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Comment by alexryan | Hacker News Reader

I cannot think of anything more terrifying than high IQ sociopaths.

Really? I'm more scared of the reverse: Sincerely well-meaning people who fail to fully consider their actions and therefore end up pushing terrible ideas with extreme force because they are so convinced that they're right. "Think of the children!" (destroys privacy, institutionalizes censorship) "Save the environment!" (switches to a product that turns out to have higher total impact) "Stop the pedophiles!" (organizes witch hunt and throws out burden of proof)

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

― C. S. Lewis

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EDIT: Realized I should point out - the dig at pedophile witch hunts isn't meant as a commentary on this article, it's just a generic example.

It’s a fair point and a genuine real phenomenon. However, in my experience, people with low PCR-L scores who make bad decisions when in emotional states are likely to change their position when they realize they have inadvertently harmed the innocent. Genuine psychopaths, on the other hand, are incurable predators.

It’s a fair point and a genuinely real phenomenon. However, in my experience, people with low PCL-R scores who make bad decisions when in emotional states are likely to change their position when they realize they have inadvertently harmed the innocent. Genuine psychopaths, on the other hand, are incurable predators.

> However, in my experience, people with low PCL-R scores who make bad decisions when in emotional states are likely to change their position when they realize they have inadvertently harmed the innocent. Genuine psychopaths, on the other hand, are incurable predators.

You have no such experience unless you happen to be a researcher on this very specific subject. And if you were, you wouldn't be saying stuff like

> Genuine psychopaths, on the other hand, are incurable predators.

> people with low PCL-R scores who make bad decisions when in emotional states are likely to change their position when they realize they have inadvertently harmed the innocent

Mass emotional behavior (arguably well-intentioned, for some definition of good we might not share) can last an extremely long time and do enormous damage- down to persecution, massacres and pogroms. And this is valid for every people, any country and any time, and any degree of damage.

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