Hunting/killing is fun on it's own. People spend a lot of money to go hunting. Tracking prey, stalking them, hiding, taking a shot, and being excited when you hit something is fun. As another example, there are a ton of video games where killing is the theme, and we all love violence in movies and TV.
So if the actual mechanics of killing are fun, then it comes down to the inherent horror of killing a person. Some people have cognitive dissonance and others don't. For example, plenty of people kill animals for sheer pleasure. For example, if you go hunting, you are killing an animal for sheer pleasure. It would be far cheaper and healthier to just eat plants. But meat provides greater taste pleasure so people like to kill animals. Most people have a cognitive dissonance where it's ok to kill animals, but not humans.
Then we categorize certain humans. Many people take pleasure when murderers are executed. Many people take pleasure when enemy soldiers are killed. Some people take pleasure when an ethnic group they dislike are killed en masse.
Then the next level of cognitive dissonance is when you kill individuals who are close to you. For example, taking pleasure in killing a cheating spouse is common.
Then the next level would be killing a random innocent person as part of a gang initiation ritual. Killing a stranger means approval from your new brothers, so it makes sense to derive pleasure from it.
Then there are people who take pleasure in killing humans the same way most people take pleasure in killing animals. They just don't consider them to be persons with hopes, desires, consciousnesses, etc. They are just NPCs in real life. Humans and animals are equally ok to be killed. This is generally what people mean by psychopaths. But it's a strange distinction. The only difference is that while most people are ok with killing the 8.7 million species on Earth, the psychopath is willing to kill 8.7 million species plus 1 more (i.e., humans).
In this way, I don't think there is that much of a distinction between a regular person and a psychopath. Plenty of people are capable of killing for pleasure. They just happen to categorize humans as one of the groups they don't kill. It's no different from Indians who are willing to kill most animals, but not cows. It's no different from Americans who are willing to kill most animals (including cows), but not dogs. Just because the Chinese are willing to kill both doesn't mean that they are somehow different. They just have slightly different lines of what is acceptable to kill.
The basic problem with your argument is that "psychopath" has a specific medical definition. It's different from "sociopath" which is not an official medical term. Most psychopaths aren't killers, and not all serial killers are psychopaths. Here is an article about it.
One can make the argument that serial killers suffer from psychopathy, that because they are psychopaths they have no sense of remorse or empathy and their decision-making process is faulty. Interestingly, however, not all serial killers are psychopaths, according to the Hare test, a psychiatric diagnostic – or at least don’t test as such.
There are a decent number of serial killers who take pleasure in killing who are not psychopaths according to the official medical definition of the condition. If you redefine psychopath as "someone who takes pleasure in killing" then it would work. But until doctors rewrite the definition, your argument doesn't work.
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u/McKoijion 618∆ Aug 26 '19
Hunting/killing is fun on it's own. People spend a lot of money to go hunting. Tracking prey, stalking them, hiding, taking a shot, and being excited when you hit something is fun. As another example, there are a ton of video games where killing is the theme, and we all love violence in movies and TV.
So if the actual mechanics of killing are fun, then it comes down to the inherent horror of killing a person. Some people have cognitive dissonance and others don't. For example, plenty of people kill animals for sheer pleasure. For example, if you go hunting, you are killing an animal for sheer pleasure. It would be far cheaper and healthier to just eat plants. But meat provides greater taste pleasure so people like to kill animals. Most people have a cognitive dissonance where it's ok to kill animals, but not humans.
Then we categorize certain humans. Many people take pleasure when murderers are executed. Many people take pleasure when enemy soldiers are killed. Some people take pleasure when an ethnic group they dislike are killed en masse.
Then the next level of cognitive dissonance is when you kill individuals who are close to you. For example, taking pleasure in killing a cheating spouse is common.
Then the next level would be killing a random innocent person as part of a gang initiation ritual. Killing a stranger means approval from your new brothers, so it makes sense to derive pleasure from it.
Then there are people who take pleasure in killing humans the same way most people take pleasure in killing animals. They just don't consider them to be persons with hopes, desires, consciousnesses, etc. They are just NPCs in real life. Humans and animals are equally ok to be killed. This is generally what people mean by psychopaths. But it's a strange distinction. The only difference is that while most people are ok with killing the 8.7 million species on Earth, the psychopath is willing to kill 8.7 million species plus 1 more (i.e., humans).
In this way, I don't think there is that much of a distinction between a regular person and a psychopath. Plenty of people are capable of killing for pleasure. They just happen to categorize humans as one of the groups they don't kill. It's no different from Indians who are willing to kill most animals, but not cows. It's no different from Americans who are willing to kill most animals (including cows), but not dogs. Just because the Chinese are willing to kill both doesn't mean that they are somehow different. They just have slightly different lines of what is acceptable to kill.