Monday, February 14, 2011

Sociopaths in the news: Julian Assange

In celebration of Valentine's Day, this is a hilarious story of friend-seduction starring Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. From the Daily News:
This is a love story - an unrequited love story, but a love story nonetheless. 'My first thought upon seeing him was: cool guy.' This is how Daniel Domscheit-Berg describes his first meeting with Julian Assange at a conference of computer activists. . . . Daniel is smitten, and will remain smitten until, a year or two later, it all ends in tears.

'We used to be best friends, Julian and I - or at least, something like friends. Today, I'm not sure whether he even knows the concept. I'm not sure of anything any more.'
***
From the start, their relationship is that of servant to master, or disciple to guru. Daniel, dull and solid, is mustardkeen to do Julian's bidding, even to the extent of carrying his bags. Meanwhile, the vain and monomaniacal Julian barely notices him.
Before long, Daniel is tying himself up in knots about Julian.

'On the one hand, I found Julian unbearable, and, on the other, unbelievably special and lovable.' But between the lines, it is clear Julian finds Daniel a bit of a bore, worth tolerating only for as long as he kow-tows.

Julian gives little sign of noticing anything about Daniel but, for his part, Daniel takes an obsessive interest in Julian and his little quirks: the way he says 'hoi' instead of hello, and asks 'how goes?', the way he slides down banisters, the way he dances by galloping across the floor 'almost like a tribesman performing some ritual', the way he alters his name on his business cards to the more mysterious and glamorous 'Julian D'Assange'.
***
[W]henever Assange enters, we are all ears. Like most heroes and villains in literature, he is entirely self-centred and extremely peculiar. . . . He is a fantasist, and has what Daniel describes as 'a very free and easy relationship with the truth'. At one point, he tells Daniel that his hair went white from gamma radiation when, at the age of 14, he had built a reactor in the basement and reversed the poles.

The first cracks in the master-servant relationship appear early on. When they visit Switzerland to install a computer server, Daniel spends the rest of his money on supplies of Ovaltine to take home with him.

'I love the Swiss chocolate drink and for the rest of our tour I couldn't wait to get back home and make myself a huge cup of cocoa. But when we arrived back in Wiesbaden, the cocoa powder would be all gone. Julian had at some point torn open the packages and poured the contents straight into his mouth.'

Julian is forever taking more than his fair share of everything. 'If there were four slices of Spam, he would eat three and leave one for me.' Daniel often thinks: 'You could at least ask,' but doesn't like to say anything.
***
Julian is also something of a skinflint, always letting other people pay for things. He claims it's so his whereabouts can't be traced via a transaction with a cash machine, but when he uses this excuse straight after appearing at a televised Press conference, Daniel begins to smell a rat.

Before long, infatuation turns to irritation. Julian picks up women and brings them back to their shared hotel room. 'One night I really needed to sleep. I was dead tired, and I asked him to let me crash in peace for once. A short time later, I heard Julian talking to a woman on the phone...Julian insisted she come to the hotel. My problem was that we shared not only a room but a large double bed. I buried my head in my pillow and tried to sleep, or at least give that impression.'
***
[The] social isolation [of the Wikileaks team] fosters their self-regard, their notion that the world should be made to dance to their tune.

This turned, as Daniel says, 'two pale-faced computer freaks, whose intelligence would have otherwise gone unnoticed, into public figures who put fear into the hearts of the politicians, business leaders and military commanders of this world. They probably had nightmares about us. A lot of them probably wished that we had never been born. That felt good.'

In passages such as this, it becomes clear that the megalomania-they affect to despise in world leaders is as nothing compared to their own.

55 comments:

  1. That is nowhere near extreme enough to be labelled a sociopath.

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  2. Kalkalash! you buy you buy!!!!!!

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  3. Happy Valentine's Day...freaks! xo

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  4. Seems Julian Assange is indeed a classic example.

    Thanks for sharing, M.E.

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  5. It also seems the notion from your former article carries through again.

    Somehow it's impossible to not do SOMETHING wrong to everybody one gets in contact with.

    On the issue on whether 'one' does that on purpose, well, that's another discussion.

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  6. ResCogitans said...
    empathy is important for any type of love
    notme you still don't get it - socios see people as their playthings; as objects. imagine the love you may have for your car, or some other object - you don't have empathy for an object.


    Medusa said...
    Does getting your car repaired count as empathy

    February 12, 2011 5:59 PM

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  7. ResCogitans said...
    so if you say that empathy is important for love, does that mean you don't consider socios capable of love?

    February 12, 2011 5:53 PM

    notme said...
    Why are you asking me this question Res?

    February 12, 2011 6:04 PM

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  8. My sociopathworld T-shirt should arrive tomorrow.

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  9. Did you get your one zhawq? You are the kind of person who would actually wear one those those LOL!

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  10. Yeah! Cause my photo does give off the impression that I'm a fucking socio doesn't it? You retard i never tell anyone I'm a big bad wolf.

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  11. I have a tattoo on my back saying "socio forever" and a tribal piece on my arm with "Predator" above it ,and no! It's not because my masculinity is threatened, it's because I'm a wolf in sheep clothing.

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  12. You're a sheep in cow clothing Zhawq

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  13. @ anon 9:58:

    That seem more accurate to me...

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  14. Happy Valentine's Day.

    Love to all ;)

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  15. Zhawq I hope you're not serious. It'd be like me tattooing your for-head with a knife "SOCIOPATH" and then you going back into your little world believing you'd still be just as effective. Tattoo's = retirement or small-game herding which is the same thing.

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  16. oh and, Happy Valentine's Day Pythias :)

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  17. Happy Valentine's Day... Go easy on your loved ones today. :)

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  18. I have no loved ones so no

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  19. boo hoo i got stood up on valentines day. therefore he must be a socio.

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  20. First off, it doesn't seem extreme. Anyone who has ever had to suffer a dorm or unreasonable roommates would know the same exact behavior. Second off, this is more narc-ish than anything else. I know that if I bite the hand that feeds too many times without enforcing something, like re-assurance or fear, that hand will leave. Julian should be old enough to know better.

    Reminds me of one annoy9ing roommate I had in college. I told him I needed sleep and his girlfriend decided to spend the night, in loud fashion. I got out of my bed, picked up his half eaten bowl of ramen (old, cold, and sticky) and chucked it at both of them, grabbed a pillow and blanket and slept in the study room down stairs. I think he was too flabbergasted to take revenge.
    I can't stand people being rude to me.

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  21. I would have took the bowl of ramon, bludgeoned them both to death with it, then fucked the bitches dead body hard, i then would have pissed on them and set the place on fire, I would have made my getaway on my jetpack.

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  22. The above isn't me, i never spelled a thing wrong in my life.

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  23. Happy V day Post, wherever you might be. I miss you.

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  24. Happy Valentine's Day !!!

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  25. Happy Valentines Day...lol

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  26. That's pretty awesome, Badass. Maybe some day I'll be big and strong like you.

    Valentine's day. Promoting obesity and diabetes for couples all over the world.

    It's a fantastic day, but it doesn't hold a candle to American Thanksgiving in that regard.

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  27. Happy Valentine's Day, freaks, perves, monsters, motherfuckers, ass suckuz, serial killers, serio-comic killas, psycho-drama queens, sadists, puppies, retards, and golden shower girls!

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  28. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  29. TheNotablePath said...
    That's pretty awesome, Badass. Maybe some day I'll be big and strong like you.



    TheNotablePath said...
    I got out of my bed, picked up his half eaten bowl of ramen (old, cold, and sticky) and chucked it at both of them, grabbed a pillow and blanket and slept in the study room down stairs.

    Wow, how badass of you Not Able.

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  30. If you met a girl and she was wearing a Sociopathworld T-shirt, would you assume she wasn't a good target? Or would you just have to try her out to make certain you were indeed the smarter socio? Or is that a Narc thing to do? Would you, knowing she was wise to your ways, still try to win?

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  31. It was a humorous anecdote, not an attempt to look badass, you fucking moron.

    @Anon: I've never picked a "target" based on the screen T they were wearing. If someone was wearing one, especially someone I knew, I'd play dumb about it. Wouldn't you?

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  32. And the other thing you don't take into consideration is that most sociopaths don't know they're sociopaths. It's a fairly recent label, history-wise, but it's been around for a very long time.

    So if you think you're wearing something to get you to avoid trouble, you're dead wrong.

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  33. Go have a hissy fit you pathetic lowlife Narcisistic maggot.

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  34. Nikita, what do you have against Notable?

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  35. Eugh, again? Get your own name/personality/life.
    If it's not logged in it's not me.

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  36. How about this. Instead of having a hissy fit, I'm going to be condescending instead and call you the fucking moron that you are while you're busy looking like an idiot trying to be tough.

    Works like a charm. Something you have nothing of, love.

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  37. I am curious as well, fake I love tn. Why do some people here bash Notable, and others not?

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  38. It must be the cologne.

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  39. I just have to say the funniest thing other than running into an adult with a SociopathWorld t-shirt is running into a baby with SociopathWorld clothing (see kids and babies). What I LOVE (just for Valentine's day) about the "sociopath's mind' is the brilliant sense of humor. Even the common threat to kill or assault on this blog has a twisted playful ridiculous celebratory nature.

    As I wash down the last remnants of my chocolate and wine supplied by my submissive, I tighten his leash as I make a toast! "T-Shirts first, raise an army and then world domination"

    P.S. Daniel Domscheit-Berg can be my next slave. He would receive more attention, cruel and kind. He would be rewarded, if he obeyed, with Swiss chocolate in a Sociopathworld mug.

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  40. sometimes that is really all it is, isn't it?

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  41. All my slaves have a fresh scent.

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  42. Hmm.What would the top notes of the sociopathworld cologne be? Leather? Musk?

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  43. They would be cock and pussy, Loves.

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  44. I don't think I'd like eau du cock

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  45. I remember how even from an early age I used to take control of other people. I liked to force other children into doing things that they were uncomfortable with. Like I'd frighten them into going into shops and stealing something for me, then I'd tell them that they could keep it, but at some point later I'd force them to give it back to me, just to see if they would cave. One time I found this stanley knife lying on the pavement, then I threatened to stab these to kids that I knew(boy and a girl) if they didn't snog each other. They did as they were told. I used to kill animals for a while. for instance, one time I climbed into my neighbours garden and threw their cat into their pond. I remember when I was about 10, I started breaking into peoples houses. Sometimes I'd steal things, other times I'd just smash something and run off. When I was 14 I met this guy who owned his own workshop, and he taught me how to make knives, and I used them to mug people(with a friend usually). I've always been this way.

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  46. He could be a sociopath for sure, it is almost likely, but out of this story I don't see it.
    He has the manipulative, self-centered, yet charming and easily bored attitude though.
    But doesn't one have to be some kind of sociopath to do what Julian did? Although I am pro wikileaks, I think one has to have a great lack of empathy to build such a thing the way he did.

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