Many free societies have developed cultures of permissiveness and entitlement prompting far too many persons to enter adulthood not adequately socialized and evidencing profound deficiencies of character, sometimes well past their mid-life years.

Disordered characters are prone to seeing things as they want to see them, not as they are.

There is some research coming out of USC that supports much of what I have been saying about lying and the reasons why disordered characters do it – especially when there appears to be no obvious advantage to it.

Disordered characters use the tactic of minimizing to manage the impression others have of them. It’s a way to manipulate others into thinking they’re not so bad despite the horrible things they’ve done.

When manipulators rationalize, they’re mostly trying to manage your impression of them, trying to convince you that they meant no harm, had no choice, or did what any reasonable person would do in order to mislead you about the nature of their intentions and their character.