Sociopathy As a Political Movement

I meant to post this a couple of weeks ago, but meetings and work blew up on me. But just because the story is old, that doesn't mean the crazy has gone away. Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Boyda of Kansas recounted a conversation she had with a rightwing talk show host:

And finally, I would just like to share a story. When I was speaking back at home with one of a very right wing conservative talk show hosts and after, thank God, after we were off the air, I said something that I assumed he would agree with and I just said 'you know, I'm really worried about these guys and gals, but mainly guys, that have gone, that they've been redeployed now three and four times' -- he came back to me and said 'you know what, they should have thought about that before they enlisted, before they signed up.' He said 'it's their fault.'

Serving one's country is for the little people. No matter how often I read, see, or personally experience it, I am still stunned by the notion that there is an entire political movement composed of millions of people which is based on the counter-intuitive premise that cruelty indicates that the world is functioning normally. I have no idea whether people like the talk show host are clinical sociopaths*, but en masse, as part of the conservative movement, they certainly act like them.

*Actually, many of them might be narcissicists, in that they have an internal emotional life (of sorts), but they simply are unable to empathize with others. In that sense, the soldiers are simply 'casting extras' in the 'movie' that is their lives. Either way, they're cracked in the head.