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Thursday, February 19, 2009

True Blood: Sociopath Rights Amendment

The HBO show True Blood features vampires who have recently come out of the closet (due to the development of a synthesized blood food source called "true blood") and are demanding their legal rights in the form of an equal vampire rights amendment to the United States Constitution -- with regular opposition from the humans. Some think that the show's premise is a metaphor for gay rights, but it portrays equally well the issues that would face sociopaths if we ever came out of the closet and began demanding anti sociopath discrimination laws. The vampires, like sociopaths, are not united in the desire to "mainstream" their lifestyle and become like the human sheep they have long fed on. And for good reason -- although the vampires gain the freedom to live more publicly, they are also the target of violent hate crimes and other backlash from the humans.

Seeing all the problems the vampires are having, one wonders why they chose to come out of the closet at all. Unfortunately sociopaths may not always be able to remain in the closet themselves, but may instead be outed by genetic testing and overt discrimination. For instance, this is a relatively interesting collection of people's musings on the pros and cons of governments genetically screening for sociopaths.

10 comments:

  1. Discriminating against us would be stupid. We're way better than empaths at logic.

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  2. I've thought about what would happen if sociopathy could be genetically tested...of course, this article seems to ignore how most sociopaths aren't criminals, or at least not violent ones. Sociopaths can be extremely useful, especially in a capitalist society, but also by working jobs that would be high-stress for empaths.

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  3. I believe I've stated before, though not in so many words, but I'm against testing for genetic 'flaws' like that. (Regardless of my beliefs on whether or not sociopathy is a flaw.) It just allows for unfounded discrimination and prejudice. I think people should be judged on their individual merits, not on some combination of genes and brain structure or whatever. Anyway, other mentally handicapped people - people with obvious mental handicaps, where you look at them and you know something isn't right about them - can still have a place in society and can still function. People feel threatened because they can't tell as easily when someone is a sociopath, but that doesn't mean they have no place in society and should be removed from it altogether. I can see how people like you would be extremely beneficial to a society, like in this ridiculous budget problem us Americans are having. Let's get some logic in there and balance our stupid budget, ok?! It's not that hard!

    I'm ranting again, aren't I? Sorry. I always try to keep on topic and then I wander off... ^_^
    -Jen, a curious empath

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  4. As a psychopathy my typical response to situations that would elicit anxiety from empaths instead triggers a sort of indigent anger for my part. "Who are these people to question my superiority to them?", in other words. The proposition of the general public knowing what and who I am makes me feel threatened.

    Just as Bill from True Blood stated "vampires are just as afraid of humans as humans are afraid of vampires, though we don't like to admit it.", this holds true for psychopaths vs. empaths. We are truly just as afraid of you discovering us rallying against us(thus taking away the power we perceive ourselfs as having over you by means of surprise and deception.) as you are afraid of being used and manipulated by us.

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  5. Not to worry, we are already majorly discriminated against, as long as you don't get to violently criminal this won't be a problem because we are way over represented wherever power is, we will simply derail it from the inside.

    And the more the tables are turned on those who have gotten violently criminal, the more the next generation of violently and criminally inclined peoples strike out and do so in ways that are more planned and concealed, leading to less likely hood of capture. How many people do we need to kill each to eliminate the sheep's power??
    Not that many

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  6. We are entering a very strange period of human civilization. We are the only species on planet earth with full awareness of self and mortality and the only species that strives for a set of "rules" (which we call "morality" or "ethics." Nature and evolution sets some limits on animal behavior. Most (though not all) animals do not eat their young and quite a few do not eat their mates or their elders.

    We are now beginning to understand our nervous system, our psychology, and our brain functioning. We are gradually tossing away the "god" nonsense. Nobody and nothing "created us," or provided guides and rules. We are on our own to design ourselves as we approach the so called "singularity." I am 70; perhaps 10 or 20 more years, so I won't get to see much of what kind of "strange beach slouching toward Bethleham" (in Yeats' eloquent if foolish poem) we are becoming. My granddaughter is a very intelligent and very empathic 10 year old girl. I am trying to warn her (without terrifying her) to be careful as we enter humanity's very strange and dangerous future. I am sure she will be kind to sociopaths; I hope she is wary and alert enough not to fall prey to them.

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    Replies
    1. "Strange Beast slouching toward Betheleham." I am dyslexic and sliding into dementia. Not a crime yet . . . but Logan's run may be on the way. Pant. Pant. . . .

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  7. i think the government needs to stay out of our lives

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  8. More people need to be on http://sociopath-community.com/

    !!! it used to be connected to this blog but was disconnected over a year ago. We need fresh blood and lots of interesting things have happened recently (relates to kiwifar.ms drama: https://archive.is/M2tXa) that will go down in the forum's history! Be sure to check out http://www.psychforums.com/antisocial-personality/ too, as some of its regulars are regulars on SC too!

    Fucking ME won't reconnect the forum to this blog so we SC goers will just have to spam the comments section w/ advertisements like this!

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