The comedown

From a reader:

I have been slowly snaking my way in to my ex's life again. I am not too sure on the purpose to be honest. I like to think she is my obsession, and that I love her in the way that I can love, but I can't figure out if it is my form of love or not. I only want to destroy what she has going for her to leave her isolated. I won't want anything to do with her once she is single again. I have nothing against her current girlfriend other than the fact that she is rather weak. When I make this about myself I'm a little insulted that she didn't snag on to someone better, stronger. For pleasure I have been that "friend" she needs to talk to. I listen to her complain about her girlfriend's many afflictions and weaknesses, and humor her as she compares herself to "sociopaths", and how she has recently began to lack compassion, and takes pleasure in mentally breaking some of her roommates (so she says). I am being patient and humble, but I am afraid I moved in too soon. Since she read up on your blog, and did her own research, and called me out a while ago, I admitted to some things, and now she has become paranoid with every move I make. Even when I am being sincere (hardly, but there are times), she takes it with high caution, like I am a tempting mermaid that will drag her into the lagoon should she step too close to the shore.

She's very paranoid. She never answer my questions, but this is normal between us. HUGE power struggle. She thinks I am playing games when I am not, and she keeps things from me in order to control the situation. I, in return, give in to allow her that control, only for her to open up later. To be honest, I never saw what I did to her as that damaging. I don't recall ever demeaning her so bluntly. To me she sounds like the typical victim that found a title to blame all of my characteristics on, and she leaves with nothing wrong on her end. She's taking all of what was true between us, and now fabricating it in her mind as a long abusive relationship. I guess I will never truly comprehend what damage I may have done because I don't think I caused any. She's just too fragile. I will admit in this case, her paranoia is not biased. I don't have any good intentions for this in the end.

Sociopath quote: show it

Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.

Margaret Thatcher

Guest posts

I'm going on vacation soon. I'll basically be off the grid for 2-3 weeks. I need people to guest post while I'm gone. If you're interested, or you're interested in sending a single post for me to publish during that time, let me know within a week.

A modest proposal

From a reader:

I have a proposal. I've been reading your blog intensely since I found it, and I'm fascinated.

I'd like to interact with the community that formed around SocioWorld by suggesting a few subjects to your posts and have the community participate. Here's just a hypothetical situation: you start a subject, like, say, "love", starting off with a definition and then invite people to say what they think. So there you have it: a big "room" full of people giving insightful feedback.

LOVE

Do sociopaths experience love? What is this "thing" people keep talking about all the time? Is there a definition? Love obviously means many things in many contexts, so we can try to pin one context and work around. Consider Paul's definition:

4 Love is patient,
love is kind and is not jealous;
love does not brag and is not arrogant,
5 does not act unbecomingly;
it does not seek its own,
is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails;

This is pretty deep. I gather from SocioWorld's readers they can feel attached and caring towards others. I also have a strong impression they can quickly detach, but also feel loss if the detachment was involuntary. Richard Kuklinski the iceman said, "I'm probably the loneliest person in the world". Kuklinski himself had a family he felt very protective of. The only time he could remember he put his trust in someone was when he gave his wife a knife, turned his back and said it was the only chance she'd have to end his beatings. He said he was aware of what he did to her and that what he did was bad for her, and it was the only time he gave someone a chance.

All in all, it's amazing how one "side" has a hard time grasping the mindset of the other. This is why I'm goddamn curious to see how nuts people will say Paul is.

Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors

Has anyone heard of this book or read it? From wikipedia:

Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors is a book written under the pseudonym Rex Feral and published by Paladin Press in 1983. It has been claimed that the book started life as a detailed crime novel written by a Florida housewife, and that the format was later changed to appeal to Paladin's reader base. The book portrays itself as a how-to manual on starting a career as a hit man, fulfilling contracts.

Existing copies at Paladin Press were destroyed after the book was found to be used as a guide during a triple murder in 1993 (see below), but it can still be found online or can be purchased used from independent sellers. It is believed that 13,000 copies were sold, although Reason Magazine estimates there are 20,000 copies of the book in existence.

What I don't understand is what could this book possibly say about performing contract killings that you couldn't sort of piece together yourself? It's not like the Anarchist's Cookbook, where you could find detailed recipes for bombs that you might not otherwise find elsewhere or be able to divine yourself. But allegedly this book was so detailed and helpful that it was found to have aided and abetted a triple murder:

In 1993, a triple murder was committed in Montgomery County, Maryland, by a man who claimed to have used the book as his guide. James Perry, who had been imprisoned for violent crime, was caught, convicted, and sentenced to death. He had been hired by Lawrence T. Horn, who sought to receive the proceeds of a trust fund that resulted from his ex-wife's suing a hospital over injuries to their son. The families of Mildred Horn, her son Trevor, and her nurse Janice Saunders sued Paladin Press, the publisher of the book, claiming Paladin Press "aided and abetted" the murder. The suit, Rice v Paladin Enterprises, claimed that Paladin Press had a share of responsibility in the murders by virtue of their publication of a book that, by Paladin's own admission, could be used by criminals and would-be criminals in the solicitation, planning, and commission of murder for hire.

In November 1997, a U.S. appeals court ruled 3-0 that Hit Man was not protected by the free speech/free press clause of the First Amendment and thus Paladin Enterprises could be held liable for a triple murder committed by one of its readers.

On May 21, 1999, Paladin Press' insurance company agreed to settle the case out-of-court, against the wishes of Paladin Press themselves, who were confident that they would prevail in court; however, Paladin’s insurance company balked at going to court again, figuring expenses for a lengthy trial in federal court, plus the posting of a bond in case they lost and appealed, would have cost much more than the settlement.[4] Under this settlement, Paladin's insurance policy paid several million dollars to the families of those killed by the murderer, while also agreeing to destroy the remaining 700 copies of the book in their possession and surrendering any rights they had to publish and reproduce the work. Jon Ford, Paladin’s editorial director, called the settlement "economic censorship."

What?! Censorship?! This is much worse than the Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure censorship.