Signal Boosting: Celebrate Cesar Chavez’ birthday with a donation to the United Farmworkers.
Signal Boosting: From Eme:
It’s a place in the US where it’s *known* that girls are being abused daily, and yet no one does anything about it. Apparently: “Hephzibah House is not-for-profit religious facililty that has fallen into the gap [in Indianan law]. No one is supervising the activities at Hephzibah House. None of their staff has yet to be held accountable for the abuse that has been taking place there for over 30 years. …The Governor’s office says they are not responsible to look into this matter because the law *protects* these facilities.”
Here’s the leader of the H House’s thoughts on child-rearing. Warning, WTFery ensues.
Eme sent along a link to a petition, which is included above.
McDonald’s employee films transbashing. Not sure how I feel about the 14 yr old getting charged.
Child with disabilities denied First Communion, a Roman Catholic sacrament that celebrates the participants’ entry into the larger community of Catholics and whose main requirement is being in a state of grace (IE not taking communion with sins on your conscience) — at least that’s what I remember from communion class…
No, I haven’t ever wondered about what Kat von D would look like without her tats. I don’t typically look at women’s bodies and think, “HUH I wonder what she’d look like without her personality or the record of her life written on her skin.”
Emma Donoghue wants an end to mommy surveillance.
Children and working mothers first affected by budget cuts.
From SunlessNick:
Hexy writes a post regarding the (successful) protest against a Sheila Jeffreys workshop at the Melbourbe Feminist Conference entitled “Why prostitution is violence against women,” which included no actual prostitutes or sex workers in its panel. (Together with an anti-trans panel with no trans members to challenge). Extra content here, here, and here.
Poly Sterene passed away earlier this week. 
Trans professor denied tenure.
This just in: conservatives believe black people are lazy!
Superman renounces American citizenship!
Students defend ethnic studies.
Was Obama’s father forced out of the US for dating white women?
Maternal mortality rates on the rise in the US.
Homeless woman incarcerated for sending child to school district she’s not an official resident of.
Good lord, a woman got arrested at a town hall meeting for asking a question.
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Eme,
I never said anything about good or evil, though living with someone without empathy is difficult for the people immediately around them. Most people with APD can be taught to live by a code of conduct, and just because someone doesn’t feel compassion or love (because someone without empathy can’t really feel love) doesn’t mean they’re doomed to compulsive acts of evil. Even sadistic (not in the BDSM sense, who are entirely different and frequently have very strong consciousnesses.) people without empathy can learn not to act on their inclinations because it would cause consequences to themselves that they don’t want. And being plural is way way way different from having no conscience.
And I most certainly do not believe in the idea of children as a blank slate. I also want to make it clear that when I say they lack empathy, it isn’t that they have difficulty seeing and interpreting other people’s emotions, as someone with an autistic spectrum disorder does, but that they don;t see making someone else fell better as a reason to do something and they don’t see hurting someone as a reason not to.
Attackfish(Quote) (Reply)
I still think we should ban the words sociopath and psychopath from this discussion, because I don’t think everyone understands them the same way. And seriously, there is no agreement in the psychiatric community in the States, let alone the world, on their definitions.
It’s a subtle but important distinction: APDs enjoy inflicting pain; NPDs enjoy your suffering. APDs can’t feel pain, so inflicting it interests some (not all) of them. NPDs, on the other hand, get off on knowing they’ve made you suffer. That’s the difference between torturing someone in an impersonal way (APD) and torturing someone in a very intimate way, such as rape (NPD).
The “psychopathic triad” is not considered too reliable these days. Too many exceptions in both directions.
It’s true what Nicky P says: just because behavior starts early, that does not tell us whether it’s cultural, biological or a combination. Empathy is learned between 18 months and 4 years – if you aren’t taught it by then, it’s considerably harder to learn (and becomes impossible after somewhere in the teen years).
One fact that’s suggestive: the vast majority of children of APDs and NPDs don’t develop PDs. If it’s strictly genetic, this seems unlikely.
Eme,
Eme, congrats, changing emails was smart, but you’re on mod with that one now too. I realize you think that I owe a very time-consuming conversation about pluralities with you. The multiple emails from both you and concerned friends of yours made your level of entitlement very clear. And now you’re deliberately twisting another commenter’s words to derail the thread into a discussion of that. If you want people to think pluralities are well-adjusted, you are so not going about it the right way. You can start a free blog through any number of great services and write about the topic to your heart’s content.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Jennifer Kesler,
People with APD respond to negative stimuli, so what do you mean by they can’t feel pain?
This is very true, and it’s one of the reasons why determining the biological or cultural origins of anything is ridiculously difficult. And there are so many variables on both sides, and the possibility it may be a combination of both.
side note- something being biological doesn’t necessarily mean genetic, which was why I made the distinction between psychological environment and physical environment.
Attackfish(Quote) (Reply)
Attackfish,
I mean they respond to negative social stimuli, like prison and being thwarted. Reading back through it it looked like I could have meant just physical pain. Oops.
Attackfish(Quote) (Reply)
Attackfish, I was thinking of terror, actually. APDs don’t feel fear, so some enjoy making victims feel fear, seeing what that’s all about.
But enlarging the context: yes, they don’t like it when they don’t get their way. But they don’t experience emotional wounding the way empaths do. Example: if a friend tells me they’ve had enough of me, I experience it as an emotional loss. If the same happens to an APD, he experiences it the same way he would a monetary loss – people, like money, are just assets to him. And if it happens to an NPD, he experiences it as an all-out threat.
Sorry for conflating biological with genetic – you’re entirely right.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Jennifer Kesler,
Ah, I understand now. This is also why many people with APD casually disregard their own safety as well. It can be pretty terrifying to watch.
Attackfish(Quote) (Reply)
Welp, I can’t edit or delete comment. Sorry, won’t trouble you again.
Mintywolf(Quote) (Reply)
Mintywolf,
*with that. Trouble you with that >.<
Posting sans caffeine=sub-optimal, apparently.
Mintywolf(Quote) (Reply)
Mintywolf – if you want me to edit your comment, just email me and let me know what you want it to say. Ableist language is a concept that’s new-ish to most of us (I first heard about it a year ago, maybe a bit longer), so please know that no one was judging you.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
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