Cyberpaths

Someone asked me about these folks, whether they may be narcissists. My first reaction is to shrug my shoulders, because I don't know enough to feel confident about a judgement either way. And I respect the evidence that the press has low credibility. They take great liberties using fiction writing technique to "create" a "story" out of a news report.

But one thing is for sure: the bare facts thunder a total lack of empathy in these people. How they could so brutally do that to a 13-year-old girl is hard to imagine! The meanness in it gives you a chill.

Maybe they watch too much prime time TV. We see enough of it on there - it's called "entertainment."

Also, it is really strange for a parent to get involved in the relationship her teenage daughter has with some other girl.

Get a life, lady.

But lack of humanity alone isn't enough to go on. Normal people get this way too. As I explain in the book, normal people are quite capable of turning off their human sensibilities and behaving brutally. We saw a whole nation do that on Kristalnacht when the Holocaust started.

What makes predators different is that they are permanently in that mode, with the light of humanity switched off all the time for everyone. Even their own children.

In fact, narcissists do few things that normal people don't sometimes do. Projection is another example. Many people project 20 times a day. But there are strange and glaring differences between the way a normal person projects and the way the a narcissist projects.

So, you can't see lack of empathy or projection and know whether you have a narcissist. I think the most telling signs are those perverted behaviors that make you want to pinch yourself: such as when someone is angered by what should please, becomes angrier over what should appease, laughs at something that sickens normal people, and so on - those BACKWARDS reactions to things. Shockers that make you think you must have missed something and doubt your very eyes and ears. These are the most telling signs of a predator. Seeing a reaction like this but once is enough to warn you that something is wrong with that person and that you should therefore stay away.

Another thing this reminds me of is how people like this come creeping out from behind the woodwork on the Net. They hide behind a screen name and behave viciously, because no one will ever know who dunnit. Like a narcissist, they IDENTIFY with the false image they project in their screen name persona.

It is virtually impossible to have a civil dialog on public board, simply because these creeps view the forum as the ideal field in which to attack others without fear of getting what they deserve for it. Like any narcissist, they use irrationality as a debating tactic, insulting your intelligence with their blathering nothing-but-noise back at you. This state of affairs is an alarming indication of how many predators are out there.

A lot! They take over every public board, reducing the level of dialog to the absurd and making the others suck up to them to avoid getting "flamed." It's like a microcosm of society, in which the scum often rises to the top.

Cyperpaths who look angelic in any other setting, sit there and pound the keyboard like Beelzebub while they are online

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