So You Created a Sociopath - New Book Announcement!

post by Garrett Baker (D0TheMath) · 2024-04-01T18:02:18.010Z · LW · GW · 3 comments

Contents

4 comments

Lets face it, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, and you can't start a worldwide social and political movement without creating a few power-hungry sociopaths. We get it. It hard, but its necessary. Whether it be dictators or dictresses; terrorists or terrorettes; fraudsters or fraudines. Every great social movement does and did it. Christianity, Liberalism, Communism, and even Capitalism have all created and enabled evil, power-hungry individuals who have caused mass calamity, and even death.

Our guide is aimed at the leaders, and future leaders of these and similar movements, but we believe its also a fun and exciting read for a popular audience, and those who find themselves within such movements.

We offer 5 keys to success in the aftermath of these situations:

  1. Deny, deny, deny. Deny anything happened, and if you can't deny anything happened, deny you had knowledge of anything happening.
  2. Disavow. Convince yourself and the world that the actions of the individual or individuals in question had nothing to do with the principles or ground-level reality of your social movement. This one is easy! We do it by default, but leaders often don't do it loud enough.
  3. Do Something. Often people don't care what, they just want to know you're doing it. Whether it be a cheap and surface level investigation, or calling the next big change you make a reform effort, Do It!
  4. Scapegoat. Lets be honest here, social movements are never unified, and you probably have some political enemies who have or had some features or goals in common with the sociopath, right? Why not blame them! Hit two birds in one stone, and be gone with both your problems.
  5. Change Nothing, say nothing. In case the previous gave you the wrong impression, the last thing you should do is say anything of substance, or do anything of substance. That gives the wider world the ability to legitimately blame you and your social movement for what happened. Not ok!

Make sure to pre-order on Amazon before its release this June!

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comment by scrollop · 2024-04-01T19:56:02.102Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

"If anyone really wants to be in a position of power, they probably shouldn't be."

comment by Jiro · 2024-04-03T08:47:47.364Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Many of these things are subject to the objection "and you know who else proclaims that they're innocent? Innocent people."

Advice which says "don't act like you're innocent, and be skeptical of someone who claims to be innocent" is generally bad advice.

Replies from: D0TheMath
↑ comment by Garrett Baker (D0TheMath) · 2024-04-03T16:37:04.513Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

We aim for the book to be accessible to both the innocent and guilt-ridden.

Of course, if the advice was different for both the guilt-ridden and innocent, then, well, not only would it make the book longer, but many people would be able to tell how you feel about the situation your social movement has gotten itself into by just looking at what set of actions you’re taking.

Our advice is to take these same 5 actions and nothing more so people can’t tell, even in principal! As you say, they work well regardless of your circumstances. And I say that’s a big plus!