So I’m a Sociopath.  So What? – by Holly Chism

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

So I’m a Sociopath.  So What? – by Holly Chism

I’ve seen, over and over, on farcebook and other social media spots, a new bunch of calumny. 

First: that letificles are empathetic.  They just care so hard, y’know? 

And second:

I call bullshit.  Twice. 

First, that leftists are empathetic: no, they’re not.  Leftists are split between narcissists who play victims, sociopaths who enjoy using people and watching their pain and confusion, and victims that emote rather than thinking.  Leftists tell themselves they’re empathetic.  They tell others that they’re empathetic. 

But.  Look at the programs they espouse: murdering the helpless (abortion), murdering the inconvenient (MAID in Canada), keeping their chosen, favored victims in a hole by promoting crab-bucket social politics (DIE, or whatever they’re calling it now).  Or worse (feminism/communism). 

Is that empathy?  If it is, it’s empathy that should be wiped out with napalm. 

Second: I examine the source of pleas for kindness and empathy.  If it’s a woman who’s having trouble finding a way out of hard-left politics’ social programs to keep her poor (SNAP, welfare benefits)?  I will absolutely help.  I will help to the limits of what will hurt my family (who absolutely come first).  If it’s a teenager who doesn’t want to murder her unborn baby?  You better believe I’ll help. 

If it’s somebody who screamed at me because I refused to mask up?  If it’s somebody who screamed at me because I didn’t want to participate in this decade’s Tuskegee experiments?  If it’s somebody who screamed at me that I hate women because I don’t want to pay doctors to cut up unborn babies, or that I’m a TERF because I don’t want men in the same locker rooms as my daughter, or that I’m a racist because I won’t let animals wearing the guise of humans act rabid?  If it’s someone who covers up grooming and rape because it’s “just their culture?”  If it’s someone calling me racist because I want the border closed, because I want the cartels gone?  If it’s someone calling me a sociopath because I understand the consequences that their minimum wage laws will have on all of us? 

Yeah.  I lack kindness and empathy for those groups.  And I lack kindness and empathy for the people saying I should have kindness and empathy for those groups.  The most I can, or will do, for any of those is pray for their souls as I pull the trigger, if they endanger my family. 

I’ll pray for their souls anyway, even if they stay out of my way for the rest of their lives (they’ll live longer if they do).  I’ll pray for their enlightenment, and I’ll pray for their ability to feel remorse for the damage they’ve done to themselves, the targets of their “sympathy,” the victims of the targets of their “sympathy.”  I’ll pray for the victims’ healing. 

I may quietly enjoy their suffering if they ever do realize the wrong and evil they’ve done in the name of “good,” but I’ll also rejoice if they actually change.

But I will not give them one shred of kindness or absolution for the things they’ve done, or the things they’ve cheered on.  I will not grant them forgiveness when they’re not sorry.  I will not grant them one bit of help when they’re in trouble (much as I wouldn’t piss on California right now). 

The most I will do is keep my gloating to myself when the gods of the copybook headings come home to roost on them, and pray that they learn from it this time.  Even as I hold out little to no hope that they will.

Because granting them help before they’ve realized that the trouble they’re facing is the direct consequences of their choices and their actions?  That’s not helping.  That’s not kindness.  That’s not empathy. 

That’s enabling.

(Holly is a science fiction and fantasy author. These are some of her latest books:

The Law of Magical Contagion.

Meals on Wheels.

Light Up the Night)


130 thoughts on “So I’m a Sociopath.  So What? – by Holly Chism”

    1. Ditto. It’s what they always do: Accuse others of their own behavior. I’m with Holly on this; regret the necessity to do something permanent to them if circumstances warrant, but do it.

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  3. Yet who, consistently, shows up at disasters, either in person with a shovel or remote by emptying the wallet…..

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    1. LOL!

      Once up on a time, I had hit an icy patch when visiting one of our major sites. Down I went, bashing an elbow and splitting it open. Bled like crazy (aspirin.) Had lots of help, none of it trained, not even basic Scout or military first aid. So had to teach an on-the spot class in “improvising practical pressure bandage from available office first aid kit materials.”

      The short-straw who had to do the patching? A VIP with big title. (Grin)

      “You can puke later. Hold that pad -firmly-. while pressing on the artery under my arm… there. OK. If you must heave, aim away from the patient at that sink.” “Do NOT pike on the patient.” (laughter broke the barf urge). “OK. Now take those tape strips you cut and….”

      “You are a GO at this station of basic first aid.”

      Noteworthy, no one else would get near me. Was more than a bit messy.

      Then, after much cleanup, the guy tasked with driving me to an urgent care suffered a GPS whoops and drove us into the heart of ghettoville. Like ” burglar bars on the second floor windows, and plentiful concertina wire where useful”.

      “Just ease back into traffic flow, keep moving, and stop for nothing. Just like all the other locals.”

      (grin)

      Found competent medical help. Got praise for my pressure bandage. Also seven stitches.

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        1. I just thought it was a somewhat unusual posture one could take while paging the Irishman. Ralph O’Rourke to the white courtesy trash can, please!

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            1. He was green, several times. He did chipmunk cheeks at least once.

              It was a pretty deep rip, and some of the under-bits were visible. Plus I leaked at least a unit of blood, as I was on a rather heavy aspirin dose at the time. I could only see from the side, but everyone else kinda went “ew” or “ralph”.

              Oddly, I barely felt it. Kinda dull ache and cold. I didnt even realize I was bleeding until it soaked down my sleeve under my coat and started dumping on the floor, at which point the receptionist shrieked “OMG! He’s bleeding!”

              lol.

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            2. Some friends at the wake for a murdered friend introduced me to dropping a shot glass of Baileys into a pint of Guinness.

              “Car Bomb”

              I kept them out of jail by successfully deferring the “lets go bail him out party” until folks were again sober.

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              1. Warming up the get-off-my-lawn card, the generic whiskey in generic glass of beer was known as a “Depth Charge”, and cousin to the “Boilermaker” (dunno if it’s known anymore, shot and a beer, drunk in sequence).

                I plead innocent as to knowledge of the merits/effects of such a combination; a (sadly) still-memorable incident from over a half century ago dissuaded me from mixing my booze/beer/wine in one go.

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                1. I once received a terse email. “Never, ever do a [Mexican beer brand] after a tequila shot. Just don’t.” Apparently the results were memorable, as you say.

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                  1. My dad used to report

                    “Beer on whiskey, very risky; whiskey on beer, all is clear.”

                    Once I learned to like whisky, never bothered with beer after on any one occasion.

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                2. I’ve always thought that the’Depth Charge’ was a shot glass of torpedo fuel alcohol in a glass of beer. It was about the only redeeming feature of the early WW2 Mark 14 torpedo.

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                  2. It’s really early to be jumping to conclusions, but so far it looks like the control tower was understaffed, the air traffic controllers were overworked, and I just heard a retired military helicopter pilot say the directions they gave were unclear.

                    Way to go, Pothole Pete!

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                    1. Had just seen the video. Looked bad. Blurted.

                      note: I want to be wrong. Praying so.

                      at least the current likely scenarios are fixable, if too late.

                      what a goat rope. This cannot happen again. Must not.

                      and I thread jacked. Mrs Hoyt, please delete if not wanted. Although that gets me off the hook for dumbassery.

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                  3. One of the bits of speculation I saw was a possible confusion as to which aircraft the helicopter pilot was looking at. If he was supposed to zig for Plane A, but did so for Plane B, it could have caused the crash. I gather there are a lot of similar-looking planes that fly into Reagan.

                    I know there are tools that can show what was in the air at that time. No idea where or how to use them.

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                    1. In the videos you can see the lights of a second plane a few hundred feet higher than the one that got hit. The retired pilot said the tower’s “Do you see the plane in front of you?” failed to specify which plane. If they were avoiding the one above them, and failed to see the one at the same flight level, that would explain the collision.

                      And of course, as far as the tower was concerned, “I see the plane” meant everything was OK.

                      Understaffed. Overworked. Maybe less than fully competent IED hire. NONE of those conditions should be present in an airport control tower.

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    3. My sister was the same way– I dropped a tractor axel on my hand, it bled a little, and looked squished….she fainted, I dragged us both back to the house. But when she took a three inch sided triangle out of her leg on rusty medal, she was totally fine and helped doctor herself up, chattering all the way.

      (the axel didn’t cause actual damage, just hurt once the shock wore off)

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        1. In Saudi back in ’91, I managed to get the tip of my left little finger amputated by a Huey helicopter (long story, ‘nother time, maybe). When I got to the MASH, I found myself the focus of attention from a fairly attractive young attendant. When I asked if there was something I could do for her, she replied, “No, I just get off on the sight of blood.”

          I guess she found the right military specialty for her – so long as she didn’t go around inducing bleeding among the patients in order to satisfy her appetites.

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        2. To quote a medical technician who was tasked with cleaning up my wound after someone higher in the medical hierarchy had stitched together a slice I had inadvertently inflicted on my finger:

          “The air goes in and out. The blood goes round and round. Any deviation is bad.”

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  7. And then there are the people who “feel so much” that they don’t think about what the Left is pushing. [Sad]

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  8. I guess I’ll more empathetic when their conscience directs them to jump into a volcano to absolve the world of their former actions. After all, some might be wearing an expensive Rolex and the money from a pawn shop might buy a disabled veteran some groceries. Maybe we should just demand they remove expensive jewelry before they jump.

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    1. If anything, the thought of losing that expensive watch might make them less likely to jump.

      Anyway, the vulcan gods do not accrpt false contrition. We’d just end up caring for the rejected sacrifices.

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      1. By watching the rejectees waft off as air pollution? (how poetic)

        Caring for like how? Smoke diverters?

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      1. Most Chihuahuas I have interacted with have far more brains and far more integral courage than most of the left could ever muster,

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    2. OK. Must share.

      Impotent Rage! The Liberal Superhero!

      (from the world of grand theft Auto)

      NSFW – rude, crude, vulgar, crass, and spittake funny.

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  11. Pleas for ‘kindness and empathy’ for those that deserve neither don’t make me furious; they just make me disgusted. We’re supposed to ‘care’ about Ham-Ass, and BLM/Antefa, and the ‘downtrodden Moslems’ that danced in the streets on 9/11/2001? Leftroids can go peddle their ‘caring’ somewhere else. I’ll have none of it.

    “Oh, but they must have suffered sooo much, to make them lash out like that!”

    And the people they rape and murder don’t suffer? Gimme a break. Anybody that seeks to harm the innocent over supposed ‘crimes’ committed by others is EVIL. Killing them is self-defense. Which right the Leftroids are also trying to deny to us, but not to their favored ‘victim groups’. Faugh. They’re so incoherent it’s a wonder they remember to breathe in after breathing out.

    ———————————

    “Neville Chamberlain was very keen on peace!”

    Pacifism will, at best, get you a nice peaceful trip to the slave pens. At worst — tell me, have you ever heard of the Aztecs?

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    1. The more I hear about them in the news, the more I’m becoming an anti-Islamist. No, I don’t suffer from Islamophobia. I just have more common sense than a significant portion of Americans, and other alleged humans.

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          2. Han didn’t go looking for Greedo.

            Han have Greedo multiple chances to walk away.

            Even when Han had turned the table and secured his own blaster, he still gave Greedo a brief chance to walk away.

            Han shot -finally-.

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        2. I thought this was interesting internal dialog in a book I’m reading:

          Unfortunately, I couldn’t stop the rest of the island from talking about New Alkerist—which would easily lead any invaders to my family—without killing everyone. Genocide was almost never the correct solution, even for a monster as heartless as me.

          The “almost never” is what made it interesting to me.

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            1. No! “…as heartless as me” is completely correct.

              I’ve noticed over the last few decades that there is an epidemic of using “I” where “me” is proper.

              Quick tip: Look for the subject of the sentence or clause. If you are the subject, or you plus some others, use “I.” Otherwise use “me.”

              I have a theory:

              When I was a young lad, rednecks often used “me” for “I.” (Me and Joe went to the store) They were publically shamed for doing so. Eventually, they started using “I,” even when inappropriate. (Joe went to the store with I.) This fad caught caught on with poorly educated public school teachers. The results have been appalling.

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              1. “It sounds more sophisticated/educated,” is what I’ve been told. And I still tend to do it, so I’m not tossing stones at other people’s houses just yet.

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              2. The rule I learned is that comparisons with “as” and “than” take the subject form of a pronoun on the grounds that there is an implicit predicate there. So it would be “as heartless as I” specifically because it’s short for “as heartless as I am”.

                That said, I have no clue where the rule comes from. It could be a post hoc rationalization for the scattershot usage of “I” you describe, or it could be something as arbitrary as the split infinitive rule. But it’s a rule that applies to particular constructions with a particular rationale.

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      3. The whole “-phobia” thing is a load of crap, regardless of the demographic to which it’s attached.

        For those who don’t do it reflexively because they were conditioned to (which is many people, I find), it’s done as a deliberate attempt at making their own precious misconceptions sound “sciencey”, even if they wouldn’t know actual science (versus “The Science”, aka Neo-Lysenkoism) if it bit them on the butt.

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    2. “Neville Chamberlain was very keen on peace!”

      —

      Chamberlain’s meeting and agenda with Hitler was approved almost unanimously by Parliament, who arranged a ticker-tape parade for him when he came back with exactly the signed treaty they had asked for.

      After that treaty turned out to be worth less than toilet paper, Chamberlain was replaced by Churchill, who threw him to the wolves in order to get cooperation from the members of Parliament who were distancing themselves from the disaster at any cost.

      Hitler yanked Chamberlain’s shorts up over his head and tied them in a knot, but it became inconvenient to notice that almost the whole of Parliament supported him at the time. Chamberlain became their scapegoat.

      Note it wasn’t just the British who were surprised a year later when the Reich rolled into Poland. No European power seriously expected Hitler to actually do anything but talk trash after he annexed Austria. That he would actually do exactly what he had promised in multiple speeches and documents was a complete surprise; it didn’t matter what he said in public, they had *treaties*, goldang it!

      [finally pries stuck “TMI” button up with a screwdriver]

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        1. We have a ratified treaty against producing bioweapons too.

          Yet the idiots around the country, and the world, continue to engage in “gain of function” development of even worse pathogens.

          Liked by 1 person

        2. Ah, Lord Refa. Now there’s a guy who got what was coming to him… and a spirited musical number as well!

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      3. Question for class discussion: do residents of the U.S.A. have a more jaundiced view of the word “treaty” than other nations, considering the Indian Wars segment of our history?

        (My father was an enrolled tribal member, my experience is perhaps not typical.)

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        1. I think some are more jaundiced, and more are starting to be heavier on the verify part of the “trust but verify” when it comes to treaties and agreements.

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        2. It didn’t start with treaties, and it was not specific to indians.

          We don’t inherit our factions. We don’t know who would be on what side of this or that dispute should it escalate to violence, at least not very far before the violence starts.

          Picking sides on the playground.

          Dutch, French, English, Irish, Scots, Germans. All had to find some sort of common denominator customs to live peacefully among each other, individualism, and the white dissenters left town or were killed.

          The indians just often pissed peopel enough that, after discussion over rumor networks, a decision to do something might be made.

          This seems to be a key thing that many foreign academics simply do not understand.

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        3. That doesn’t help our view. If you know any history, the lead up to WWI and Hitler’s attitude towards treaty-breaking doesn’t help, either.

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        4. We certainly don’t pay attention to our treaty, or at least “commitment”, obligations. I’ve always thought it strange that we would expect other to pay attention to theirs.

          See for example, Libya and Ukraine. Both did what we wanted. Both got screwed over.

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      4. Something changed Churchill’s mind later. I have been reading his history of WW2, and he has nothing but praise for Chamberlain once the war begins. He described him as a man who took his duties seriously and more or less worked himself to death fo queen and country.

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        1. Churchill had endured Parliament’s wrath earlier in his career. He knew how Parliament worked, and that Chamberlain was a capable politician, which is why he made use of him.

          Parliament never expected Churchill to take the PM position seriously. He was put in place as a scapegoat; he would reach some kind of accomodation with the Reich, Britain would lose face, Churchill would be the sacrificial goat, and his political career would come to an abrupt end, and they’d be rid of him for good; even though he had been sidelined politically for decades, he had made a career out of being a general pain in their asses.

          Churchill did an end-run around that cunning plan by going to the King and getting a writ that essentially made him dictator of Britain for the duration of the war, and George VI backed Churchill against the flood of outrage and complaints from Parliament and the bureaucracy, which were getting their toes stepped on several times a day by Churchill’s orders.

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    3. “But you gotta understand how frustrated they are.”

      Real post Oct. 7 quote that still makes me see red. (Possibly more now than it did at the time, since it took a while to sink in what she was saying.)

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      2. Oh, I can understand their frustration; I simply don’t care about it or think it justifies anything. I feel the same way about anyone who decides that his/her “frustration” is license to do whatever they want. You do what you want to them, then I’ll do what I want to you. FAFO covers it nicely.

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          1. Sir Charles James Napier phrased it succinctly in India regarding suttee:

            “Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.”

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          2. Reminiscent of

            “Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs” (Napier 35)

            The oft-quoted response of Sir Charles James Napier (then Commander-in-Chief of British forces in India, 1843–1847) to a Hindu priest’s objection to the prohibition of sati.

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          3. Probably inspired by what Sir Charles James Napier told a Rajah in India regarding suttee:

            “Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.”

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          4. Probably inspired by what Sir Charles James Napier told a Rajah in India regarding suttee:

            “Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.”

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          5. I’ve tried twice to post a reply referencing the comment made in India by Sir Charles James Napier on this subject; WP (which, of course, DE) doesn’t seem to like it.

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  13. This has been called the weaponization of virtue/empathy/sympathy. It’s a dubious tactic, at best. In some cases, “evil” fits.

    I _used to_ find it difficult to resist. That’s no longer a problem – somewhat to the detriment of those who deserve empathy/sympathy.

    I was reading the comments on a YouTube video about things Americans do that are crazy to the rest of the world. A LOT of them revolved around trust. Giving your credit card to the waiter. Packages left on the porch. That sort of thing. The commenters could not believe people would do things such as that. My response to several of them was that America does not have thieves hiding behind every bush and there is no reason NOT to trust your waiter with your credit card or your neighbors to not steal off your porch. I often forget to lock my door when I leave the house and I don’t stress about it.

    That’s changing and it’s this sort of thing that’s causing the change. “Oh those poor people” is all well and good when talking about Gilligan’s Island. It’s not so good when the people we’re supposed to be sorry for are eroding our culture/society.

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  14. It seems to me like somehow the SJW/Brahmandarin/lefty types have a contagion of narcissism. Almost every Democrat President in my lifetime and certainly the last 3 (Clinton, Obama and Biden) have been full-blown narcissists. Many of their other prominent folks (Newsome, Polis, Whitmer, Harris) are also on that spectrum. Many of the behaviors the gaslighting, the need for control, the opinion that they know best fall right in line with the behaviors of a narcissistic personality disorder. The addition of making failings external ( DEI exacerbates this you are not responsible if you are of an oppressed subgroup) essentially creating the equivalent of original sin without any hope of works (if you are in the oppressing class NO effort fixes the original sin for you) or grace (grace is provided only to the oppressed and then only conditionally while they behave) accentuates this behavior. Their failure mode, massive overreach and blaming others or an external force (as you can’t be wrong) also aligns with the diagnosis. Does anyone have an old DSM III or DSM IV where there were treatments for Narcissistic Personality Disorder? I think in DSM V they removed it as a diagnosis. A knowledge of how it was treated might give hints how to get rid of this disease. Although the repeated brutal application of a clue bat by the current administration seems to be a good start. Mind you it may end up not that effective, but it is rather entertaining.

    On Islam oddly we often find it strange that the ostensibly atheistic left finds cause with even the most rabid parts of Islam, a theocratic religion. And yet Islam’s ideas of submission to authority, of being saved solely by works (5 Pillars of Islam) and the works only applying to those in a specific group (the Dar al Islam as opposed to the Dar al harb) by reciting their creed (The Shahada) seems to harmonize with the beliefs of the Brahmandarins.

    It is a bit, as our Hostess says, on the woo woo side of things and yet it feels like someone planned it that way…

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  15. This sums up my beloved’s POV quite well. He grew up in MA, (Worcester, for Tregonsee and BGE), but he’s far more comfortable down here.

    And he’s had so many people he considers friends unfriend him, call him ugly names and play all sorts of manipulative games on him because he doesn’t agree with every progressive talking point. Now he’s not sure about going to Pennsic because a guy I really thought better of pulled the, “I’m so disappointed in you because you support a felon and a rapist. I used to look up to you, but I can’t any longer,” bit on him and he’s not sure we’d be welcome in camp. A few years ago, in the post-Covid struggle session one segment of the household put on, this man, who bakes tarts for the Lesbian and Bi-sexual Tea, was accused of homophobia for refusing to use a female-but-wants-to-be -called other’s preferred pronouns.

    so he’s at the point that if not caring what skin color a human has, or what chromosomes he possesses makes him a racist, a sexist or a bigot, ok.

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    1. It’s ‘inclusive’ to rigorously separate people into groups based on physical and psychological criteria, and treat those groups very differently, but it’s ‘racist’ and ‘[whatever]phobic’ to treat them all the same.

      “You keep using those words. I do not think they mean what you think they mean.”

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    2. It’s the same ole Left tactics that appeals to people’s emotions that don’t see the situation rationally.

      If this were the 1950’s or 1960’s they wouldn’t call us facists or nazis. It would be terms like “n—-r lover” or worse. Their racism turned into woke-ism via political and cultural manipulation. This started in the Johnson era and was quite deliberate.

      It’s easier to dismiss someone that disagrees you than take the time to have a level headed discussion.

      One insidious thing is that this “movement” has been weaponized by Big Tech to destroy Open Source Software communities that have always reasonably “non-political”. Good old divide and conquer.

      It’s a stupid thing when you see the author of a math library add “No nazis” to his documentation after the election. Really??? Tech smart and reality dumb.

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      1. I’ve read it goes back to FDR. His administration made a concerted effort to paint conservatives as backward, ignorant fools unable to deal with new ideas and probably with poor personal hygiene. And it took, in some areas.

        One thing that bugs me about David Eddings is he has this attitude: conservatives are always wrong, probably stupid, likely to be religious fanatics and smell bad because they don’t bathe. When I learned he was born in the early 1930s it began to make sense to me: his childhood training was in Democratic propaganda.

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          1. Sparhawk is probably my favorite Eddings character. It’s little throw-away bits that get to me (plus the utter amorality of characters who are officially “good guys”). As when Aprhael says, “Conservatives wouldn’t change their underwear if they didn’t have to.”

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            1. I see that sort of thing in too much modern fiction. Yes, I understand the antihero and flawed protagonist concepts, but now, too many stories just have one bad guy and the other bad guy. And anyone that looks like a good guy gets slimed somehow. Because everyone is a dirtbag if you look closely enough?

              I could never tell if they were just bad storytellers or had a bad worldview.

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              1. And when they are morally on par, why should we care which one wins?

                Sometimes it reaches such a pitch that you wish they could both lose.

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        2. “and smell bad because they don’t bathe.” Pretty ironic considering their daddy Karl Marx was notorious for refusing to bathe and living in squalor.

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        3. “and smell bad because they don’t bathe.” Pretty ironic considering their daddy Karl Marx was notorious for refusing to bathe and living in squalor.

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  16. I am reminded of a scenario that we encountered in one of our D&D games.

    Our characters were in a war zone – in the rear areas – and had gotten involved with one of the local criminal organization/black-marketeer/organized camp-followers people.

    Well, the head of this criminal organization asked our party to find a couple of her prostitutes that had gone missing after one of the military units left town.

    One of our party (played by my leftist sister) was all empathetic “Oh, we must rescue those poor girls!”

    My characters were a bit more cautious “We’ll see what we can do if we find them” kind of thing.

    Well, we found them, a couple towns away, having a grand old time freelancing, as they’d run away because they didn’t like how much of a cut the gangster lady was taking out of their pay.

    The empathetic character was all crestfallen, and we agreed to not tell the gangster that we’d found them. I found it highly amusing.

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  17. I differentiate between people who’re in trouble through no fault of their own, and people who got into trouble by being damn fools and ignoring repeated warnings. For the first type, I am the soul of empathy and compassion, and I will match my personal generosity (within the limits of my finances) with anybody—my time, wear-and-tear on my car, or the literal blood in my veins (I’m over 100 pints at my local blood bank.) But having had my life comprehensively ruined by two selfish, mentally ill alcoholic relatives, I am burned out on rescuing fools from the consequences of their own folly.

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  19. All their pleas for “kindness and empathy” are just passive aggressive … they call you a racist, nazi or a mysogynist … and when you push back they get all … “Whoa … let us all be kind and empathetic”… when what they really mean is “I get to hate you based on lies but you don’t get to hate me based on my behavior”

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  20. “The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. It isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. It’s that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is. He confuses it with feeling.” Thomas Sowell.

    I have oodles of empathy. I get bothered by seeing an ambulance running with lights and siren because it means someone got hurt or seriously sick. A complete stranger’s distress bothers me. However, I can also put that aside to look at a situation rationally and assess whether a proposed “solution” to some problem will actually help or make the situation worse.

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  21. I’m going to try and give you one of the best examples of sociopathic “concern” I’ve ever seen, but I’m doing this on my phone so bear with me.

    I’m still on an email list for a neighborhood we lived in in Durham, NC several years ago. The neighborhood, with a lot of Duke employees and other Nice People in it (along with a ton of illegals on one end) is ridiculously, stereotypically, bat*bleep* crazy liberal. For context.

    For context #2, a couple days ago the police flooded the area looking for two juveniles, ages 14 and 15, who had tried to kill a North Carolina Highway Patrol trooper one county over and then fled. Their car was found abandoned in the neighborhood and both were eventually taken into custody in other parts of town. This spawned the usual raft of “why are all the cops here?” emails, as you’d expect.

    Then this bright spark shows up on the email list. And, well, read for yourself. Remember, the 14- and 15-year-old were wanted for felonies including the attempted capital murder of a law enforcement officer.

    “Hey neighbors,

    Thanks for all these updates and for keeping the community informed. It’s one thing to hear sirens in Durham, but helicopters overhead, men with guns in our backyards and down our streets? INSANE. And then to find out they were chasing kids—just 14 and 15 years old? Even more disturbing.

    Many of us—myself included—felt unsafe. But why did we feel unsafe? Was it because two kids were on the run? Or was it because the police turned our neighborhood into a kid-hunt to catch them? The level of force they used was extreme, and it’s clear they are really trying to criminalize these children.

    So I have to ask—who actually felt protected by what happened Tuesday? Because I didn’t.Trusting the cops is not the way. Ignoring this isn’t either.

    I appreciate the community members who have shared articles, but that is only helping us answer the question of, “Wow, what’s going on?” But what about “what’s really happening”? Cause what happened is that the police terrorized our neighborhood and put all of us at risk. Cops with guns drawn is deeply traumatic—not just for the kids, but for all of us. No one deserves that. Not any neighborhood, and certainly not two children.

    And if this shook you, imagine how it felt for our Black and Brown neighbors, for anyone who has been targeted by police before. What happens when we assume cops make things safer instead of questioning the harm they actually cause?So what do we do now?

    We could just move on, treat this as a shocking event, and go back to normal. Or we could ask ourselves:

    • What would real safety have looked like Tuesday?
    • Instead of hiding in our homes, was there a way we could have supported those kids in the moment?
    • What does it mean to show up, not just witness? Do we check in on these children and their family? Do we speak out against the way they were treated?
    • What does care and accountability look like beyond just watching?

    Checking in on your neighbors is a real way to keep us all safe. And I just want to say—if you were terrified Tuesday, if this felt like a reminder that the police are not here to protect us, you’re not alone. Watch out for each other.

    Would love to hear thoughts from others.

    In community,
    (redacted moron)

    “

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    1. I’d wonder if the kids were all that worried, or if their parents hyperventilating about “police with guns” upset the kids. And the “Black and Brown” people probably heard what was up and shrugged. (Good grief, what a condescending phrase, “Black and Brown neighbors.” Ick.)

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      1. Considering that there’s a much better than even chance in Durham that the “children” being pursued by the police in question were both black, it’s even more condescending.

        From a local TV station:

        “The two teens face numerous charges in Chapel Hill, including attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, assault with a firearm on a law enforcement officer, possession of stolen firearm, possession of a stolen motor vehicle, possession of a firearm by a minor, assault by pointing a gun, discharge a firearm into a patrol vehicle, discharge a firearm in city limits, resist, delay, obstruct, and four counts of damage to personal property.” But they’s just innocent chillun.

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        1. Just because someone is legally “under age” doesn’t mean he’s innocent as a newborn lamb. (And I suspect that on the Street and in the Hood, adulthood is a process and ritual that does not depend on age, like many tribal societies had/have.)

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          1. And if the Black neighbors are like some people I know up here, “Throw the book at the [creeps]” would be a mild comment on what the police should do to the teens.

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            1. I sure hope so. I’m constantly amazed at the fact that racial solidarity continually seems to trump electing candidates that will make neighborhoods safer by aggressive enforcement. It’s probably a combo of buying the propaganda of “White cops want to kill you” and “Republicans want to destroy you,” and voter fraud.

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          2. You are 100% correct and I will be very interested to see if they are charged as adults. Orange County is where Chapel Hill (home of UNC) is located and it’s about as liberal as Durham; Orange’s liberalism is college-town trust-fund liberal, though, and Durham’s is a mixture of that and black political payback for Jim Crow (Durham has always been heavily black, currently 33.6%, and extremely leftist). Durham went 80% for Kamala, Orange a mere 75%. Durham also has an out member of the Democratic Socialists of America on the city council. So you can see why we got the hell out of Dodge the first chance we could.

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  22. (grin) Just satire folks:

    Leftists, -please- stop trying to turn me into a sociopath. You really do not want that. I know you think you are correct, but just stop. I have spent my whole life humanizing me, despite the best efforts of some early life, and later life, monsters to monsterize me. I haven’t forgotten how. I just choose “not”. So please, just stop.

    No?

    (Hamil/Joker voice) No. Really. You wouldn’t like me laughing. Nobody likes me laughing. Ah, what the heck! (hysterical laughter)

    (grin) Just satire folks.

    (Kzin grin) Well, mostly.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I prefer “Don’t make me mad. You won’t like me when I get mad.” [Very Big Twisted Grin]

      Note, That’s a quote from the TV version of Professor Banner. [Wink]

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      1. Bruce Banner: (in poor Portuguese) Don’t make me hungry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m hungry. (In English, to himself) No, that’s not right.
        Tough Guy Leader: (in Portuguese) What the hell he is talking about?

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I suppose sociopaths do get made when they don’t get what they want.

        But why would one get mad at being called one? Unless it was causing immediate interference with his desires.

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        1. Well, I was thinking of “lines” that I heard on TV.

          Of course, when Banner got mad he turned green, got larger and stronger.

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  23. Speaking as one who has dealt with narcissists and sociopaths, the sociopaths are in my experience less dangerous. For them you just have to make it annoying to try and get to you; they’d rather expend the effort on easier targets.

    Narcissists? Will spend every cent they have, and definitely every cent you have, in monetary and social credit terms, to make a chosen target miserable for the rest of their lives. Brrr.

    Liked by 1 person

  24. Oh, but I do have compassion for the left. Really. I want them to see the results of their failed (for generations) policies on themselves, not innocents. I want them to suffer the cost of the ideologies that they seek to enforce on me. I want them to have their faces rubbed in it, over and over, until something makes them, for once, think for themselves.

    My compassion forces me to withhold mercy. It requires me to see them face the consequences. It is neither kind nor good to coddle them. They are adults, most of them. They should need neither pacifiers nor my own damned money to make it all better. They need to pick themselves up, face the world they made, and see it for what it is.

    Doing so would give them a chance to experience some maturity. Some common sense. Some sense of basic morality and compassion for others, once they experience live and in person what their constant support hath wrought.

    Of course there will be those hopeless few for whom no shock will wake their sleeping conscience. These are not to be pitied. They are the goblins in human form. The gleeful idiots that see others as only playthings, opportunities for them to get things from, and idiots for not being like them.

    For those seeking a way out, I welcome them. Welcome to the real world. The world beyond the hive mind that they were born and raised in. Beyond the cult that shamed them and demanded their heads once they left the left. The world where freedom and responsibility are the inseparable parts of liberty. Where justice is not dirtied and debased by the lens of “social,” “racial,” or any other kind of weasel words.

    Enabling their delusion does them no favors. It is unkind, and worse, abusive in its own way. Shutting off their access to power, money, and influence is the best gift we can give them. Quieting the mob mentality is already underway. The old levers of power in the media are broken, perhaps never to be repaired (though new ones are being crafted, doubtless, as I even type this).

    Be not afraid. There will always be bandits. Always. There will always be those that look upon the blessings of liberty with greed and unthinking malice in their hearts. Whose only desire is to take, and take, and take. That is natural. That is part of human nature. The dark desire for evil things is there within all of us, just as the impulse to the sublime.

    But just as there is, and always will be, so long as we remain human, evil in the world- so shall always there be transcendent good as well. Hope. Charity. Courage. Kindness. Hard work and discipline. Joys, shared and private.

    May those on the left wallow in the pit that they dug. May they see things with clear eyes, for once. May they hit rock bottom. Sometimes that is what it takes. May they set foot on the long path to redemption. May they some day make their fathers, their ancestors proud. Proud of the men and women they become. Hard working, self sufficient, responsible, moral adults. May some day we be proud to call them fellow Americans.

    I applaud those who turn their back on the cult that is the left. May they one day become our friends. But, being human, they need a reason to make such a drastic change. May that reason come to them soon. I do not laud suffering for its own sake. I seek the lesson that the pain teaches, the meaning that is derived from something as simple as avoid unnecessary suffering, and following that thread relentlessly to its ultimate conclusion.

    May the shocks be hard. May they be hard enough to wake up those who’ve spent their lives mumbling platitudes to the left. It will be a hard road they climb. But for every one that does, that is a man or woman that has suffered and become better for it.

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  25. It is all about the weaponization of the normal to use against people they don’t like.

    You have to have empathy for people. Yes, absolutely! But not against those nasty, bigoted people that we don’t like! You have to have empathy for people that have mostly made their bad choices in their lives and won’t do anything to fix their decisions. Worse, they will drag people into their bad choices, to show that they are right.

    They will use the desire of people to make friends that don’t have many to invite tourists into nerd spaces, and then the theater kids and the * Studies grad students and the DEI Commissars move in and colonize and because they have social skills of an evil and corrupt kind (versus the nerds and geeks who don’t), they get away with it. They will get away with it, keep getting away with it, and will drive people out who try to stand in their way.

    …I’m just tired of screaming into the abyss. I think there are things in there that are scared of me and they don’t deserve it…

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