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Unfortunately, I am not going to be able to read this whole thing right now. Some parts of it are looking rather good. I kind of wish he weren't using "losers" as one of his classifications, but perhaps if I knew more of the background, that would make more sense to me. We have to have words to sum up concepts and a lot of the meaning depends on how those words are used (kind of like some conversation I recall from elsewhere where someone asked "Is 'special' the new 'retard'?"). But, so far, I especially like this point:

So yes, this entire edifice I am constructing is a determinedly amoral one. Hitler would count as a sociopath in this sense, but so would Gandhi and Martin Luther King.



Along the same lines, I like:

Whether good or evil, the morality of a sociopath is something he or she takes responsibility for.

Then later:

More people taking individual moral responsibility is a good thing.


Sociopaths do not assume responsibility for anything they do. They absolve themselves of the consequences because one of the definitions of a sociopath is that he has no regard or compassion for other beings.

To a sociopath there is no other justice other than whichever favors him the most. The blogger in question has evidently read little to no literature on the subject.

It is interesting to note that over a fourth of all convicts display sociopathic characteristics, among them a complete lack of remorse for their actions.


You have to read the first article in the series to get his definitions, sociopath, loser and clueless have specific meanings in this context.

I agree that player, pawn and spectator would have been better.


Here is another excellent one and I think a big part of why he is defining "sociopath" in amoral terms (because no matter your traits, they can be used for good or evil):

If the clueless often go “evil” in the “we were only following orders” mode, losers often go “evil” in bystander mode,


Read it, and every essay Rao wrote before this. One of the few bloggers I know who are consistently interesting.




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