Have you ever wondered how the current U.S. administration has managed to amass in one place so many inherently cruel, vindictive, unfeeling individuals willing to destroy the lives of hundreds of thousands of people they’ve never met and who have done nothing to deserve their brutal treatment?

I’m talking about people like J.D. Vance, Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller, Russell Vought, Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem and their multitude of compatriots who, without a second thought, round up people in the most brutal manner, tear them away from their families, herd them into hellhole prisons, and deport them . . .

who pepper spray, physically attack, handcuff and arrest peaceful demonstrators . . .

who destroy the careers of those who may have insulted them recently or a decade ago . . .

who deprive children and the elderly of medical care, food, and decent housing by making those basic necessities of life unavailable or unaffordable . . .

and who put people out of work just because they can.

Where did all of these apostles of Dracula suddenly spring from? Were they born that way, or are they the recent, mind-altered creations of some real-life monster?

Perhaps another such madman as this:

I’ve been giving this a good deal of thought lately. And yesterday I read an article posted by a blog buddy of mine concerning his country’s misguided attempts at understanding and “treating” autism. In it, he mentions studies done in the 1960s on the efficacy of using Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) — or so-called conversion therapy — in attempting to suppress autistic traits, rather than offering support to the individuals who live with autism and are uniquely qualified to understand and describe their experiences.

ABA — which has also been used to attempt to “convert” LGBTQ people in the hopes that they will become “normal” — can include brutal treatments, including electroshock therapy, and has frequently caused substantial additional harm to its victims.

But it also has had adverse effects on the “therapists” who perform the “treatments”; and questions have arisen as to whether those individuals themselves even recognize the harm that is being done to them. For example, my friend writes:

“In the 1960s, Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment in which ordinary people were instructed to administer electric shocks to a stranger. The shocks were fake, the screams acted — but the participants didn’t know that. Many showed distress. Some hesitated. But 65% delivered the maximum voltage when prompted by an authority figure in a lab coat.

“A decade later, Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment revealed how quickly role and power can distort empathy. Volunteers assigned as ‘guards’ began to humiliate and abuse ‘prisoners’ within days. The experiment was halted early — not because the guards recognised the harm, but because the researchers did.

“These studies are unsettling not because they reveal monsters, but because they reveal us. The capacity to harm is not confined to the cruel. It lives in the compliant, the well-intentioned, the professionally trained. It thrives in systems that reward obedience and punish dissent.

“In places like Lake Alice, obedience became a shield. Staff followed orders. Protocols were upheld. Children were silenced. The harm was not hidden — it was routinised.”

*. *. *

We know about the horrors discovered in Hitler’s concentration camps after they were liberated by the Allies. And we know of the more recent stories told by political prisoners who have survived Vladimir Putin’s penal colonies. The officers, doctors, technicians — and even fellow inmates — who carry out such atrocities will tell you that they are merely “following orders.”

But how do they live with themselves? Could there be so many without consciences, or an iota of empathy?

Those are extreme cases, of course. But applying the same principles of “routinizing” or “normalizing” aberrant (and abhorrent) behavior, could the same not also be said for some of today’s top U.S. officials as they slash and burn their way through America’s democratic principles, doing irreparable harm to millions of innocent people?

And if so, who do you suppose is masterminding and controlling their conversion therapy?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/14/25