It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..." "You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?" "No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people." "Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy." "I did," said Ford. "It is." "So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?" "It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want." "You mean they actually vote for the lizards?" "Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course." "But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?" "Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?" "What?" "I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?" "I'll look. Tell me about the lizards." Ford shrugged again. "Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happenned to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it." "But that's terrible," said Arthur. "Listen, bud," said Ford, "if I had one Altairian dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say 'That's terrible' I wouldn't be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.

This rant reminded me of a book, The Wisdom of Psychopaths. It was a humanistic look at the inner workings of such people and their fundamentally limited experience of human emotion.

The job of a CEO might be difficult for someone like me. Long hours, high stakes, endless political intrigues, systematically exploiting labourers - but to a psychopath, all they see is big opportunities, excitement, and cruel delights. The position is one that seems oddly suited for one who lacks pity, remorse, or a need for emotionally substantive experiences.

i think it would be more comforting to think its reptilians in power rather than humans who act like that.

It's from the 1980s film/TV series, "V".

All of these conspiracy theory nuts believe the most banal stupid crap.

This is a smear campaign against lizards. /s

It’s a known thing that sociopaths and psychopaths can rise to the top in corporate structures.

It's not just that they can - they excel at it. Maybe basing our economic system on greed and competition was a bad idea?

Nice try, The Reptile!!

Having a pet lizard has made me have a hard time taking the "lizard people/reptilians" conspiracy theorists seriously. Like, have these people actually been around reptiles? Deeply unserious creatures. Not generally social, sure, but they definitely have body language and would fail terribly at running some kind of complex scheme.

Also a lot of politicians can lick their own eyes.

Until this post I never considered whether Peter Thiel is a reptile, but now I'm sure he is!

If imagining the elites are lizard people helps people come to terms with the need for violent revolution then I’m fine with it honestly.

Ted Cruz is the lizard, though. I can tell, not from his lack of body language cues, but simply because his human-skin suit is so ill-fitting. Also, as a cold-blooded creature, he leaves for warmer places (like Cancun) when Texas gets too cold.

I don't like the word "psychopath" because if you look at the etymology, it's just Greek for "mentally ill person". I don't like the association our language historically has between evil people and mentally ill people.

My boss's boss is eerily kinda like that. She gives me the creeps because she's also trained as a nurse and she could probably kill if she wanted to and get away with it.

Well the most skilled highest paid surgeons have the highest rate of psychopathy of any profession I believe.

Also I think the framing that psychopaths/sociopaths are evil is extremely reductionist. I thinks it's better to think of them as just extremely rational actors acting in their own self interest. An effective society will align the interests of the individual with the interests of the society thus nullifying the potentially negative effects of psychopathy in the individual. Capitalism does this quite effectively by using the psychopaths nature in an artificial competition to drive development.

The issues come into play when psychopaths start to coordinate with each other across what are supposed to be isolated silos eg businessmen coordinating with government. This is essentially what Epstein and associates did. They couldn't trust each other to coordinate as they knew the nature of themselves and thus everyone else. They therefore needed to create insurance to make sure everyone played along. The insurance mechanism and blackmail seems to be the most effective mechanism for such.

Disclaimer: this is purely a philosophical thought excersise I do not endorse or support or call or violence against anyone. This is why u need extremely strict rules on separation of power (not just government branches but every powerful steakholder). U can take radical action that effects a few people and fix the whole problem.

First you have a death penalty for anyone involved with bribing a politician (both get executed) you ban all lobbying and have the same death penalty. Coordinating with a foreign government or business to influence politics executions all round. U work as a regulator then work for the companies u used to regulate and vise versa within a timespan of like 10years execution for you and whoever hired you. That would immediately cause every single one of Epstein's associates along with almost all billionaires and politicians to be immediately executed.

The psychopaths would play by the rules cos they value their own life and lust for power enough to not risk breaking them.