The Dark Psychology of Politics

Conspiracy theories work, both as an intentional contrivance to mislead, and as a way to dismiss explanations of their existence despite blatant evidentiary facts. They work because they rely on psychological tricks and are dismissed because most people resist admit they were tricked, even once the mechanism -or mechanic – of the trickery is known. Some of this can be attributed to resentment over feeling foolish but the real issue is an inability of those with a conscience to conceive others lack one.

One commonality of all conspiracies is a certain the type of person involved in perpetrating the fraud. These are the sociopaths, narcissists and psychopaths. In psychology, we refer to these collectively as Antisocial Personality Disorders or ASPD. At a minimum, they are well aware of two facts.

One, most people have a governor on their behavior, commonly thought of as a conscience. There are extremes of behavior in which the average person just will not engage. The second mechanism is it is very near impossible, at least in interpersonal relationships and even with ample evidence, for the average person with a conscience to conceive someone intentionally being that cruel, manipulative, or dishonest.

Always, at least on some level and particularly initially, people attribute the success of the trickery to some other failing, usually in themselves, like:

-I didn’t have a piece of information.

-I didn’t recognize the red flags as that serious or dangerous.

-It seemed too good to be true, so I should have known better.

These responses are anticipated and inculcated as part of the overall plan. And it is a plan. Intentional, in all it’s viciousness. In fact, this tendency to blame oneself is part of the payoff for the ASPD.

If that intentionality is fully realized by the mark, the mental health and well-being consequences can be catastrophic. There is no longer a refuge for the victimized except in an unjustifiable, even to themselves, state of denial. The alternative, acceptance, brings a unique soul-crushing and unbearable disillusionment. And this is where the pre-delivered coup de grace is fulfilled for the ASPD. The average person with a conscience willingly, eagerly enters the relatively safe and comforting zone of denial. This is counted on as much as it is enjoyed. Worse, it motivates the ASPD to continue their aberrant, abhorrent behavior.

This is true cognitive dissonance – the incontrovertible facts are at odds with the perceptions or ideas to which we cling. Let’s use something relatively benign as an example. Shady used car salesmen.

Everyone knows they can be dishonest, yet everyone believes they’ll be able to spot the dishonesty. Worse off are those who think that if they show they are a good person, they’ll be treated fairly. When the great deal they just got, because they were smarter or they were the exception because the shady-to-others guy saw what a good person they are, dies on the road the next day, their delusion doesn’t completely shatter.

People rarely fully attribute the consequence to the depth of intentionality it deserves. We won’t judge the entirety of the person as lacking a conscience, because we are incapable of conceiving such a thing exists. Or, if that thought is entertained, it is dismissed as surely as a good person they would spot that obvious character defect in another. Further, resisting the urge to simply write someone off as a complete waste of oxygen proves we are a good person and that our judgment was not wholly wrong.

Now let’s take a look at something much less benign, politics, particularly as it played out in the Presidential debate. Or, how sociopathic, narcissistic, and in some instances psychopathic manipulation plays out on the National stage. If anyone thinks once these tricks are known, one is immune, I admit to falling for some of it myself. Case in point is my evolving, in real time, perceptions of the debate.

Initially, I was stunned Biden was as able as he was to stay on message…when he was not stumbling, glitching, incoherent, or standing slack-jawed and vacant. It was like watching a wind-up toy sputter and run out.

My disappointment was more focused on Trump’s performance. There were so many opportunities for him to land knockouts that he just let go by. Yes, he was on message, but I am so tired of his Trump-isms, “unbelievable”, “never seen anything like it”. I wanted to scream, “Take all the seconds wasted on hyperbole and use them for factual recitations of the specific policies that Biden killed by Executive Order that have directly led to the mess we are all currently trying to survive”.

Sorry, but I’ve tired of this persona, this New Yorker, just another guy blather. Then again, spewing hyperbole spins the media wags into a froth and keeps them distracted while he quietly goes about the business of getting the job done. This is how he played it during his administration, and how he was able to get as much done as he did. It is also how his detractors can convince people he really didn’t do anything during his term. Most public discourse is conducted at a sixth-grade reading level, and this hyperbole seems to be the spoken word version.

After the debate, I was feeling genuinely defeated. Imagine then my surprise when CNN started rolling the banner about how terrible Biden did and talk of replacing him on the ticket was flying around amongst Democrats. Every CNN host was nodding along. So I switched to MSNBC. It was more the of the same. Biden was terrible, stumbling, weak.

It was at this moment I realized how low my expectations were of Biden, how I was measuring the candidates’ performances unequally. I was disappointed Trump passed or missed opportunities to make important points, instead wasting time with his usual hyperbolic pronouncements.

All I was expecting of Biden was a few glitches, which I got, a few moments of incoherence, which I got, more than a few ridiculous lies, which I got. But, because he didn’t wander off the stage in midsentence, didn’t obviously, literally, crap himself or tell tall tales about his uncle, his time as a truck driver, or Corn Pop, I didn’t recognize his performance for the catastrophe it actually was. Talk about lowered expectations.

After lifting my jaw from the floor listening to Rachel Madcow (I honestly would have to look up her real name and don’t care to), and the rest of what has been the PR firm of the Democrat Party, aka CNN and MSNBC, report and opine that Biden was that terrible did it really hit me. I consider myself a critical consumer of information. Afterall, I understand the psychological tricks. But still, there I was, stunned.

We have been so desensitized to the blathering, stumbling fool that currently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the performance that should have shaken me as much as it ostensibly did the Democrat Party barely registered. This, folks, is the real issue. This is how so many otherwise perceptive and intelligent people have been brainwashed into maintaining their support for the Democrat pResident in Chief, as some have creatively branded Biden. We are all being played in a long game of psychological manipulation by master narcissists, sociopaths, and most frightening, psychopaths.

It would seem epiphanies were had by pundits who have been consuming and selling the pablum that Biden was both a strong and competent leader, and ready and capable of continuing on for another four years. The conspiracy says, this was a choregraphed display of contrived dismay.

That conspiracy better explains why they insisted on a debate this early. They didn’t expect Trump to agree, without hesitation and in full, to their demands. Trump gets points for once again using their own game against them. For other examples, refer to the 3am mean tweets that kept them distracted while he went about the business of undoing decades of business-killing regulations.

This game has one Grandmaster, and his name is Trump. When conducting high-stakes business, these machinations are admired and rewarded and his success as a businessman, negotiator, and deal maker is unquestionable. Distract them with headline generators and let their zeal and glee to prove themselves right keep them busy while the real work gets done out of the spotlight.

The entirety of the Democratic team can’t keep up, this whole debate debacle being exhibit A. Remembering this also explains why Trump was so Trump-y. He was playing to his base. If there is another debate, whomever is selected as his opponent, we can only hope Trump will be the savage business executive that delivers knockout after knockout.

The Democrat machine has used these principles of manipulation almost too well. They have hidden from their base what has been plainly clear, so they had to put Biden on display sans whatever they pumped him up on for the State of the Union to make replacing him on the ticket palatable to the average Democrat voter.

They also planted the inference this is a recent development and that Joe himself, with the help of Jill, is the one who has been hiding the decrease in his competence. Support for that statement can be seen in the wall-to-wall recitations of how Biden’s family, who ostensibly know his capabilities best, are urging him to stay in the race. But, he was allowed to be on fire the next day reading from a teleprompter, just to hedge their bets. “He had a cold the night of the debate”.

Having Kamala waiting in the wings to continue the charade is more about setting her up to fall than positioning her as the lead on the ticket. We can now expect the tapes from Biden’s interview with Hur of the DOJ to be released, probably through a leak ahead of the House GOP filing. Depending on how that plays, they can be cast as somehow doctored or fake news. They did it with Hunter’s laptop, despite incontrovertible proof. Questions about who is actually running things, who is orchestrating all this are obviously beyond the curiosity quotient of most voters. That is another counted on factor of the psychological masterplan.

Some other relevant, notable moments from the debate night:

-Did anyone else catch Trump refer to Biden as “Brandon” just a few minutes in? I heard it, thought I misheard, then saw Biden react. One of the only true laugh out loud moments, calculated to throw Biden off his game; had Biden been “present”, it is a barb that would have had more impact.

-Did anyone else catch the CNN post-debate talking heads? I don’t know her name or who she is, but she wore a light green dress, and had a stunningly shocking moment. Just before cutting away, referring to Biden she exclaimed, “He knew all the questions that were coming!”. It was just a moment, but it seemed everyone on stage froze for a second because she said the quiet part out loud. My jaw literally dropped. Her contract or position, whatever it is, probably did too.

-I don’t know if it was on MSNBC or CNN but one of the talking heads said he just got called and chewed out by a Black leader for “abandoning Biden. Democrats don’t do that, that is something Republicans do”.

That was a bet hedge if I ever heard one. And a very effective precursor for laying the foundation of the state of denial they may need voters to occupy. In the days since the debate, it also seems to be the strategy that is both working and with which they will work – even if Biden is not who he used to be, he is still not Trump. Besides, they say, he has a great team behind him.

Pay careful attention to that last part – he has a great team. That is another precursor being laid. It is not about electing the man Biden, it is about the team and the party. And here’s some more of that double-standard, one of the few shots Biden got in during the debate, “No one from his Cabinet is endorsing him”.

I don’t know how factual that is, facts being largely irrelevant in politics nowadays. But, it was effective both as an aspersion and a supportive underpinning of electing his “team”. The bigger fact, that the Presidential election is supposed to be about the man who will make the middle of the night phone call and decision is being intentionally, carefully pushed out of the public’s collective awareness. If pushback here is received, it will be countered in terms of “outdated thinking, from a simpler time, when life was less complicated”.

Modern politics is above all else a game of psychological manipulation. Pandering to people’s basest fears, in- and out- group thinking, the need to be right as a primal survival strategy invoking people’s threat response, all while offering a particular candidate, or more aptly nowadays party, as a safe landing zone. Everyone of these are well-known and understood psychological mechanisms which produce results. True, they are not foolproof because human beings are unpredictable. So, layer them to enhance the probability of success.

When working with a client who has been victimized by a ASPD spouse, significant other or family member, helping them understand these pathologies is the key to healing. First and most importantly, we distinguish between being a victim and being victimized; the former is a constant, perpetual state of being, with the latter being an event. Recognizing and choosing which applies to you is critical. If the first step is recognizing the what that happened, the next is understanding the why of what happened and why it happened to you specifically.

The fact you struggle to conceive human beings can be so awful is actually a good thing. It means you have a conscience. In truth, the more conscience and belief in the inherent goodness of others, the more delectable you are to these psychological vampires. They count on you blaming yourself, believing you are or were the problem. Your inability to conceive of someone so callously and willfully hurting another, and apparently for sport, is a mark of your humanity. Don’t dismiss it as mere naivete.

The one, true protection against this poison, both prophylactically and as an antidote is what we refer to in therapy as boundaries. We must have sufficient self-confidence in our beliefs and self-worth to adhere to our beliefs and to withstand the onslaught of manipulations designed to chip away at our values. And, we must recognize the early signs of infection to prevent its spread.

One of the first signs is being charmed and disarmed. The ASPD presents as so overwhelming, they consume you. This is also known as love-bombing. You’re convinced almost immediately because they seem to have all the answers you seek (campaign promises and image). They’ll tell you all the ways they are different from anyone in the past. They see you and really understand you (in contrast to their opponent).

This is quickly followed by the next sign, isolation. The ASPD has to limit other influences, prevent the ringing of your innate warning bells from being heard and amplified by others. They must control the input you receive until you are sufficiently compromised and malleable to their will. At that point, predicting how others will counter whatever they’ve said will seem to confirm the rightness of their position.

When you get to the point you suspect someone is an ASPD, or is just using ASPD-like tactics, there is a simple, nearly fool proof test. All you need do is listen to their accusations. These are actually confessions. Listen and you will hear true intentions, what they have done, or what they will do next. This is a form of the concept of projection, one which they cannot help use because it works as a consolidator of their manipulative control.

Don’t tell them you suspect anything and they’ll think they have a willing, thoroughly compromised victim and relax their guard. And usually go into even more detail. This is the moment to walk away. Don’t look back. Go radio silent. That is, in an interpersonal relationship.

This does not mean you will be safe, because they will do everything they can to destroy you for daring to walk away. They will be unable to conceive that you won’t destroy them, so they will strike first and hard, and never, ever stop. That last is exactly what is happening to many in this society-wide conspiracy of manipulation, to any one or group who has dared to question, much less think for themselves.

On the larger scale, it also serves as a warning, but not just to inculcate fear. It is also intended to sow seeds of doubt. In an interpersonal situation, this is one of the more intractable issues the victimized struggle with long after they’ve escaped the clutches of the ASPD, particularly if the former victim has ongoing contact with those the ASPD poisoned. This is also why the relentlessness of the society-wide message of isolation, odd man out, conspiracy theorist whack-o must be maintained.

In the past, political candidates struggled with this critical to their plans phase of isolation. We had a free press. Now, all sources of information upon which we count as unbiased agree. It is not just a failure to see or hear the other side. It is an intentional consolidation of the ASPD’s message, a confirmation assault on the bias to which the human psyche is particularly vulnerable. Our need to be right is a primal survival mechanism, one that is manipulated and bolstered by the previous success of their confessions-couched-as-accusations.

Thankfully, more and more Americans of all races and creeds have become sensitized if not inoculated against some of these machinations. Or so it seems safe to believe. The fact the game is still being played out with talk of replacing Biden on the ticket shows we’ve merely entered another round.

In case anyone thinks this is all damning Democrats and giving Republicans a pass, a few reminders are in order. First, both sides do and have used these tactics. Secondly, and more to the current point, the DNC is currently running the game in an era when mass communication has never been more omnipresent.

The third, and more important point is the difference between Democrat and Republican worldviews. Democrats have a more collectivist, or external locus of control and Republicans ascribe to a more individualistic or internal locus of control. The external believe events and consequences are largely outside of one’s control, the internal locus focuses on individual will to be the deciding factor of both what happens, and what happens next. The former is the belief big government can, will and should fix all one’s problems, with the latter holding the view that big government interferes in an individual’s ability to address societal ills or circumstances. This difference is felt most acutely in the responsibility arena; it’s not my – or their – fault vs. individual acceptance of consequences for actions or inactions.

There is one other aspect of the ASPD game so far only obliquely referenced but is crucial not to understate. The selected target or mark is basically a good person with a conscience. As noted above, using a person’s innate desire to believe the best about others is part and parcel of the strategy for success. Whether addressing this issue on an interpersonal level, or in this society-wide game, it is critical to understand victim selection is also based on the fact another ASPD will organically spot the manipulations.

The one thing the DNC didn’t count on, and has (thankfully, in part at least) failed to counter is Trump is the Grandmaster of the game. Those on the Right who have used this game with some level of success have as much hate, and to be honest fear, of Trump as do the Democrats. Because Trump is not playing on their side, either.

When dealing with individual clients, clinicians do not give directives, even in cases of abuse or life-threatening danger. It is why we are mandated reporters; we see a dangerous situation and to protect our clients (or, someone from our clients) we legally, morally and ethically must act. Any other advice is carefully couched, such as identifying and suggesting when it is time to walk away from an ASPD.

There are, however, a few exceptions. One is, do not try to out-sociopath a sociopath. They will be better at it then you. If by some miracle you do get the better of them, you may feel you have won. But it is not over.

It will never be over, as long as they have the wherewithal to continue to strike. In an individual situation, be prepared to move, forwarding address unknown, or at least keep your circle very small and tight. Even then, you must be prepared to continue to violate every one of your mores and ethics because their need for revenge will never end. As scary as that sounds, with this society-wide game being played on us all, the thought is disheartening to the point of terrifying.

Trump won. They will never forgive him for that. They will come after him forever. When Trump said they were coming after him because he got in their way of coming for us, he spoke absolute truth. Saying Trump is the Grandmaster infers he also is some form of an ASPD.

To be clear, I am not now, nor will I ever, diagnose President Donald Trump or anyone I have never met, interviewed, or tested. To do so is disingenuous at best. However, I can categorize public behaviors within the framework of these pathologies. I can also issue an opinion on how I see certain psychological principles, theories and pathologies seem to be playing out in the public square.

In the past few days, particularly on the heels of the Supreme Court decision on Presidential Immunity, we are being exposed to yet another round of these psychological games. The identical talking points of the DNC and White House being endlessly repeated, sans facts much less factual context, colored for maximum political impact favoring one party, platform, candidate and ideology, has become de rigueur. While still disheartening, some measure of comfort may be had in an understanding of why rather than raising speculative eyebrows, too many are reverting to that refuge of denial.

So, the next time you are called a conspiracy theorist, take a measure of pride in the accusation. Not everyone who projects confessions-as-accusations does so because they are an ASPD. Many are victims, some willingly, of these machinations, regurgitating what they’ve been conned into believing. Be grateful you have become aware of their conspiracy. Be ready for that projection, and have some fun with it. Be ready with a smile and watch the fear and confusion creep into their eyes. But do not, for one moment, believe that any win means it is over. It will never end.

Category: 2024 Election