Dr. Bandy Lee
Yale forensic psychiatrist
MAGA & STASIS
The matter of moral cowardice came up in the context of why it is usually ridiculously hard or impossible to get to stasis when talking to MAGA people about most disputed political matters. Stasis is the point at which people understand why they disagree. Stasis requires enough information exchange to rationally draw conclusions and form opinions. When one of the parties in disagreement refuses to state what facts and reasoning they rely on to form their beliefs, getting to stasis is impossible.
For most MAGA people, both elites and rank & file, it is impossible to reach stasis. By "most", an estimate of ~99% for elites and ~94% for the R&F feels about right. Why? The elites know that their rhetoric, facts and reasoning are mostly lies and crackpottery. They are proud liars for the authoritarian MAGA cause. No way will they ever allow people reach an honest, good faith stasis. They knowingly stick by their lies.
By contrast, the R&F needs to be in denial about the rotten basis for their MAGA beliefs. They are in a self-defense mode against the massive cognitive dissonance they need to protect themselves against. Psychologically, they simply can't let the conversation get to stasis. It's just too painful. They really believe the lies and crackpottery are true. They have to believe that for take a massive hit to their self-esteem and world view.
Moral cowardice
In view of the foregoing, describing the resistance of MAGA people to allowing stasis as moral cowardice seemed reasonable, especially for the elites because they know better. Early in the rise of MAGA authoritarianism in 2016, the R&F had a partial moral shield of being deceived and ignorant. Over time their shield melted away. By now, they should know better because they are adults and the truth is easily accessed. The elites never had the ignorance shield. They always were knowing, cynical liars, slanderers and crackpotters. Moral rot and cowardice was always deep and broad with that crowd.
Pathocracy & the pathocrat
It was pointed out to me that calling the really bad elites in MAGAlandia "moral cowards" is inaccurate. Apparently that is completely or almost completely true. It turns out that some people have little (sociopaths, ~4%) or no (psychopaths, ~1%) conscience. They are (i) influenced by bad life experiences[1], and (ii) atypical neurodevelopment arising from genetic factors in the conscience neural machinery. If a person has little to no conscience, they arguably can't be moral cowards. From what I can tell, MAGA elites like Trump, Russ Vought, Pam Bondi, etc. are at least sociopaths, more likely psychopaths. They have little to no moral compass. They aren't accurately called moral cowards. They are something else, but it's worse.
Pathocrat: An individual with a severe personality disorder—typically psychopathy, narcissism, or Antisocial Personality Disorder—who seeks and gains power over others. Pathocrats are characterized by lack of empathy, absence of remorse, manipulativeness, and an insatiable need for domination. They view other people as objects to be exploited, not moral beings.
Pathocracy: A system of government in which pathocrats occupy positions of power and control. In a pathocracy, a small group of pathological individuals dominates a society of mostly normal people. The pathocrats actively recruit other similarly disordered individuals into the government while systematically removing empathetic and principled people from positions of authority.
Research indicates that psychopathic leaders have a powerful drive for domination. Once in power, a leader with an Antisocial Personality Disorder thrives on continuing conflict and never seeks peace or compromise.
Does any of that feel familiar?
Ethics: Professional diagnosis & the Goldwater Rule
The Goldwater Rule: An ethical code specific to psychiatry created by the American Psychiatric Association in response to events surrounding the USA presidential election of 1964, in which the integrity of the psychiatric profession was challenged. Some people thought Goldwater was nuts, captured in these opposing campaign slogans:
Repubs: In your heart, you know he's right. .... Dems: But in your guts, you know he's nuts.
The ethical debate boils down to this: Is it more unethical if (1) mental health professionals that the public can trust to diagnoses a MAGA politician like Trump without him being personally diagnosed, or (2) trust the politician to tell us if they are mentally ill or not?
Having no moral compass, pathocrats are shameless, chronic liars. Lying doesn't faze 'em in the slightest. Neither does shameless hypocrisy. Trump's track record of shameless, chronic lying is rock solid. That includes him lying about his medical conditions.
Back in Goldwater's day, the mental health community deemed it to be unethical to diagnose without direct personal testing. Now, because Trump and other MAGA pathocrats have the power to kill or seriously harm hundreds of thousands of Americans, the ethics balance has tipped. Now, many or most mental health care professionals are OK with diagnosing Trump. The ethical question is this:
Is it more ethical for professionals with expertise to diagnose from a distance and inform the public what a politician is, or does the potential damage from a mistaken mental health diagnosis outweigh the harm to the politician and/or the public?
Q: Is Trump a pathocrat, or something close to it, who is trying building a pathocracy?[2]
Footnotes:
1. Mostly bad childhood experiences such as relational trauma before age 10, bad home environments, foster care, and/or neglectful or abusive parenting. Emotional abuse is part of the childhoods of most hard core psychopaths.
2. So far, no mental health professionals have diagnosed Trump as a pathocrat. But, multiple mental health professionals have publicly assessed Trump from a distance. That breaks with the Goldwater Rule. They say that he represents a unique, deadly danger to public safety, justifying the rule breaking. Their assessments describe him as having traits associated with severe personality pathology, including malignant narcissism, a dangerous combination of narcissism, psychopathy, antisocial traits, and sadism.
Guess why MAGA elites constantly
attack and discredit experts
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