The Dark Tetrad Personalities are the Biggest Threat to the Debt Ceiling

Right now, we are all sitting on the edge of our seats wondering if the Republicans are actually going to drive the school bus over the cliff while the bomb goes off and shoot all the school children onboard one by one on national TV. The biggest reason to not be able to sleep the night through is because of the dark tetrad personalities that we have put into Congress. We have elected deeply flawed people to our both houses who are more interested in their personal goals than in governing or how their actions affect the rest of us.

We now live in a state of psychopathocracy. When psychopathocracy is paired with the sportification, we get politicians, bureaucrats, and judges willing to ignore the rules, laws, and policies when Republicans are in the barrel, and misapply them to put Democrats and the demagogued into the barrel. Nothing exemplifies this better than the debt ceiling hostage crisis that we are all stumbling through right now.

Before we can examine how the debt ceiling debacle is a product of the dark tetrad personalities driving it, we first have to know what is meant by this cluster of personality traits.

What is the dark tetrad of personality characteristics?

The dark tetrad set of personality characteristics are Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, and sadism. They are considered dark because of their inherent destructiveness. Often, you’ll see them referred to as the dark triad, in which case sadism is omitted, but sadistic behavior is common among those with these traits, so we include it here.

To understand the dark tetrad, you have to understand each of its component parts:

MACHIAVELLIANISM. The primary aspect of Machiavellianism is the drive to acquire power at all costs. These people use deceitful manipulation to reach their goals. Think, your typical evil genius in any superhero tale. They are calculating, reckless, unethical. Power is what they want, and they’re willing to play the long game to get it.

Threatening to default on the US debt is the single most reckless thing anyone in the federal government could do. It would plunge the world into catastrophe in which thousands, perhaps millions, would die and millions, perhaps billions, would live in misery for decades to come. It would hand world leadership to China.

Obviously, that’s something no one in their right mind would do, so score, right? They have to give the hostage takers what they want, right? Ergo cui bono, right? Win-win, the Machiavellians get to be powerful and get their way and the economy keeps chugging along.

PSYCHOPATHY. We all know what psychopathy is, right? These are the freaks that ain’t got no empathy, guilt, or shame. But, they are also impulsive and aggressive. In fact, out of control often comes to mind. In short, they march to the beat of a very different drum, a beat that says do crimes, be antisocial. Think serial killer but also the prosecutor that can sleep nights after knowingly put a person away for thirty+ years for a crime they didn’t commit or some who likes beer, knowhatimean?

They ain’t gonna be feeling no guilt or shame for destroying the world economy and watching billions suffer because of it. You talking to the wrong people if you want to appeal to any sense of decency to avert this catastrophe. This is exactly the kind of mess antisocial impulsive people inflict on the rest of us.

NARCISSISM. Loyal readers of Ye Olde Blogge know all about narcissism because of the critical mass of posts posted since 2016 about it. Narcissists only care about themselves, literally, and literally think they’re the very best. They’re so absorbed by their own greatness that they can’t see the rest of us as human beings or actually mattering. Y’all know who you should be thinking about with this one, right?

Narcissists only consider their own needs, like old Kev 15 in the House. To him, not being Speaker is the absolute worst thing that could happen to the country and the world, so anything and everything that can keep him Speaker is justified, including plunging the world into a terrifying economic abyss. Also, its always somebody else’s fault to a narcissist.

SADISM. Sadism is the enjoyment of pain in others. There are two types of sadists, those who enjoy the physical pain they inflict in others and those that enjoy the emotional pain. Many of the sadists in the dark tetrad are the latter. Think Internet troll here. They enjoy all the gyrations they can put people through just by being obnoxious in their comments.

The sadists among them enjoy watching us all squirm and wring our hands worrying over the looming disaster. To them it is priceless entertainment.

Since personality characteristics tend to cluster in related groups, these four regularly occur together. Remember the Ol’ Pussy Grabber’s diagnosis is a malignant narcissist. He earns the malignant moniker because he has such strong sadistic and psychopathic features. Although, they are not sufficient to earn him those diagnoses.

Everyone who is holding the economy hostage has elements of all four flowing through their black hearts. They are down with destroying the world as we know it as long as they get theirs. Literally.

The ones who aren’t dark tetrad personalities are blinded by the sportification of our politics and blindly support their side or are paralyzed by groupthink and are too afraid of losing reelection to actually speak out, much less vote for a clean debt ceiling bill.

The ramifications of the Republicans having made a dark tetrad personality-friendly and nurturing environment are tremendous. We will be repairing the damage for generations even if we don’t default, and for generations more, if we do.

The only solution to all of this is to hand the Republicans devastating defeats up and down the ticket and across the board in the 2024 elections. We should all be working towards that goal.

Image Attribution

“the Debt Ceiling Cat is watching…” by ~C4Chaos is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.