Should conservatism be classified as a mental disorder?

[Act_of_Reparation]

77. And I've now rebuked your distinction several times.

Repeating the same half-assed, amateurish analysis several times doesn't make it one iota less half-assed or amateurish. You're not a psychologist. You're some random nobody with an internet connection and nothing better to do. You couldn't find a psychopath in a room full of nuns.

If that isn't enough to overcome your stubborn refusal to acknowledge the limitations of your expertise, let me break it down for you:

First:

Lack of empathy is only one trait indicative of psychopathy (or rather, antisocial personality disorder, as psychopathy is a collection of traits, not a recognized illness). Impulsiveness, criminality, aggression, manipulation, and an established pattern of irresponsibility are others.

One of these traits is not enough to diagnose. Two of these traits is not enough to diagnose. Several must be met, and then other more prevalent conditions that also present these symptoms must be excluded.

Are you qualified to make the distinction between a psychopath and paranoid schizophrenic? I'm guessing no.

Second:

The prevalence of antisocial personality disorder is quite low. The DSM-V puts it between 0.2% and 3.3%, a figure so unfathomably low that to suggest that even a significant minority of conservatives have it is just fucking absurd.

Third:

Again, you're not a professional. I'm guessing here -- and I think this is a fair assumption -- that you haven't had the opportunity to sit the majority of American conservatives down on your living room couch for a friendly chat. All you know about them is that they appear to have no empathy. Do they really have no empathy, or are they simply less empathetic than you'd like?

Guess we'll never know.

Fourth:

Mental illness has a very specific definition: a pattern of thought or behavior that inhibits one's socio-occupational functioning. Millions of conservatives function just fine in their day-to-day lives, ergo they are not mentally ill.

Fifth:

You're looking to clinical psychology to explain patterns of thought and behavior presented across a large, diverse population... which is a lot like trying to look at the sun through a fucking microscope.

Maybe pick a discipline with a tad more scope? Social psych for example? Sociology perhaps? No, they're not as straightfoward as clinical psych, and they don't come with a handly little book you can read online that makes you think you're qualified to talk about these things when you're clearly not, but I think you'll find they hold more explanative power in the longrun.

But what the fuck do I know.