Why Great Presidents Are Often Psychopaths
19th August 2016
What do these presidents have in common? Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy. When I saw that question posed by University of California Irvine neuroscientist James Fallon, my response was that they were the three most popular presidents of the 20th century.
They all had fascist inclinations and increased the footprint of the Federal government on daily life, precisely because of that popularity.
Now what about Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush? All markedly less popular – each lost his bid for re-election.What I didn’t know is that biographers of each president had been asked to rate their subjects on a standardized assessment of psychopathic traits. Those first three super-popular presidents ranked No. 1, 2, and 3; they were America’s most psychopathic presidents. The three who couldn’t win a second term ranked among the least psychopathic.
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Practice saying “My candidate is a psychopath. And that’s okay.”
I’d really rather not.