EAllusion wrote:Mass killers are severely over-represented by ex-military, if I recall. I suspect that has more to do with being trained in killing and mental health issues military environments create than psychopathy per se. That said, psychopathy does not necessarily equate to murderer.
Wow. Have fun with that one. I'd recommend you read this paper that talks about that:
It's 56 pages, but since you're our resident supergenius it should only take you a minute or two. I think unless you admit you were off-base with your assertion on this matter you risk jumping the shark on this board.
- Doc
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
EAllusion wrote:Mass killers are severely over-represented by ex-military, if I recall. I suspect that has more to do with being trained in killing and mental health issues military environments create than psychopathy per se. That said, psychopathy does not necessarily equate to murderer.
For gods sake. No.
I've been reading this thread as it's transpired. You should give consideration to what the prior service posters are telling you here. I think you're out of your depth in that regard.
But don't go by me.
Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.
Chinese Proverb
EA may or may not be right about the military attracting psychopaths to want to join because they have a Hollywood view of what the military does. And I'm sure there are people who are somewhere on a spectrum of psychopathic traits who find success there. But again, I think it misunderstands the culture and environment that exists in the modern volunteer professional military in the same ways a Mormon misunderstands the relationship between ethics and atheism. It comes across exactly how I'd expect someone to view it who has a problem with authority and deep emotional distrust for state-entrusted organizations tasked with sometimes performing acts of violence on the states behalf. I give it about as much consideration as I do the Mormon who thinks atheism largely attracts people who want to rape and kill if they could because without God people are savages. Whatever.
The world is always full of the sound of waves..but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows it's depth? ~ Eiji Yoshikawa
EAllusion wrote:Mass killers are severely over-represented by ex-military, if I recall. I suspect that has more to do with being trained in killing and mental health issues military environments create than psychopathy per se. That said, psychopathy does not necessarily equate to murderer.
Wow. Have fun with that one. I'd recommend you read this paper that talks about that:
It's 56 pages, but since you're our resident supergenius it should only take you a minute or two. I think unless you admit you were off-base with your assertion on this matter you risk jumping the shark on this board.
- Doc
My bold.
Oh, I think he jumped the shark when he suggested that an abundance of psychopaths in the military was an objective fact the same way as the sky is blue is an objective fact. Neither needs proof, for each is an obvious truth.
honorentheos wrote:EA may or may not be right about the military attracting psychopaths to want to join because they have a Hollywood view of what the military does. And I'm sure there are people who are somewhere on a spectrum of psychopathic traits who find success there. But again, I think it misunderstands the culture and environment that exists in the modern volunteer professional military in the same ways a Mormon misunderstands the relationship between ethics and atheism. It comes across exactly how I'd expect someone to view it who has a problem with authority and deep emotional distrust for state-entrusted organizations tasked with sometimes performing acts of violence on the states behalf. I give it about as much consideration as I do the Mormon who thinks atheism largely attracts people who want to rape and kill if they could because without God people are savages. Whatever.
Here is an article that purports to show how hard it is to get soldiers to kill. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-13687796. I remember reading, but could not find the reference, an article that said a large majority of WWII soldiers had a hard time firing their weapons at the enemy because they did not want to kill. The military leaders, according to the article, wanted to remedy this and changed training accordingly, lowering the percentage of those who refused to shoot by the time of the Vietnam War. This cuts against the soldier/psychopath meme. Also, we don't see psychopath soldiers coming home and continuing their killing ways. I am not aware of a higher percentage of former soldiers being convicted of violent crime or murder than the rest of the population. Is anyone else?
"Religion is about providing human community in the guise of solving problems that don’t exist or failing to solve problems that do and seeking to reconcile these contradictions and conceal the failures in bogus explanations otherwise known as theology." - Kishkumen
EAllusion wrote:Mass killers are severely over-represented by ex-military, if I recall. I suspect that has more to do with being trained in killing and mental health issues military environments create than psychopathy per se. That said, psychopathy does not necessarily equate to murderer.
Wow. Have fun with that one. I'd recommend you read this paper that talks about that:
It's 56 pages, but since you're our resident supergenius it should only take you a minute or two. I think unless you admit you were off-base with your assertion on this matter you risk jumping the shark on this board.
- Doc
Well, reading the first few paragraphs of your paper suggests it’s about the relative success of mass killers when in the military and whether they become better at killing rather than the representation of ex-military in the population of mass killers. What are you claiming this paper says before I go to the trouble of reading it?
I am basing my recollection on a paper I recall that looked at a large sample of mass killers and found a huge % were ex-military relative to their prevalence in the population. It was on the order of 1.5 times as likely if memory serves.
A study of 354 American serial murders yielded only 25 (7%) with military background (Castle, 2001).
According to fivethreeeight -
As of 2014, the VA estimates there were 22 million military veterans in the U.S. population. If you add their figures on veterans to the active personnel numbers mentioned above, 7.3 percent of all living Americans have served in the military at some point in their lives.
So, about the same distribution between serial killers with military backgrounds as Americans who served.
It looks like you fell victim to confirmation bias.
The world is always full of the sound of waves..but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows it's depth? ~ Eiji Yoshikawa
"Religion is about providing human community in the guise of solving problems that don’t exist or failing to solve problems that do and seeking to reconcile these contradictions and conceal the failures in bogus explanations otherwise known as theology." - Kishkumen
