@Whisper

tribes and hominid groups need members who can bash an enemy's skull in, and be able to sleep soundly at night afterwards.

I'm sure many neurotypicals can do that, no problem. You don't need psychopaths for that.

Then, maybe you need them for the extra-rationality? Not really, bacause you have Aspies, who do that more consistently.

Does nature "need" them for something else? No, not really, because nature doesn't "need" anything.

It's quite obvious, though, that psychopathy has flourished in extended societies, and these societies have taken over the world and we live in them right now.

My view is that psychopathy is a parasitic mode, evolved on the one hand because it favored survival in extreme conditions and on the other as pure parasitism (there is obviously a niche for that in groups of organisms).

There's no question that psychopathy that manages to remain functional is "adaptive" in today's society. Another way to say that is that our society is psychopathic. No wonder female parasitism has flourished, also.

Then, the degree one perceives psychopathy as "positive" must be correlated with the degree he thinks he "owns" society. Thus, for lower-middle class men, psychopathy and the institutiona that facilitate it is a thing to fight against. E.g. we need stricter penalties for scamming CEOs, abolition of alimony, introduction of timeouts to break positive reinforcement for pupils with conduct disorder in schools, etc.

@destraht

Yes, but what you're talking about here (the American cultural mandate to appear selfless and kind all the time) is, in and of itself, a social more. Thus, neurotypicals internalize it, and for psychopaths, it remains external, but the high-functioning ones learn to follow it, at least sometimes, in order to be socially accepted.

Personally, while I'm not about to announce the great linguistic crusade, I think that the term "psychopath" is, in and of itself, a very western spin on a personality type which serves a useful purpose in tribes.

The typical American is horrified at the idea of someone who doesn't feel great remorse at hurting someone's feelings with a "microaggression" or whatever, but tribes and hominid groups need members who can bash an enemy's skull in, and be able to sleep soundly at night afterwards.

I think in many cases, the term "psychopath" is an othering and pathologizing way of dealing with (or not dealing with) the warrior personality, because blue-state Americans have a social culture which demands everyone be gentle bonobos rather than assertive chimps.

Take this far enough, and you get a culture which is unable to channel its natural assortment of warrior personalities into prosocial roles where their ruthlessness can be helpful to their tribe and culture, and allow them to earn respect, love, and admiration.

Ultimately, societies need both those who can soothe crying children, and those who can punch grizzly bears.

@Whisper The freakout to abnormal brain function is a cultural thing. I find that I'm able to tolerate a wider range of personalities in the Russian world because there isn't such a dressing up of everyone needing to be selfless like there is in America. It's easier for someone to be selfish without being mean about it (after growing resentful of their own fake behavior), or making it personal, or trying to hide it. In the Russian world people are not owed a smile. That makes it easier for the sociopath and autist to not need to work so hard at something that they're not feeling. In reality not all that much in life is worth getting excited or being happy about anyways.

Basic fear of what a man can do to another man keeps things in check over here. Men are acutely aware here that war causes a huge amount of death (unlike Americans which think that it's cute tech toys and graphics), and that if you bother another man past a certain point that you risk terrible consequences. I don't think that much more than this is needed, and in the absence of men actually fearing each other and so needing to provide higher levels of base respect then all sorts of other bad things happen that are far worse (like in the faggot-ass chronically toe-stepping West).

I think of sociopathy in terms of how fast that someone will eat you if they're starving. I don't think that plus or minus a few days makes all that much difference.

I think that the best way to control psychopaths is to not tell all of the non-psychopaths that they have to fake (plastic) smile like one. The psychopath is going to be able to pull off the huge fake smile better than everyone else while ironically caring the least about it. This among other things sets the bar at psychopath.

Now the West is at a place where they dare not say the wrong thing (of the week, or month), and so that puts autistic people right out. Being autistic would suck balls right now.

I'd rather be autistic, sociopathic, drunk, sober or just normal even in the Russian world right now due to how much easier that it all is. Imagine not having to make stupid-ass disgusting faces for mom every time that a camera is around. Smile my ass - fuck you! All of you! Fucking smile. Smile my ballsack. Smile the sweaty part underneath.

For the most part Russians really like food. They're super into it. They grow their own potatoes, etc. So that is how you keep sociopaths in line. Don't let them fake smile at you, or convince an entire society to fake smile at you, make sure that they have enough food to eat, and make sure that they're afraid of you #BiteTheFace off of them, or whatever it is that they might suffer were they to be in the wrong way.

Then everyone can just hang out and it's no big deal.