On January 15, O'Reilly decided that kidnapping victim Shawn Hornbeck didn't escape from his abuser soon enough, and so he must have "liked his circumstances" and "had a lot more fun" because he could "run around and do whatever he wanted" instead of going to school.
Yesterday, Michael Devlin was sentenced to 3 life terms for attempted murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault. Hornbeck talked Devlin out of killing him by promising to do whatever Devlin asked. Further sexual assaults followed. This arrangement continued for four years.
Thanks to Mr. Smiles for the links.
4 comments:
I've always thought that empathy was at heart in these discussions - the ability to put oneself into another's position and imagine their motivations, desires, etc. My hypothesis is that liberals are more empathetic (by my definition) than conservatives. Any opinion on this from your readings on personality trait research? Is there any evidence that this is part of the "authoritarian" syndrome you've written about?
I totally agree with you, and that is something I've always thought as well. From my own personal dealings with individuals of a distinct authoritarian bent, I've often been dumbstruck by their obvious inability to see things from someone else's point of view.
In terms of the research I've seen, one thing that jumps to mind is a tendency for high authoritarians to punish harshly and enjoy punishing, especially of out-groups. Not quite the same, but related I'd suspect.
More generally, I just think that these people struggle to deal with abstract concepts. Empathy is just a specific form of dealing with hypothetical alternate realities. I once had a conversation that went something like:
me: ...ok but imagine if X were true, what would that mean for Y.
authoritarian/conservative: but I would never believe that
me: well just hypothetically if you did...
a/c: but that wouldn't happen.
me: I understand what your position is, but just assume that this is true.
a/c: yeah but its not.
Hello: Came over here from Ioz-it's always nice to find a new, well-written blog.
I'm too new to probably make a critical comment, but I'm not sure I agree with mox. I know quite a few "progressives" in the Bay Area who have glimpses of frightening authoritarianism and lack of empathy. You may be right overall, I'm simply talking about personal, anecdotal cases. And, maybe what shocks me is how in fact rare these cases are?
Thanks for the compliment.
I agree with you that there are plenty of self-identified liberals with quite an authoritarian streak. My understanding of the research that Mox mentioned is that you might expect to see more authoritarianism (or lack of empathy) among conservatives, but you'll still see it among other groups too, certainly enough to confuse the issue beyond our ability to reliably assert anything based on anecdote.
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