can we chill with the ableism? “sociopathic manipulators” vs “honest intelligent people” is a fucked up way to think about the world. “manipulative sociopaths” are, in fact, people, who are just as complex and inconsistent and deserving of life as “honest intelligent people.” no one is born evil, there are no demons hiding amongst you, it’s just people. an individual can be honest and intelligent and manipulative and do harm and prevent it and end up popular or ostracized. these qualities aren’t mutually exclusive or moral and do not exist in a vacuum.
the ruling class is not full of “manipulative sociopaths,” it’s full of people who are incentivized to stand together to serve themselves by exploiting and oppressing everyone below them. it has everything to do with their circumstances and almost nothing to do with their ‘nature.’
you understand a “sociopath” to be inherently evil, and this leaves you vulnerable to anyone who claims they can identify the evil in the room.
please don’t use psychotic as a pejorative. please stop using ableist rhetoric.
constructing a dichotomy between “manipulative sociopaths” and “honest intelligent people” is a moral argument. you are literally casting one of these groups as not people.
you are nitpicking my assertion that saying someone is not a person is interchangeable with calling them evil. this is not an important part of what i said. if it helps, you will reread my comment and replace ‘evil’ with ‘not a person’ and then respond to that.