LOL.
Thanks everyone

I frequently tell my kids to play deaf and dumb. I worry more about the kids, not because of the typical teenage type of bullying or harrasement at school. Actually, I think a little bit will be "good" for my weak son. That "typical" bullying is usually limited to a broken ego, or worst, a broken pen or calculator. Hateful groups go much further than that. And my son will be no match for a wicked hateful teenager, let alone a gang.

The problem is more visible in the career world. Two engineers I know have lost their jobs for things they didn't do !! And if they went to court and fought back they were sure to pay a higher price than losing a job. So they turned into private business and never looked back.

It is a combination of hate, ignorance, and selfishness. I guess

I have to be armed with more wisdom and gather as many friends as possible. Meanwhile, more GHBs scattered in every corner.

I brought up your question while talking with a friend who is a manager in human resources.

She said that many of the bullies and members of hate groups are manipulative types. It isn't that they want the victim to be one of them, it's the control that they live for.

She said some of the leaders, esp, can be psychopaths. And she also assured me that there are more psychopaths around than have been analyzed by professionals, because they tend to be intelligent and charming when they want to be. She said it's a real problem in business, where some of the characteristics, while objectionable in real life, are admired in business.

Characteristics of a psychopath:
* Manipulative
* Cunning
* Exploitive
* Arrogant
* Poor judgment, reckless, repeat mistakes
* Callous
* Irresponsible
* Chronic and glib liars
* Lack of self-control
* Lack of empathy, remorse, guilt
* No moral standards
* Impulsive antisocial behavior
* Totally self-centered
* Criminal tendencies
* Promiscuous
* Incapable of real love, lack of deep emotion

Sue

These are traits for pyschopaths? A a guy that trained and mentored sales people for 15 years, you just described every problem I've ever dealt with, with a salesperson.

I think the idea is that if you find most of these traits, then you may have found someone to keep far away from you and yours. If you find one or even a couple of these traits, then it may just be a temporary situational or maturity problem that some experience and education may improve.

Sociopathology is so common that you really can't avoid either sociopathic or authoritarian personalities.

There may even be sound reasons to keep them around. Most successful leaders, politicians, businessmen are at least borderline sociopaths. Most humans can summon up those traits when needed but are, in normal life, restrained by empathy and conscience.

Outright rejection gets you deeper into the weeds with layers of persiflage and hypocrisy instead of dealing with the issue. The key here is management and monitoring.

You have to understand that the sociopath is always looking out for number one and that conscience and convention are not restraints for them. That everything they do and say will be setup to arrange the situation to their own benefit. Once you understand that their behavior is predictable and it can be harnessed to benefit the larger society.

The internet has come to prove that for every belief or interest that one may have, there will be 1000's (and it should be noted that you will probably never meet any of them in person) who hate your beliefs and interests.

I find that the most easiest thing to do is not go lurking on those websites and forums...Saves frustration and allows you to spend time with your family and real friends who support your beliefs and interests.

Yeah... and it's probably why the world is in such bad shape right now! IOW, we could do with REAL people instead of the psychos who are now in charge.

Sue

Sometimes a group needs to coordinate on a single victim, and that coordination is easier if the victim is marked out as different somehow. The details often aren't important. Being the only person known to carry a knife could do it, as could unusual hair or skin colour, or dress sense, or accent or virtually anything.

Sometimes it's worth changing so you don't stand out as different any more, and sometimes it isn't. I wouldn't flaunt my (lack of) religion, and I wouldn't change it either.

In some cases, changing doesn't help. Switching from a knife to a multi-tool may not help because it's not really about knives. For that reason there should be limits to have far you are willing to compromise.

Of course! That technique has served the American government very well. It didn't take too much effort to make the Native Americans an enemy, because they didn't look like 'us'.

The Spanish American war, they didn't look like us.

During WWII, they put legal, non-enemy Japanese in internment camps and confiscated their property for no reason, just because they didn't look like us; but they didn't do that to people of German descent because they looked like us.

The Korean War and the Vietnam Wars, they didn't look like us.

In the Middle East, they don't look like us, dress like us, or have our religion, an easy sell.

As long as our government and the media work together, they can sell the American people practically anything. And if it works on that scale, it works just fine at a business.

Sue