The presidential debates of 2020 vividly displayed the Battle between the Empath and the Sociopath. Yes, the resulting election demonstrated that most Americans want a president who cares about its citizens and a country committed to creating a better life for all Americans, not just the richest among us.
Yet the Republicans and their elected leaders continue to emulate the cruelty of the previous White House occupant. They are determined to reject equality, strip away voting rights, ignore the science of vaccinations and end democracy itself. Many are convinced that their way will end victorious. What do you think? Who will win in the battle between empathy and sociopathy? And how do you think we get there?
As always, I welcome your responses. I look forward to hearing what you think—and the opportunity for this community to learn from each other. Please do avoid personal attack.
I'm hoping for empathy to win out, but, if we don't start seeing some serious consequences for all involved in and leading up to 1/6 and now beyond, sociopathy is going to win. I was really hoping that after trump was gone, that the Republicans would be like the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz after Dorothy killed the Wicked Witch. I didn't expect them to break out in song about ding dong the witch is dead or anything, but, I hoped the hold he had on them would be broken. Sadly, they seem to have doubled down on the worst qualities. I'm holding out very little hope for our country, right now. For me, it's all up to our justice system, which I also have very little confidence in. By the way, I just wanted to send my sympathies for the death in your family. Sending love and light to all of you.
I have stated many times to my so called liberal friends and family, often falling on deaf ears, that the problem is not in fact the GQP MAGA folks, they are often a childish lost cause. The problem is the reluctance of the Democratic Party to cast off its need for corporate money, and the belief that we are still in the 1950's politically with a congenial Republican Party.
The corporate wing of the DNC is neoliberal... ie, old Republican, and they are fighting against progressive, compassionate ideals that work everywhere else in the modern world, but that corporate greed does not want to see come into fruition. This basic lack of compassion required of the Democrats, to alleviate the suffering of poor minorities and ignorant whites in this country, breeds the fertile ground for fascists and oligarchs to continue to control both the media, the government and the chance for meaningful change. Change that we have little time to work with considering our man made climate emergency, gerrymandering by the GQP and social injustice on its multiple levels.
I came to understand that greed, in an of itself, is only exceeded by fear. The Democrats, who should be fighting tooth and nail to implement compassion, in the form of free education, M4All, rising taxes on excessive wealth, guaranteeing fair elections with hand marked paper ballots, getting money out of politics and repairing our environment before it is to late, are unwilling, and in fact are fighting against those of us who want only to make life on earth for all, more livable. (See Nina Turner's race for Congress right now) Their actions are all based on fear of losing money from oligarchy.
The planet is getting smaller, and more toxic every day. As one who always wants to find empathy and understanding so as to help resolve problems, I find my sense of confidence in our nation, and its people, is teetering on doubt as much as hope. And we all know where hope got us last time... it gave us the Orange Grifter.
The problem to me isn't necessarily sociopaths, it is a Main Stream News Media that profits from the sociopaths entertainment value and a Democratic Party leadership that wants to play the game of finding fault rather than providing answers. Bernie did so well presenting answers before that DNC Neoliberal leadership and the MSM closed the door on NotMeUs both times.
The MSM has little empathy, they profit from conflict that empowers sociopaths. That is one of the reasons I so admire and respect you Steve Beschloss, because you so clearly wants to speak to the better nature in all of us. But Steve, you are a rare voice in a vacuous wilderness of noise and conflict. Please keep it up. But until you can influence others in the media, this train wreck of an ignorant nation will continue to decline.
I left the Democractic Party last year after being a hard working member, inside and out for my entire life, because I continued to see the failure of their ways. Even when Biden was elected, I held my breath in hope that the ship of state would truly shift direction toward far more progressive ideals, but I wasn't expecting it. I've now joined the People's Party here in California as it represents more my progressive, dare I say, liberal ideals, mostly as a message to the DNC that I was no longer going to be taken for granted, conned or trampled upon.
Watching the Democratic leaderships failure to end the Filibuster and give the nation what it wants (such as 80+% want M4A) has only continued to prove to me that, unfortunately, I am right to move on.
We must always continue reach out, fight for others and fight against incrementalism, that is the real enemy, and right now, the DNC leadership is driving that train, once again, in the wrong direction. Sadly, all while pushing those off the train who want to act with empathy, compassion, awareness and action to save not only democracy, but life on earth. JMHO
I have to believe that empathy will beat out autocracy, because I will always invest in hope over despair. I have lived without hope before, and that is not a place of comfort, and America is more than a place, it is an ideal that most of the world believes in, supports, and loves. So there is more than just a majority of Americans to fight for us, there is a majority of an entire world who will fight for us.
We have to remember we have a majority and there’s also republicans who voted for Trump who are disgusted by 1/6, suppression of voting etc. i do think empathy will win but it will be a hard fought victory and we all must fight for it.
There are more good people than bad. I also believe Gen Z is the most diverse in American history and they believe in the pluralistic multicultural idea that is America. 41% of whites voted for POTUS which will improve as bills are signed into law. As the seditionists and insurrectionists are punished there will be nothing left for republicans to cling to but their hate. Empathy wins!
My feeling abt the Republican Party may not go over well with many. I think that Donald Trump, who btw is not a true Republican, changed his party to run for president have accomplished what dems could never really use in their agenda. That is the power of the lie. We cannot win when the power of the lie is repeated over and over again. Still many republicans feel that lying will win. Lies never win. The truth always prevails. The empath will always win if we stand united against the Big Lie. What will also win, is accountability and having the sociopaths really pay for their words and actions. Sociopaths will always lie, empaths will always prevail in the public eye.
Most people see (slowly, but surely) how sociopaths only care about themselves. Not only has Trump taken over SOME of the Republican Party, but his lack of any plan for a pandemic culminated in many unnecessary deaths under his watch.
The price of sociopathy is one I would find impossible to pay (were I following). I do not begin to understand denial to protect your family from death, nor concern for how they will live without a spouse, child or parent.
The argument that a stolen vote is worth fighting for ~ and then seeing death steal hundreds of thousands of those same votes (for him) seems an irony so obvious that even the truth of it all is bizarre.
Empathy will triumph. Sociopathy will die in flames once more and more information is revealed by investigations, tax returns, indictments. It just takes time for ironclad cases. We have to be patient. I also trust the younger generation to not put up with the idiocy of what has taken place since TFG. They are far smarter than we give them credit for, just look at the Parkland teens after their school shooting.
Okay if history tells us anything it tells us that a certain number of citizens will always be there to oppose whatever is the current status quo. Today 47% of Republicans support violent opposition to the current elected government. We have been through this before, as have many other countries. Abraham Lincoln was murdered by these people
Sociopathy will inevitably win in spite of all efforts to the contrary. Hitler won, Stalin won, Qaddafi won, etc.; so far in North Korea, Byelorussia, Russia, Turkey, Philippines, Brazil, and many others, sociopathic authoritarianism increasingly rules to the demise of the ignominious masses. Ignorance, incompetence, and corruption dominate weakening morality, legal relevance, economic balance, and, yes, empathy.
There are too many obvious truths that are being deliberately, with malice and aforethought beaten down by this Autocratic movement lead by Donald Trump to ignore a serious deployment of desperate measures. We are at war, a war from within. Domestic terrorists are our enemy. We were attacked at our Capitol and nearly lost it. I want to believe that we will prevail at the ballot box, but time is shrinking and action is scarce in the fight to protect that front. There are some who are articulating our dire state of affaires directly in the public sphere, but who is listening? I labor to see any real tangible action that comforts me as I look forward to our future.
I am not being shown that those in positions of power who I believe want to protect our Democracy are seeing the need to set in motion the desperate measures for these desperate times. The 1/6 Select Committee will hopefully deliver truths and revelations from which to take action on. It with recent DOJ decisions are both steps in the right direction. But it still like we are bringing a knife to a gunfight. We need to see those who planed, financed, organized 1/6 charged. Where are the cell phone records and email records subpoenas for every person who spoke at those rallies that morning and others? Speaking of records, since the Manhattan DA has that data why are they not giving it to Congress? Why is it a separate issue? Our enemy will do ANYTHING to win, I don't have the level of confidence that our leaders have that same kind of fire in their belly to get us to victory.
There is no middle ground in this fight, this is a zero sum circumstance. There is no rebuilding the Republican party from those who constitute its current membership that I can see. There are those who privately say one thing and publicly say another, how do you trust that? Just ask Rep. Adam Kinzinger or Liz Chaney. Sometimes the hand one is dealt requires actions that we ordinarily would consider too much. But if we are to prevail over an enemy who will do ANYTHING to win, we must see the threat for what it is and take the actions that are necessary to crush it. Crush it at every level it exists. Nothing short of that is a victory for our Democracy.
I believe empathy will prevail. A lot of the sociopathy we are dealing with is being fostered by straight-up, malevolent racism. My personal point of view is racism has been brewing out of mainstream society ever since the Civil War. As my mother often said during the racist turbulence of the 1960s, “My God, we’re still fighting the Civil War!”
What triggered racism to come out of the closet was the presidency of Barack Obama.
I very naively thought when President Obama was elected that our nation had finally turned the corner, that the color of a person’s skin was no longer such a huge factor in American society. Boy was I wrong!
I now realize racists haven’t changed a bit. While the rest of society was moving past it
racists infiltrated our local police forces, military and even the FBI. I think the trigger for racists coming out of the closet was Obama’s presidency, which I happen to think was one of the greatest presidencies we’ve ever had.
Racism is what it it is and it will be dealt with
however many times we have to beat it back down. But my point is that racism is at the heart of what’s been driving the current epidemic of sociopathy. Trump is a hard core racist as is Mitch McConnell. The benefactors of our extremist conservative political party are also hard core, lifelong racists. Namely, they are the Kochs, the Mercers & the Steve Bannons of our nation. And, believe it or not, the Kochs have had a long term relationship with Russia that began with their father, who was also instrumental in the formation of the John Birch Society, or what I refer to as the KKK for wealthy people. Trump’s fraudulent presidency gave racists and others permission to be the sociopaths they are, or so they thought.
So, how do we fix this? How do we rehabilitate American society? Pertinent to this discussion is something I’ve already written about. It’s that the Koch Bros. and their friends came up with a plan to drastically change our society and our government forty years ago. Slowly but surely over the last forty years they bought politicians, founded conservative “think tanks,” and ingratiated themselves with the NRA, evangelicals and other outlier groups that couldn’t get any political traction on their own.
They bought loyalty from these outlier groups by inviting them into the party. Then they peddled their racist, sociopathic point of view at lavish gatherings, making them feel wanted and accepted regardless of their extreme beliefs. They bought politicians the same way and by engineering the Citizens United supreme court ruling, they were able to funnel even more money from corporations to their bought politicians. That’s why we haven’t been able to pass gun control, among other things. They have thoroughly corrupted the GOP. The good news is that now we know what we’re dealing with.
All of it boils down to creating a perception of being special and therefore separate from “others.” The money that paid for the celebration of being special was from the Kochs, et al, and by doing that they pitted Americans against each other. The “divide & conquer” philosophy is as old as the hills, and it works.
I have some ideas about how we can fix it
that I’ll write about in subsequent posts on this site. Also, I appreciate feedback.
I fear it is too late. With the help of the MSM & religious leaders, the Lizard Brains in this country are being triggered on a daily basis. Change cannot occur under these conditions let alone empathy. The only way to stop this runaway train is to use enough force to neutralize the sociopathic fear-mongers.
I'm hoping for empathy to win out, but, if we don't start seeing some serious consequences for all involved in and leading up to 1/6 and now beyond, sociopathy is going to win. I was really hoping that after trump was gone, that the Republicans would be like the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz after Dorothy killed the Wicked Witch. I didn't expect them to break out in song about ding dong the witch is dead or anything, but, I hoped the hold he had on them would be broken. Sadly, they seem to have doubled down on the worst qualities. I'm holding out very little hope for our country, right now. For me, it's all up to our justice system, which I also have very little confidence in. By the way, I just wanted to send my sympathies for the death in your family. Sending love and light to all of you.
I have stated many times to my so called liberal friends and family, often falling on deaf ears, that the problem is not in fact the GQP MAGA folks, they are often a childish lost cause. The problem is the reluctance of the Democratic Party to cast off its need for corporate money, and the belief that we are still in the 1950's politically with a congenial Republican Party.
The corporate wing of the DNC is neoliberal... ie, old Republican, and they are fighting against progressive, compassionate ideals that work everywhere else in the modern world, but that corporate greed does not want to see come into fruition. This basic lack of compassion required of the Democrats, to alleviate the suffering of poor minorities and ignorant whites in this country, breeds the fertile ground for fascists and oligarchs to continue to control both the media, the government and the chance for meaningful change. Change that we have little time to work with considering our man made climate emergency, gerrymandering by the GQP and social injustice on its multiple levels.
I came to understand that greed, in an of itself, is only exceeded by fear. The Democrats, who should be fighting tooth and nail to implement compassion, in the form of free education, M4All, rising taxes on excessive wealth, guaranteeing fair elections with hand marked paper ballots, getting money out of politics and repairing our environment before it is to late, are unwilling, and in fact are fighting against those of us who want only to make life on earth for all, more livable. (See Nina Turner's race for Congress right now) Their actions are all based on fear of losing money from oligarchy.
The planet is getting smaller, and more toxic every day. As one who always wants to find empathy and understanding so as to help resolve problems, I find my sense of confidence in our nation, and its people, is teetering on doubt as much as hope. And we all know where hope got us last time... it gave us the Orange Grifter.
The problem to me isn't necessarily sociopaths, it is a Main Stream News Media that profits from the sociopaths entertainment value and a Democratic Party leadership that wants to play the game of finding fault rather than providing answers. Bernie did so well presenting answers before that DNC Neoliberal leadership and the MSM closed the door on NotMeUs both times.
The MSM has little empathy, they profit from conflict that empowers sociopaths. That is one of the reasons I so admire and respect you Steve Beschloss, because you so clearly wants to speak to the better nature in all of us. But Steve, you are a rare voice in a vacuous wilderness of noise and conflict. Please keep it up. But until you can influence others in the media, this train wreck of an ignorant nation will continue to decline.
I left the Democractic Party last year after being a hard working member, inside and out for my entire life, because I continued to see the failure of their ways. Even when Biden was elected, I held my breath in hope that the ship of state would truly shift direction toward far more progressive ideals, but I wasn't expecting it. I've now joined the People's Party here in California as it represents more my progressive, dare I say, liberal ideals, mostly as a message to the DNC that I was no longer going to be taken for granted, conned or trampled upon.
Watching the Democratic leaderships failure to end the Filibuster and give the nation what it wants (such as 80+% want M4A) has only continued to prove to me that, unfortunately, I am right to move on.
We must always continue reach out, fight for others and fight against incrementalism, that is the real enemy, and right now, the DNC leadership is driving that train, once again, in the wrong direction. Sadly, all while pushing those off the train who want to act with empathy, compassion, awareness and action to save not only democracy, but life on earth. JMHO
I have to believe that empathy will beat out autocracy, because I will always invest in hope over despair. I have lived without hope before, and that is not a place of comfort, and America is more than a place, it is an ideal that most of the world believes in, supports, and loves. So there is more than just a majority of Americans to fight for us, there is a majority of an entire world who will fight for us.
We have to remember we have a majority and there’s also republicans who voted for Trump who are disgusted by 1/6, suppression of voting etc. i do think empathy will win but it will be a hard fought victory and we all must fight for it.
There are more good people than bad. I also believe Gen Z is the most diverse in American history and they believe in the pluralistic multicultural idea that is America. 41% of whites voted for POTUS which will improve as bills are signed into law. As the seditionists and insurrectionists are punished there will be nothing left for republicans to cling to but their hate. Empathy wins!
My feeling abt the Republican Party may not go over well with many. I think that Donald Trump, who btw is not a true Republican, changed his party to run for president have accomplished what dems could never really use in their agenda. That is the power of the lie. We cannot win when the power of the lie is repeated over and over again. Still many republicans feel that lying will win. Lies never win. The truth always prevails. The empath will always win if we stand united against the Big Lie. What will also win, is accountability and having the sociopaths really pay for their words and actions. Sociopaths will always lie, empaths will always prevail in the public eye.
Most people see (slowly, but surely) how sociopaths only care about themselves. Not only has Trump taken over SOME of the Republican Party, but his lack of any plan for a pandemic culminated in many unnecessary deaths under his watch.
The price of sociopathy is one I would find impossible to pay (were I following). I do not begin to understand denial to protect your family from death, nor concern for how they will live without a spouse, child or parent.
The argument that a stolen vote is worth fighting for ~ and then seeing death steal hundreds of thousands of those same votes (for him) seems an irony so obvious that even the truth of it all is bizarre.
Empathy will triumph. Sociopathy will die in flames once more and more information is revealed by investigations, tax returns, indictments. It just takes time for ironclad cases. We have to be patient. I also trust the younger generation to not put up with the idiocy of what has taken place since TFG. They are far smarter than we give them credit for, just look at the Parkland teens after their school shooting.
Okay if history tells us anything it tells us that a certain number of citizens will always be there to oppose whatever is the current status quo. Today 47% of Republicans support violent opposition to the current elected government. We have been through this before, as have many other countries. Abraham Lincoln was murdered by these people
Sociopathy will inevitably win in spite of all efforts to the contrary. Hitler won, Stalin won, Qaddafi won, etc.; so far in North Korea, Byelorussia, Russia, Turkey, Philippines, Brazil, and many others, sociopathic authoritarianism increasingly rules to the demise of the ignominious masses. Ignorance, incompetence, and corruption dominate weakening morality, legal relevance, economic balance, and, yes, empathy.
There are too many obvious truths that are being deliberately, with malice and aforethought beaten down by this Autocratic movement lead by Donald Trump to ignore a serious deployment of desperate measures. We are at war, a war from within. Domestic terrorists are our enemy. We were attacked at our Capitol and nearly lost it. I want to believe that we will prevail at the ballot box, but time is shrinking and action is scarce in the fight to protect that front. There are some who are articulating our dire state of affaires directly in the public sphere, but who is listening? I labor to see any real tangible action that comforts me as I look forward to our future.
I am not being shown that those in positions of power who I believe want to protect our Democracy are seeing the need to set in motion the desperate measures for these desperate times. The 1/6 Select Committee will hopefully deliver truths and revelations from which to take action on. It with recent DOJ decisions are both steps in the right direction. But it still like we are bringing a knife to a gunfight. We need to see those who planed, financed, organized 1/6 charged. Where are the cell phone records and email records subpoenas for every person who spoke at those rallies that morning and others? Speaking of records, since the Manhattan DA has that data why are they not giving it to Congress? Why is it a separate issue? Our enemy will do ANYTHING to win, I don't have the level of confidence that our leaders have that same kind of fire in their belly to get us to victory.
There is no middle ground in this fight, this is a zero sum circumstance. There is no rebuilding the Republican party from those who constitute its current membership that I can see. There are those who privately say one thing and publicly say another, how do you trust that? Just ask Rep. Adam Kinzinger or Liz Chaney. Sometimes the hand one is dealt requires actions that we ordinarily would consider too much. But if we are to prevail over an enemy who will do ANYTHING to win, we must see the threat for what it is and take the actions that are necessary to crush it. Crush it at every level it exists. Nothing short of that is a victory for our Democracy.
I believe empathy will prevail. A lot of the sociopathy we are dealing with is being fostered by straight-up, malevolent racism. My personal point of view is racism has been brewing out of mainstream society ever since the Civil War. As my mother often said during the racist turbulence of the 1960s, “My God, we’re still fighting the Civil War!”
What triggered racism to come out of the closet was the presidency of Barack Obama.
I very naively thought when President Obama was elected that our nation had finally turned the corner, that the color of a person’s skin was no longer such a huge factor in American society. Boy was I wrong!
I now realize racists haven’t changed a bit. While the rest of society was moving past it
racists infiltrated our local police forces, military and even the FBI. I think the trigger for racists coming out of the closet was Obama’s presidency, which I happen to think was one of the greatest presidencies we’ve ever had.
Racism is what it it is and it will be dealt with
however many times we have to beat it back down. But my point is that racism is at the heart of what’s been driving the current epidemic of sociopathy. Trump is a hard core racist as is Mitch McConnell. The benefactors of our extremist conservative political party are also hard core, lifelong racists. Namely, they are the Kochs, the Mercers & the Steve Bannons of our nation. And, believe it or not, the Kochs have had a long term relationship with Russia that began with their father, who was also instrumental in the formation of the John Birch Society, or what I refer to as the KKK for wealthy people. Trump’s fraudulent presidency gave racists and others permission to be the sociopaths they are, or so they thought.
So, how do we fix this? How do we rehabilitate American society? Pertinent to this discussion is something I’ve already written about. It’s that the Koch Bros. and their friends came up with a plan to drastically change our society and our government forty years ago. Slowly but surely over the last forty years they bought politicians, founded conservative “think tanks,” and ingratiated themselves with the NRA, evangelicals and other outlier groups that couldn’t get any political traction on their own.
They bought loyalty from these outlier groups by inviting them into the party. Then they peddled their racist, sociopathic point of view at lavish gatherings, making them feel wanted and accepted regardless of their extreme beliefs. They bought politicians the same way and by engineering the Citizens United supreme court ruling, they were able to funnel even more money from corporations to their bought politicians. That’s why we haven’t been able to pass gun control, among other things. They have thoroughly corrupted the GOP. The good news is that now we know what we’re dealing with.
All of it boils down to creating a perception of being special and therefore separate from “others.” The money that paid for the celebration of being special was from the Kochs, et al, and by doing that they pitted Americans against each other. The “divide & conquer” philosophy is as old as the hills, and it works.
I have some ideas about how we can fix it
that I’ll write about in subsequent posts on this site. Also, I appreciate feedback.
sociopathy will not end until trump is DEAD!!! he is poison to sick, vulnerable people!
I fear it is too late. With the help of the MSM & religious leaders, the Lizard Brains in this country are being triggered on a daily basis. Change cannot occur under these conditions let alone empathy. The only way to stop this runaway train is to use enough force to neutralize the sociopathic fear-mongers.