[shiroiushi]

>The guy sounds like the epitome of the sociopathic CEO. Smartest guy in the room, knows better than all the trained, experienced engineers who urged caution. Too bad his passengers listened to him.

No, he doesn't sounds sociopathic at all. People who "know better" than all the specialists aren't showing a sociopathic personality trait at all. Arrogance and stupidity, perhaps, but those aren't equated with sociopathy.

A sociopathic CEO would be someone who has no empathy. There's no evidence of that here, in fact probably the opposite. Stockton was just a fool.

Seriously, people need to stop using the "sociopathic" label for everyone they don't like.

Edit: to add to this, this reminds me of young people constantly using the word "gaslighting" when they really mean "lying". People who lie to you aren't engaging in an elaborate plan to make you question your own sanity; they're just liars. Please go watch the movie before ever using the term again.

[xnorswap]

Too late to save the word "gaslight", that one has well and truly been rewritten to mean "lying to me".

[gwd]

Not too late by a long shot. Just keep insisting on the actual meaning; same for "terrorist", "facist", etc.

[SoftTalker]

Good luck at parties....

[mindslight]

You can fight the good fight in social situations too, you just have to come at it sideways and make people laugh rather than engaging in head-on pedantry.

[Retric]

Actually, sociopaths don’t just lack empathy, there’s actual cognitive impairment involved in terms of judging risks and outcomes.

> People with ASPD don’t care very much about other people’s well-being. They may take risks that jeopardize their own safety and others’.

https://therapist.com/personality/sociopathy/

Disregarding consequences, acting impulsively, etc are major signs. So no disregarding safety concerns and getting into an unsafe situation really is sociopathic behavior.

[shiroiushi]

>So no disregarding safety concerns and getting into an unsafe situation really is sociopathic behavior.

Roughly half the US population acted exactly this way during the COVID-19 pandemic: refusing to wear masks or get vaccinations despite expert recommendations at the time. There's no way that half of a large population is sociopathic; they're just stubborn fools.

[Retric]

I think peoples risk tolerance is more rational than you might assume.

70+ year olds where vastly more likely to get vaccinated and use masks etc. https://usafacts.org/visualizations/covid-vaccine-tracker-st...

Younger people to it less seriously, but they also had vastly lower risks. In the US below 9,000 people under the age of 30 died out of 1.1 million and of those many had significant health issues. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1191568/reported-deaths-...

You shouldn’t expect those groups to react the same when one is facing 100x the risk of the other.

[rowanG077]

It's just part of internet slang. Everyone who does something people don't like is a sociopath. You are of course totally right.