What if I’m an extremely well adjusted, friendly and useful psychopath? For example due to social or religious conditioning? Am I still not really human?
Seems a bit tautological. If you have greater value, you have a greater value to humanity.
Do you have a specific definition of the person in mind?
How would a psychopath be “well adjusted”?
I could think perhaps of a theoretical talented researcher or engineer that I wouldn’t have to encounter in my daily life. But the diagnosis generally involves someone that is not “well adjusted” to society and others.
I am no fan of those who exhibit specific psychopathic or sociopathic behaviors towards myself and those I love, but I can relate to the uncomfortability with dehumanizing other persons, whether they “deserve” it or not. Empathy! It happens.
And sometimes it’s more interesting than overbroadly saying that antisocial persons are badwrong.
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Oh, sociopaths and psychopaths are human alright; severely atrophied and twisted humans who generally lack the capacity to be anything more to the rest of the species than a detriment.
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I do wonder how many antisocials may find themselves in jobs that can better society versus becoming politicians, cult leaders, MLM salespersons, etc.
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No way to tell.
That’s what’s intrinsically problematic about those who are afflicted with antisocial personality disorders; they are still people, but they can pose a serious potential threat to the rest of the population - usually in some indirect manner, but not always.
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I mean, having had a stalker, and having many family members and friends with restraining orders, it’s very easy for me to say “fuck 'em”, but pathologizing isn’t the whole of reality and it’s more comforting to just avoid speaking overbroadly.
I just hope my specific enemies get crushed by boulders, is all.
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Oh, hon; I’m right there with you.
I’ve never had one in 3D life, but I had one batshit whackadoo who was utterly obsessed with my online persona for years, tracking me from one forum to another; he was a real nasty piece of work.
But due to his relentless fixation on me, I ended up learning his physical location and and some of his personal info. I’ve never done anything with that knowledge thus far, but I like to keep it on hand, just in case.
*lolz
I don’t have any enemies, per se; just people whom I wouldn’t mind at all if they were no longer breathing.
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I mean, I didn’t choose to make them my “enemy”, I just saw something unhealthy and told the wrong person online that they were being creepy, something they fixated upon and consumed their existence…
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Of course not.
That’s pretty much how I acquired my own ‘rabid fangirl’; although he was never able to make the leap from online harassment to doxxing me in 3D life ( though not for a lack of trying, on his part.)
The kicker is the topic of conversation that started it all; the freakin’ Duggar family, long before the sex abuse scandal came out.
There was a discussion about the mother trying to get preggers with like their 20th kid or something, despite the fact that it could have been severely detrimental to her health.
I made one single innocuous comment about how hard it is just to raise one kid well, let alone twenty of them, and lo and behold; here this comes this smug sadistic fuck, preaching to me about how ‘at least all the Duggar kids know who their dad is and that it’s the same guy.’
As you can imagine, the exchange didn’t get any better from there.
In hindsight, had I known what I know now; I’d have never even replied to his first comment to me.
Which is probably why I hit ‘cancel’ rather than “submit” so often now.
You just never know.
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I still don’t even know what I did to attract mine. Maybe they sensed weakness, thought it would be a laugh, something. I got this stuff IRL as well as online and The Filth weren’t interested in helping because ya know, reasons.
I’m fed up with living in fear. I moved towns, changed mobile numbers, all that crap. Got to try to face the world someday . 
Just maybe not today. It’s warm inside and there’s tea.
Trying to hit submit more than I cancel out though.
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Yikes; it’s never come to that level of severity for me, thank goodness.
I hit ‘cancel’ in conversations where no good will come of any exchange; because I finally realized that I don’t need to be “right” or even to make my point known, all the time.
There’s a lot of freedom to be had in realizing that you have nothing to prove to anyone but yourself.
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I just came across an interesting three-part essay on Status 451 called “Too Late for the Pebbles to Vote” about how to spot and what can be done about sociopaths.
Specifically, since the writer was involved in the Tor project, it brings up Appelbaum a lot.
(Note: this is not an endorsement of the Status 451 blog as a whole; there are some awesome posts up there like these, but also some dumpster fires).
[Part 1] (Too Late for the Pebbles to Vote, Part 1 | Status 451)
One cell in the body politic mutates, and starts to recruit others. Those recruited cells continue to perform the same functions they always have — building structures, transmitting signals, defending nearby cells — but now they do it in service of that mutant cell line. The tumor is the silo. If you find yourself breaking the rules — or, worse, your rules, your personal ethics — for someone on a regular basis, consider whether that charming friend of yours is inviting you to be part of their tumor.
How do you bust out of a sociopath’s information silo? Personally, I take my cues from Captain James Tiberius Kirk: when the rules are arrayed against you, break them. When a sociopath tries to leave you no “legitimate” maneuvers, Kobayashi Maru that shit as hard as you possibly can.
[Part 2] (Too Late for the Pebbles to Vote, Part 2 | Status 451)
Not every act of fraud — or force, for that matter — rises to the level of criminality, but a pattern of repeated sub-actionable force or fraud is a pattern worth paying attention to. A pattern of sub-actionable force or fraud coupled with intimidation of people who try to address that pattern is a pattern of sociopathy. If you let a bad actor get away with “minor” violations, like plagiarism, you’re giving them license to expand that pattern into other, more flagrant disregard of other people’s personhood. “But we didn’t think he’d go so far as to rape people!” Of course you didn’t, because you were doing your level best not to think about it at all.
[Part 3] (Too Late for the Pebbles to Vote, Part 3 | Status 451)
Ever found yourself realizing that things have gone too far, but can’t quite piece together how they got to be so bad? Often that’s the result of not recognizing your own boundaries in the first place. If you haven’t defined them, or are willing to let people get away with infringing on them in the interest of not rocking the boat socially, bad actors are happy to step in and define them — for their benefit, not yours. Sometimes, however, it’s the result of not recognizing boundary-pushing behavior, or not having a model for what that looks like. Like deadlines, a lot of people only notice their own boundaries from the whistling sound they make as they fly by.
I’m not saying never to re-evaluate your boundaries. Rather, never dial them back under duress, or in any other kind of stressful situation, for that matter. Do your reassessing afterward. Boundary-pushing is a dominance game in which merely feeling safe is tantamount to pissing yourself to keep warm. If your goal is to be safe, rather than to feel like everything is fine right up until your house burns down, there are two skills you have to learn. The first is to recognize dominance games in progress, and the second is to either exit or flip the script as the situation and your personal capacities call for it.
I’m going to have to let these settle in and re-read them later; they’re long, and I know I’ve missed a bunch of things that I need to know, but I definitely think they’re worth reading.
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Thank you!
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Happy to be of service!
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