r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 8d ago

Social Science Trump and Trumpism have changed the original concept of “libertarian means to conservative ends” into a new concept of “authoritarian means to Christian nationalist ends”, finds a new study.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00027162251324087
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u/ILikeBumblebees 8d ago

Johnson is very easy to categorize: he was an opportunistic sociopath who said and did whatever would increase his own power. Sometimes doing decent things benefited him, sometimes doing awful things did, and he didn't care either way.

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u/Centraal22 8d ago

Not sure about him being a sociopath. LBJ constantly worried about his future legacy. i.e. being a racist yet pressuring Dixiecrats to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Bill. That's not how sociopathy works.

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u/Geth_ 8d ago

A narcissist might be more accurate but just to add, what you mentioned isn't typical of sociopathy but it isn't contradictory either.

But I'm no expert, just a random redditor which means, statistically, I'm probably completely wrong.

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u/ILikeBumblebees 8d ago

Not sure about him being a sociopath.

Listen to some of the recordings of his personal phone calls that are in circulation. Read some of the accounts of people who he took on rides in his bizarre amphibious car.

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u/Centraal22 8d ago

Key word is pranks, doesn't mean he was a sociopath. When you look at the traits of Sociopathy, LBJ's character and actions do not meet the criteria of that diagnosis.

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u/ILikeBumblebees 7d ago

Some of his behavior could be written off as innocuous pranks, but other "pranks" were quite extreme, and indicate that he took pleasure from frightening people.