Two More Salvos

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

1) The WashPo calls this Priorities USA spot a “brutal” portrayal of Trump as a “full-blown sociopath”:

2) The Clinton campaign “briefing” (rapid-response squad) has this web-only video ‘ad’ for Trump U:

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One Response to Two More Salvos

  1. jones says:
    June 17, 2016 at 9:53 am

    Trump most definitely is a sociopath, the problem is, he’s successful because competitive society is optimized for the success of individuals who exhibit sociopathic personality traits as an adaptive behavior.

    This was discussed by evolutionary biologist Linda Mealey in her essay, “The Sociobiology of Sociopathy: an Integrated Evolutionary Model.”

    Abstract

    Sociopaths are “outstanding” members of society in two senses: politically, they draw our attention because of the inordinate amount of crime they commit, and psychologically, they hold our fascination because most ofus cannot fathom the cold, detached way they repeatedly harm and manipulate others. Proximate explanations from behavior genetics, child development, personality theory, learning theory, and social psychology describe a complex interaction of genetic and physiological risk factors with demographic and micro environmental variables that predispose a portion of the population to chronic antisocial behavior. More recent, evolutionary and game theoretic models have tried to present an ultimate explanation of sociopathy as the expression of a frequency-dependent life strategy which is selected, in dynamic equilibrium, in response to certain varying environmental circumstances. This paper tries to integrate the proximate, developmental models with the ultimate, evolutionary ones, suggesting that two developmentally different etiologies of sociopathy emerge from two different evolutionary mechanisms. Social strategies for minimizing the incidence of sociopathic behavior in modern society should consider the two different etiologies and the factors that contribute to them.

    Think of how advertising, marketing, and PR works: it’s all about manipulating people. Political office is a magnet for sociopaths who don’t mind manipulating people like objects to get elected, who don’t mind lying about what they can accomplish once in office, who like their ego gratified by power and prestige, who are glib & superficial & want to create a willing victim….

    The desire to attain high office should really be a disqualifying factor….

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