The perils of being able to spot psychos
I’M worried I’m a bad person. Because I’m not as upset as everyone else around me seems to be about Donald Trump. I am trying to examine the reasons I am not. It’s possibly partially because if everyone else is saying something, then I have this glitch that makes me think they are all probably wrong. It’s possibly partially because I think we need to try and accept it when people hold different opinions than we do. I worry that liberals, of which I am probably vaguely one, can be quite intolerant in their views, and that this is an affront to the very essence of liberalism.
To be truly liberal, we should try and be open and understanding of people who disagree with us. And I think that is a huge flaw in many modern liberals. Indeed they are not only intolerant of differing opinions but they also tend to personalise it, and hate the person who holds the opposing point of view. I think my slight insouciance about Trump is also probably something to do with the fact that I have more fondness and respect for America and Americans than a lot of European liberals do. I haven’t been to America in a while but I
‘Don’t tell me Obama is not a sociopath. He’s one of the good ones...’
can still remember the great rush of energy it gives me, the way it opens my mind, how alive I feel when I am there. And most of the great books I have read, and most of the great films and TV I have seen, and much of the great music I have listened to, comes from America.
And all of those things are part of it. But still, that’s not enough. Why aren’t I more outraged that this bizarre man is going to be the president of this great iconic country? This is a man who holds appalling opinions, who has some crazy ideas. But I trust America, I trust that it will deal with Trump, that it will absorb him into the system and that life will go on. I trust that America is sociopathproof.
And that, I think, is what it boils down to. The fact that the president of America is probably a sociopath does not frighten me that much. I have become used to the notion that the president of America is a sociopath.
Like everyone who has read Jon Ronson’s book The Psychopath Test, I slightly think I have special powers, a certain X-ray vision when it comes to spotting psychopaths. When people read the book first they are like people who have found religion. They suddenly see psychopaths or sociopaths everywhere. They suddenly see that their bosses, their leaders, their parents, their frenemies, their enemies, are all sociopaths. They are not even human, they tell you breathlessly. They are a different species that are not like you and me. They do not share our humanity. It calms down a bit over time. Or maybe people’s antennae just get dulled.
Maybe we are all right in that first flush of clear-sightedness, and maybe we are all surrounded by these aliens who live among us, who do not feel things the way we do, who do not view other human beings as human beings, but as mere cardboard cutouts, pawns in their narcissistic game. Maybe the sociopaths just charm us all into forgetting they are not human. Because as anyone who knows anything about sociopaths knows, they are very charming. They are very good at faking the empathy they do not feel. They are very good at convincing us that we are the only person in the world who matters, while in truth, they know that they are the only person in the world who matters.
The way I see it, America had a choice between two sociopaths. And it made one of them the president. To replace the outgoing sociopath. And don’t tell me Obama is not a sociopath. He’s one of the really good ones, the really charming ones.
But look at his eyes, look at the disdainful micro-expressions. Look at that slight coolness and distance. And look at how he conned everyone. And then look at how he has smarmed his way around all the talk shows recently, how he gets people to make up really cool lists on Spotify and puts them out to pretend to offer a glimpse into his soul, as if he has one.
You’d have to be a sociopath to think you should be the president of America. To think, ‘I am the one who should be in charge here, and I will park my real life and my humanity to become that.’
So I guess that’s why I don’t worry too much about Trump. I could be wrong, but I think America has dealt with his type before. They’re well able.