Scott Walker, Is He a Psychopath

Scott Walker

Update: On the subject of being pathologically lying, cunning, and manipulative, today's news brings good tidings for the cause of justice regarding Scott Walker's machinations to escape a criminal probe, Federal judge refuses to dismiss 'John Doe' lawsuit.

Via the Majestic site, comes a criminal psychologist's advice helping lay persons spot a psychopath, not all of whom are killers and so forth, but no one you want as a friend or governor.

The suspicion that Scott Walker has some seriously destructive pathology is not new.

John Dean identified Scott Walker as a conservative without conscience, writing:

(T)esting reveals, in varying degrees, that social dominators (authoritarian leaders) have the following recurring traits: They’re typically men; they are dominating; they oppose equality; they are desirous of personal power; they are amoral, intimidating and bullying, faintly hedonistic, vengeful, pitiless, exploitive, manipulative, and dishonest; they will cheat to win; they are highly prejudiced (racist, sexist, and/or homophobic), mean-spirited, militant, and nationalistic; they tell others what they want to hear, take advantage of 'suckers,; and specialize in creating false images to sell themselves. ... There is, however, another—and exceptional—type of authoritarian.  When testing social dominators, scientists noticed an incomparable situation: They occasionally found persons who garnered high scores for their cold, calculating dominance, yet also gained high scores on the tests for submissive followers.  How, it was asked, could the same person test high on both scales, since these traits are seemingly inconsistent?  Social scientists labeled these people 'Double Highs' because of their high scores on both testing scales.

(Robert) Altemeyer solved this conundrum when he found that these Double Highs relate to the questions regarding submission not by considering how they themselves submit to others, but rather how others submit to them.  They simply see the world as a place where they are always in charge.

Dean's research brought to the fore social-psychological research conducted in the 1950s-60s after World War II and McCarthyism in America.

Scott Walker, Tim Russell, Kelly Rindfleisch, the whole racist bunch of Scott Walker's illegal campaign are unmistakably qualified as without conscience, hijacking a public office for private political use, among their lesser crimes.

Professor Robert Hare, Tom Chivers writes, notes how to spot a psychopath, similar to the qualities of Wisconsin's governor noted by Dean. Writes Chivers:

At heart, Hare’s test is simple: a list of 20 criteria, each given a score of 0 (if it doesn’t apply to the person), 1 (if it partially applies) or 2 (if it fully applies). The list in full is: glibness and superficial charm, grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, cunning/manipulative, lack of remorse, emotional shallowness, callousness and lack of empathy, unwillingness to accept responsibility for actions, a tendency to boredom, a parasitic lifestyle, a lack of realistic long-term goals, impulsivity, irresponsibility, lack of behavioural control, behavioural problems in early life, juvenile delinquency, criminal versatility, a history of “revocation of conditional release” (ie broken parole), multiple marriages, and promiscuous sexual behaviour. A pure, prototypical psychopath would score 40. A score of 30 or more qualifies for a diagnosis of psychopathy. Hare says: “A friend of mine, a psychiatrist, once said: ‘Bob, when I meet someone who scores 35 or 36, I know these people really are different.’ The ones we consider to be alien are the ones at the upper end.” …

Sound like Scott Walker?  It does to me.