; they by definition don’t care if they win so they don’t try. And they don’t hide what they are because, again, they are incapable of caring. People can also lose some emotions not all; I recall reading of a brain damaged woman who was incapable of fear towards other people, and as a result was incapable of functioning in society without being taken advantage of.
Going by the list in #55
All of these would fit Bill Clinton pretty well. Too many people, even Gingrich were taken in by his charm. The way he trashed the women he slept with when they came forward is classic sociopath behavior. Most politicians just don’t have that kind of chutzpah.
You are only describing stupid sociopaths. A saying I use, “Stupid sociopaths go to prison. Smart sociopaths go to law school.” It is interesting to note that Romney and Obama both graduated from Harvard Law.
Look, nymphomanic acrobats aren’t sociopaths. I’m sorry that you misunderstood. I am all in favor of n.a.'s. They do not intersect with sociopaths in a Venn diagram. I was referring to the frequency with which Willard Romney changes what he says to please the crowd he is in front of. Yeah, politicians change their positions a lot. Churchill was a conservative, liberal and then conservative again. Kerry voted for/against things in committee that he later voted the other way on the floor. I’ve seen a lot of flip-flopping in my life observing politics. But Rmoney can take several conflicting positions in a single afternoon. He makes Dick Nixon look absolutely principled by comparison.
You are entitled to believe that your opinion constitutes facts. But that dosn’t make it so. The meaning of Bain http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/blog/2012/01/13/bain-makes-a-man-take-things-over/ Newt isn’t often correct, but he was absolutely correct in calling Rmoney a vulture capitalist. While he may not have exclusively feasted off the carcasses of companies that Bain brought down, there were plenty that they destroyed. You’ll get to meet the workers of those companies this fall during the commercials, who will give testimonials on how their companies were destroyed along with their pensions. That he likes firing people is obvious. That he is so clueless as to say it out loud indicates a complete inability to empathize. The one time he should probably keep the truth to himself, he blurts it out like enjoying the misery of the less fortunate is a badge of power.
As for Edwards, a man that cheats on his wife is a candidate for sociopath. When he convinces rich allies to give hundreds of thousands to keep it from coming out, all the while running for president and denying patrimony of a child strikes me as sociopathic. Unlike you and Bricker, I despise his self-centered sociopathic tendencies. I rather like his politics. I can despise someone’s politics, but like them as a person. WF Buckley was a lot of fun and likeable, even when gasbagging. I was, of course, unaware, that your personal dislike for a person was a criteria for sociopathy.
I don’t think it is. He didn’t just cheat on his wife. He cheated on his dying wife. Just cheating on your wife could make one an uncaring narcissist but to do so on a woman who has stuck by your side through tough campaigns and loved you and then when needed most is cast aside like stale bread is unfeeling to a vast degree.
Accusing Obama is absurd.
I am not following. You seem to have contradicted yourself.
The most current example of a politician that I would call a true sociopath is former governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois (D). The man has no conscience other than his own misguided ambitions and he is thankfully doing a long federal sentence for it now. You would think he would have taken a hint from all the other Illinois politicians doing time for the same type of behavior but he took it to a new level of low by trying to sell Obama’s vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder as part of his own grand plan to eventually become President himself.
:::::hijack:::: I often walk past a law office entitled “Law Offices of Mosley and Ellis”. If I were a sociopath, I’d sneak there late at night and rearrange the letters to say “Law Offices of Mos Eisley”.
Hardly; there’s nothing particularly sociopathic about “trashing” women who are being used as weapons by your political enemies. And why aren’t the women sociopathic for doing so? If one is sociopathic, then so is the other.
Here’s the thing, contrary to my own opinion about Edwards, but I don’t think a person cheating on a spouse, even a dying spouse, is necessarily a sociopath. It’s something some people do. But the whole way it came out with the money buying cover up, whether legal or not (I suspect not) and they very lavish lifestyle he lives suggests lack of empathy and just large scale assholeness.
Contrast that with Steve Jobs (good candidate for sociopath) and he lived a modest lifestyle. Not quite as modest as Warren Buffet. I think the whole picture matters.
So your position is that Bill Clinton isn’t a sociopath but every woman that he had sex with is?
That isn’t what he said. He said it would be a double standard to call one a sociopath and not the other because it wasn’t a victim-prey relationship. I am sure Monica Lewinsky and Jennifer Flowers among others had their own reasons for wanting to blow or sleep with a powerful man.
This thread has convinced me that most politicians are dicks and pretty much none of them are actual sociopaths (unless, of course, one doesn’t like them.)
Gene Simmons
Saw an episode or two of his reality show, he doesn’t seem to think like a normal person would. I mean before he would take his kid to the zoo he’d first consult with his PR people, they advise instead to go ice skating so he will do that. I have never seen show any genuine warmth or emotion towards his wife or children. I don’t know if he is a sociopath but something is off about the guy, and he is one of the few people I’d feel uncomfortable being around.