Saturday, June 15, 2013

The Weirdest Weirdo vs. The Viscous Psychopath

To me weirdos are not dangerous.  Psychopaths, though, are.  What's the difference?

Weirdos are predictable.  To a fault.  They don't fit in.  And we know they won't.  They, like nerds, or geeks, have strong preferences that don't match mainstream commercial preferences.

Because comfort in groups really can be indicated by how similar to each other we are, weirdos make us uncomfortable in their atypicality in one or two arenas.

Psychopaths, though, well, they're just plain manipulative as hell.  There is no "knowing" them, and there never will be any knowing them.  They too have preferences that don't match commercial homogenized preferences that might otherwise indicate group belonging.  They are self-involved and strategic, importantly, even in highly personal relationships.  Highly strategic.

But to what end, I ask?  Psychopath?  To what end?  And they will not answer, whereas a weirdo or a nerd would just tell you straight up.

If the question is: What would you do if if you didn't have to do anything else, weirdos and nerds will answer it with something you might not.  Psychopaths would answer it with whatever they think you would.  Much more dangerous, in my view.

No comments: