27 thoughts on “Projection So Extreme It Borders on Psychosis”

  2. The irony of your title is not lost on me, especially in view of the author’s credentials:

    “Helen Smith is a psychologist [my bold] specializing in forensic issues in Knoxville, Tennessee, and blogs at drhelen.blogspot.com.”

    Why should we be surprised! Wasn’t war criminal Radovan Karadžić a psychiatrist?

  3. I sometimes think that I have too much empathy–it makes life difficult, but I do draw the line at creatures from alternative universes which is where that article originates.

  4. We say the same things about them. But, there are documented studies about the psychological differences between conservatives and liberals, and conservatives NOT the ones with empathy. If she were my therapist, I’d sue her back for every session.
    She probably got her opinion watching those poor outnumberd conservatives being shouted down on FOX NEWS, 24/7. That’s when FOX even deems to have any of them on. And being shouted down on Matthews and Blitzer, too.
    Helen Smith probably got her degree from Liberty University. This would explain how she understands as lttle about people as Liberty Law graduates understand the law.

    It was great for a laugh, though! What a dope. What a marooooooon!

  5. I wonder how she defines “bleeding heart” liberal, which I proudly am. I once had a new age person who told me that I have so much empathy even for people I have never met that she was willing to bet that going to the mall to shop totally exhausts me. She told me that as I walk down a shopping mall I pull all the negative energy/vibes from the people I walk past to make their day better. She was right about the exhaustion. The why is interesting and I am aware of my empathy; but, not in that manner before she told me that. Still not sure what to think; but, I worked as a Union steward for many years, which you cannot do without empathy.

  6. I skimmed the first few paragraphs, and concur with the author. Many liberals do not have empathy for conservatives – which is the narrow focus of the article. Of course these idiots (there’s my lack of empathy for conservatives!) entirely miss the larger picture of how they utterly lack empathy for the rest of humanity or the planet. But within the narrow focus of the article, they’re right: it’s very hard for me to have empathy for socipaths.

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  8. Holy shit! Does Dr. Helen write for the the Onion? Well one good thing to know is that my moral shortcomings aren’t my fault, I’m just genetically flawed!

  9. In the very first few comments:

    #1. some leftists are psychopathic (recognized by legitimate shrinks as uber confident unempathetic con men)
    #3. “a liberal is a poor fellow with a considerable lack of self esteem”

    Exact opposites. I’ve seen many other comment threads where people claim Obama is a slick and cunning malignant narcissist, but is also a bumbling clueless teleprompter reader. And everybody simply agrees with both.

    Apparently the core philosophy that only evil comes from “do-gooding” attracts the cognitive dissonance nutjobs.

  11. Does anyone have any brain bleach? I read that contrarian mush and could only feel empathy for their fearful but smug world view. I could only read the comments as far this:

    “This is a key part of the problem. Not enough Americans realize that the typical soft science credential from an Ivy League university is a piece of crap. How many voters were conned into believing Barack Obama received a superb education from Harvard and Columbia? The reality, of course, is that he is intellectually shallow and poorly read. Things were bad enough when Bill Buckley criticized Yale University in his first book published nearly sixty years ago. It got much worse once the affirmative action policies were instituted in the mid to late 1960s. Grade inflation became the norm. By no later than 1975—the white students also started receiving phony grades. We will know that the country might be saved once those who obtained a soft science degree from Harvard, Columbia, Yale, or any other such intellectual whorehouse are ashamed to publicly admit it. Sarah Palin, for instance, is far more knowledgeable concerning economics and the other challenges confronting our country than the vast majority of Ivy League graduates. She can easily talk down to Obama.

    The Ivy leagues attract those who are ambitious. They are strongly tempted to stick their wet finger into the air to see which way the wind blows. These folks are primarily focused on only answering the following crucial question: Is this going to look good on my resume? The economic doctrines of Hayek, Friedman, and Rand are best in creating wealth for the majority of the citizenry. However, John Maynard Keynes provided the rationalizations necessary to justify power grabs by the “elites”. He essentially told them that they should be running society—and be amply rewarded for their altruistic efforts. This is why so many of the elites don’t pay all their taxes and violate other laws. We are supposed to cut them slack for their self-sacrifices on our behalf.”

    I really could not read any further.

  12. @ Mel– That is the same place where I stopped reading the comments, too. So, I wondered, did the writer ever attend one of those Ivy League Universities, or was s/he just offering up an opinion as righties are wont to do? Quite frankly, “Alice escaped, Your Highness, but we captured the Hatter and the Door Mouse,” seemed more reality based than that post and the comments.

    @ Gulag — ” But, there are documented studies about the psychological differences between conservatives and liberals, and conservatives NOT the ones with empathy.”

    I think you may be referring to Dr. Robert Altemeyer’s studies of authoritarian followers. For any of you who have not yet read The Authoritarians (which is free on-line) or may just want a refresher, here’s the address (again):
    http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

    (Sorry, I don’t know how to do links. Arrgh.)

    Don’t be put off by Dr. Bob’s folksy aw-shucks delivery. When it comes to trying to understand authoritarians and authoritarian followers, his work is the Rosetta Stone.

  14. I doublechecked the date of the article today March 30, because intolerant as I may be, I wanted to make sure that the author wrote the article AFTER the police concluded the the bullet that hit Cantor’s office window was a random shot in the air. I have to conlude that the author chose to disregard the truth in the effort to portray Cantor as a victim.

    IN the same paragraph, the author suggests there is no proof that a black congressman was spat on called ‘nigger’ and Barney Frank was called “fag” by Tea Party Protesters in D.C. Except there is proof – the testimony of 3 esteemed congressmen and the colaborating testimony of a CNN producer and a Capitol Police Officer. To say there is no evidence as the author and Michelle Bachman and others have said – is to call these three congressmen LIARS and accuse them of a vile and deliberate fabrication – and I think some proof of that accusation is called for – or an apology.

    This is an issue where there ought to be some HIGH LEVEL calling out of Bachman to provide proof of HER accusation or issue a retraction and an apology.

  15. “How many voters were conned into believing Barack Obama received a superb education from Harvard and Columbia? The reality, of course, is that he is intellectually shallow and poorly read.”

    Isn’t that a good thing? As a conservative writing a glowing review of the Bush presidency once said, intellectuals cause all the trouble in the world. That Obama failed at intellectualism would appear to qualify him for Real Americanhood (TM).

  16. About the post itself:

    “I often feel bad for those on the right such as Jeff Goldstein who try to make sense of someone on the left who treats them with disdain and disgust.”

    Does Mrs. Instapundit always feel badly for somebody who’s been for many years, a notoriously snide prick to a wide variety of liberals and their ideas, who then pouts about the inevitable blowback? How stupid is that?

    Hey Dr. Helen, your husband is an idiot. And ugly! Your go-galt shtick was a ridiculous flop. And denial is an ugly thing – especially when “Doctors of Psychology” do it in such a grotesque and obliviously obvious fashion. Do you still wanna empathize with me now?

    Jeez. Where do these people come from?

  17. “This is why so many of the elites don’t pay all their taxes and violate other laws. We are supposed to cut them slack for their self-sacrifices on our behalf.”

    I made a pretty diverse group of friends in college in terms of background, politics and income level;

    The only one of them whose family felt entitled to funnel their money into offshore tax havens was by far the richest one in the group, as well as a committed yellow-dog Republican, who at the moment is busily trying to funnel her way into the power circles of Washington (the ones where you make policy, because as she puts it, that’s fun and fieldwork is not).

    But liberals are the entitled, the tax-dodgers and the out-of-touch “elites.” Sure.

  18. FYI: Helen Smith is married to Glenn Reynolds and holds a PhD from the University of Tennessee and masters degrees from The New School for Social Research and the City University of New York.

    In other words, two pods in the same pair of pajamas (pardon the mixed metaphors).

  19. Gosh I don’t know where to start! That post is clearly the most ridiculous piece of made up non-sense in the history of mankind. I admit I didn’t read the whole thing – half way through I just had to sigh and rub my temple. That comment is even better! So the person claims Obama is intellectually shallow? Does he use the same logic as Mrs. Instapundit when she claims liberals are psychopaths? It seems I am simply at a loss of words to strike down crap like this.

  20. MY blogophobia instantaneously flared up. I had to post. I posted that the first posters cut and paste of sociopathic tendencies, in particular “Poor Behavioral Controls/Impulsive Nature” was a laugher in light of the RNC Strip Club Scandal. It wasn’t really sarcastic and maybe the answer is that Repbulicans are something different from “Conservative” but there was so much to comment on that I hardly knew where to start.

    No facts, nothing from reality there at all. Even the weakest rhetoric has some examples. I’d be insulted with any progressive blog that take the effort to draw conclusions from things that actually happened. It would creep me out as bad as that did.

    Within 5 minutes the post was removed. Someone there is on high alert to perceived threats.

  21. MY blogophobia instantaneously flared up. I had to post. I posted that the first posters cut and paste of sociopathic tendencies, in particular “Poor Behavioral Controls/Impulsive Nature” was a laugher in light of the RNC Strip Club Scandal. It wasn’t really sarcastic and maybe the answer is that Repbulicans are something different from “Conservative” but there was so much to comment on that I hardly knew where to start.

    No facts, nothing from reality there at all. Even the weakest rhetoric has some examples. I’d be insulted with any progressive blog that take the effort to draw conclusions from things that actually happened. It would creep me out as bad as that did.

    Within 5 minutes the post was removed. Someone there is on high alert to perceived threats.

  23. I’ve been ‘through’ many presidents – born the year FDR was elected – and I don’t remember the level of vitriol hurled at Obama being hurled at any other president – even Nixon, probably the most personally despised of the bunch, didn’t evoke babble bordering on psychosis.

    Is it the man, Obama? Is it the ‘times’ we live in? I don’t know. Maha says the projection…borders on psychosis. If a psychosis is being out of touch with reality, I suggest the projection is psychosis.

  25. You all pretty much covered it.
    To be blunt. I’m fed up with the fuckers. The more you give, the more they make up shit that makes no sense. It is not borderline psychosis, it is flat out detachment from reality.

  26. I love being crazy
    yes I am a sociopath
    unfortunately I’m a liberal
    I stink and need a bath

    yes I lack empathy
    for conservatives I don’t care
    they lack concern for others
    turn about is only fair

    to quantify derangement
    this scum should use a mirror
    the reflection will show clearly
    there is no empathy here

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