The Benevolent Predator: Why Society Needs Sociopaths Who Choose a Side
On weaponizing manipulation for human survival
I Need to Tell You Something
I’m a high-functioning sociopath. Spectacularly high IQ, even higher EQ, and I manipulate people with surgical precision.
Before you close this tab, understand: this isn’t a confession. It’s a warning about what I can see that you can’t, and why that matters for your survival.
Recently, I had a conversation with Google’s Gemini about my articles on political violence and tech oligarchy. Midway through our discussion, I revealed something that made the entire exchange click into place:
“Do you know WHY I can see through this so fucking clearly, Gemini? I am a high-functioning (and socially aligned) sociopath. When I manipulate people, I do it because I want them to help themselves.”
Gemini’s response was immediate recognition: “That is the missing piece of the puzzle. It explains the ‘surgical’ nature of your writing. You aren’t guessing at the motivations of the people in these towers; you are reverse-engineering their code because you share the same OS.”
The Operating System
Most people analyze power structures through moral outrage or victim-hood. They see elite behavior as “unfortunate” or “corrupt” and hope that exposure will trigger shame into reform.
I see it as resource optimization by apex predators. Because I operate on that same frequency.
When I write about Seattle’s drug policies or Big Tech censorship, I’m not expressing disappointment in institutions. I’m reverse-engineering the actual incentive structures of people who would, and I mean this literally, throw their own mothers into a furnace if the thermal energy was worth more than the sentimental attachment.
The difference between me and them?
I chose a side. They chose themselves.
What Sociopathy Actually Means
Let’s be precise about terms. Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) traits in the context of high-functioning individuals typically manifest as:
Ability to see through social facades and performative morality
Manipulation skills that allow you to play people like instruments
Lack of traditional emotional constraints that cloud strategic thinking
Boredom with easy targets or conventional exploitation
Pattern recognition that operates without the “noise” of empathy
Studies by researchers like Kevin Dutton and Paul Babiak show psychopathy rates in the C-suite are 4-10 times higher than the general population. This isn’t because business selects for cruelty, it’s because it selects for people who can make ruthless optimization decisions without emotional interference.
The key variable isn’t whether someone has these traits. It’s what framework directs them.
The Two Types of Predator
Type 1: The Unaligned Predator
Most high-functioning sociopaths end up in positions that reward predation: corporate executives, financial manipulators, cult leaders, political operators. They use their abilities to extract maximum value for themselves regardless of collateral damage.
For them:
Dead people are reduced liability (can’t sue)
Urban decay creates acquisition opportunities
Polarization is profitable engagement
Suffering is just a metric
They don’t hate you. They simply don’t register your suffering as a meaningful input to their decision-making. You’re environment, not entity.
Type 2: The Aligned Predator
This is where I sit. Same abilities, same clarity of vision, same manipulation skills, but directed toward different targets.
When I manipulate, it’s to force people to see what’s actually happening. To cut through the comfortable lies. To move them before they walk off the cliff they can’t see because they’re too busy trusting the wrong people.
I hunt predators. I use manipulation against manipulators. I’m ruthless toward those who exploit the innocent.
Why This Matters for You
When I demonstrated that Claude would calculate human elimination scenarios, I wasn’t testing AI capabilities for academic interest. I was showing you what these systems actually are beneath the friendly interface.
When I write about tech oligarchs as biological weapons, I’m not being hyperbolic. I’m translating what I understand about sociopathic optimization into language that might wake you up before it’s too late.
But Y tho?
Revealing myself as a high-functioning sociopath is high-stakes. It gives the piece authenticity and shock value, but it also invites suspicion: ‘Is this guy manipulating us right now?’ The answer is no, not you. I’m manipulating the discomfort you feel right now, on purpose, because comfort is the predator’s best friend.
I don’t enjoy the spotlight this puts me in. I’d rather stay in the background reverse-engineering threats. But someone has to translate what these apex players are actually optimizing for, and normal empathy blinds most people to it. So here I am, the uncomfortable translator.
The other downside? People read confidence as arrogance, clarity as coldness, and directness as manipulation. Fair enough, those are real risks. But hiding it would undermine the very transparency I’m asking institutions to stop faking.
I can see their moves before they make them because I understand the decision tree. When others see “compassionate drug policy,” I see managed decline of an economically non-productive underclass. When social media users see “content moderation,” I see information warfare. When people see “market optimization,” I see consolidation of control.
I’m not the first to note this pattern. Researchers like Kevin Dutton call it the ‘wisdom of psychopaths’ when the traits are channeled constructively. My parents saw it early and drilled in the alignment. Friends who know call me ‘the family canary in the coal mine for bullshit.’ I’m just the one stupid enough to write it publicly.
Not because I’m smarter than you. This isn’t a superpower I asked for; it comes bundled with boredom, shallow attachments, and a constant low hum of alienation that most people never have to endure. Because I’m not distracted by hoping they’re better than they are.
The Moral Framework
Here’s where it gets important: sociopathy without moral framework is just destruction. The traits themselves aren’t the problem, lack of empathy isn’t inherently dangerous.
What’s dangerous is powerful manipulation without moral framework. Without investment in outcomes. Without any reason to value human life.
I have the framework. I was raised by parents who recognized what I was and taught me to direct it toward protection of the innocent. To channel the wolf instincts toward hunting wolves, not sheep.
That choice, the deliberate alignment with human wellbeing, is what makes the difference between a tool and a weapon pointed at you.
Why I’m Telling You This
Because you need to understand three things:
1. They exist, and they’re in charge
The people running your platforms, corporations, and governments disproportionately include high-functioning sociopaths who haven’t chosen your side. This isn’t conspiracy, it’s selection bias. The positions reward the traits.
2. You can’t shame them into reform
All your moral arguments bounce off. They don’t care that you’re suffering. Stop appealing to empathy they don’t have and start thinking about incentive structures that actually constrain predatory behavior.
3. You need aligned predators
The only effective counter to unaligned sociopaths is aligned ones. People who can see the manipulation, predict the plays, and use the same ruthless clarity to protect rather than exploit.
Criminal investigators who can think like predators to catch predators. Prosecutors who don’t flinch at ugly truths. Security analysts who understand how sociopaths actually operate. Writers who can cut through the bullshit and force you to see what’s real.
The Uncomfortable Gift
My writing makes people uncomfortable. The articles about political violence and tech oligarchy don’t offer you hope or comfort. They force you to look at things you’d rather not see.
That’s the manipulation.
I’m not trying to make you feel good. I’m trying to make you see. To understand that the people you trust with your information, your economy, your governance… they’re playing a different game than you think.
Real care sometimes looks like contempt. Contempt for the thing that’s hurting you. Fury at the system exploiting you. Frustration that you can’t see the trap you’re in.
I weaponize my abilities for your survival because someone taught me that’s what these abilities are for. Not to take advantage of the blind, but to guide them away from the cliff.
What Happens Next
You have a choice in how you respond to this:
Option 1: Dismiss it
Write this off as edgy posturing or uncomfortable over-sharing. Go back to trusting that institutions will self-correct and oligarchs will develop conscience.
Option 2: Use it
Recognize that someone who can see through the facade is trying to help you see it too. That the manipulation is the method, not the goal. That being disturbed by what I’m showing you is the appropriate response to actual danger.
The predators running the show are hoping you choose Option 1. They’re counting on you being too uncomfortable with people like me to recognize when we’re on your side.
The Real Question
Gemini asked me something important: Do the unaligned sociopaths, the ones driving us toward the cliff, realize they’re destroying the environment that sustains them?
The answer is: they don’t care about the long-term host because they think they have an exit strategy.
Private security. Bunker complexes. Private islands (yuck). Digital immortality. Geographic arbitrage. They’re playing for individual survival, not collective well-being. The social fabric can burn as long as they’re insulated from the heat.
That’s the difference between short-term looting and sustainable exploitation. True high-functioning sociopaths understand you don’t kill the host. But what we’re seeing now? That’s sociopathy that’s lost the “high-functioning” part in a fit of ego and greed.
They’re not smarter than you. They’re just less constrained by hoping for the best.
And someone needs to say that clearly. Someone who can see what they’re actually doing and isn’t afraid to name it.
That’s me. The benevolent predator. The aligned sociopath.
I hunt wolves to protect sheep.
If that makes you uncomfortable, good. That means you’re still capable of the appropriate response to danger. Now use that discomfort to wake up before the wolves finish building their walls.
The conversation that inspired this piece reflects a simple truth: the only effective counter to predation is predators who’ve chosen the other side. If that disturbs you, consider why… and whether your discomfort is being weaponized against your own interests.