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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / I Will Never Understand This

I Will Never Understand This

by John Cole|  February 22, 20125:35 pm| 55 Comments

This post is in: Election 2012

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How do so many obviously unstable crazy people manage to get so filthy rich?

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55Comments

  1. 1.

    cathyx

    February 22, 2012 at 5:37 pm

    Be careful you don’t get sued.

  2. 2.

    The Bearded Blogger

    February 22, 2012 at 5:38 pm

    capitalism’s current form rewards assholishness.

    On the other hand, some of the causation goes the other way: having a zillion dollars can make people crazy.

  3. 3.

    Moesha

    February 22, 2012 at 5:39 pm

    Sociopaths have no shame, no empathy and no core values. That’s how..

  4. 4.

    ZaftigAmazon

    February 22, 2012 at 5:40 pm

    Because when they chose their parents, wealth was a prerequisite.

  5. 5.

    TenguPhule

    February 22, 2012 at 5:41 pm

    How do so many obviously unstable crazy people manage to get so filthy rich?

    Souls are cheaper then sanity.

  6. 6.

    Poopyman

    February 22, 2012 at 5:42 pm

    @Moesha: That’s it. Period.

  7. 7.

    pat lewis

    February 22, 2012 at 5:43 pm

    The copyright issue is a good reminder of how SOPA would allow abuse.

    And doesn’t the company name, Melaleuca, sound like something that had been santorumed?

  8. 8.

    RD

    February 22, 2012 at 5:43 pm

    VanderSloots are people, my friend.

  9. 9.

    Yutsano

    February 22, 2012 at 5:45 pm

    Born on third base but told they hit a triple all their lives.

  10. 10.

    Chris

    February 22, 2012 at 5:47 pm

    One: how many of them actually got rich? If Mitt Romney’s any example, a lot of them simply made their money the old fashioned way and inherited it.

    Two, maybe it’s not that assholes become rich. Maybe it’s just that extreme wealth allows you to liberate your petulant inner asshole without fear of the consequences.

  11. 11.

    gumbo

    February 22, 2012 at 5:48 pm

    Moesha is spot on. Normal people don’t feel comfortable lying to others in order to steal their money – yet that seems to be SOP for this company and the claims they make about their dietary supplements. Normal people wouldn’t offshore tens of thousands of jobs just to increase the value of their stock options a couple of cents a share. But that’s the way Wall Street rolls these days. Other people and their needs, desires, dreams aren’t real in any sense at all to these “Masters of the Universe,” and that is the definition of sociopathy. Why we choose to reward these behaviors rather than lock these creeps up is the mystery.

  12. 12.

    Benjamin Franklin

    February 22, 2012 at 5:53 pm

    Any relation to Jorhan? You know, of Natalie Holloway fame?

  13. 13.

    David in NY

    February 22, 2012 at 5:54 pm

    At the risk of sparking controversy, I’d say that’s a damned good Greenwald column. Sticking neck way out.

  14. 14.

    SST

    February 22, 2012 at 5:54 pm

    @RD: Heh

  15. 15.

    WaynersT

    February 22, 2012 at 5:55 pm

    lack of conscience

  16. 16.

    James Hulsey

    February 22, 2012 at 5:58 pm

    @WaynersT: Agreed

    It’s much easier to become a billionaire when you don’t care who gets hurt along the way.

  17. 17.

    Holden Pattern

    February 22, 2012 at 5:58 pm

    @Moesha: Agreed. Our current system is a perfect environment for sociopath success; they are rewarded for being completely without empathy, while the rest of us assume the system is fair and it’s our fault that they’re killing us.

  18. 18.

    WaynersT

    February 22, 2012 at 5:58 pm

    I couldn’t resist the blog ad today

    “The 4 dangers destroying men”

    it’s apparently all about sperm.

  19. 19.

    BGinCHI

    February 22, 2012 at 5:59 pm

    Getting rich is easy. Comedy is hard.

  20. 20.

    Benjamin Franklin

    February 22, 2012 at 5:59 pm

    This guy gives the ‘White Salamander’ , a good name.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hofmann

    “Pernicious” and quite litigious. Maybe RICO would exhaust his formidable resources.

  21. 21.

    Culture of Truth

    February 22, 2012 at 6:00 pm

    Willard Mitt Romney earned his money the old fashioned way!

    Also he was named after Willard Marriott. I’m sure it’s a coincidence that when he grew up he helped the hotel chain cheat on their taxes.

  22. 22.

    cmorenc

    February 22, 2012 at 6:01 pm

    Have Vandersloot’s fleet of lawyers threatened Glen Greenwald yet over the linked article? Might John Cole expect to hear from them threatening him for linking to Glen Greenwald’s article, ending with: “BTW: that’s a nice cat and cute couple of dogs you got there John, we hope nothing bad happens to any of them.”

  23. 23.

    david mizner

    February 22, 2012 at 6:01 pm

    This is a trick post right? Obviously it helps.

    In other news, Douthat thinks Sick Rantorum is an economic populist. kooky even for him.

    http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/can-santorum-win-in-november/

  24. 24.

    Arm The Homeless

    February 22, 2012 at 6:02 pm

    Frank VanderSloot is an Idaho billionaire and the CEO of Melaleuca, Inc., a controversial billion-dollar-a-year company which peddles dietary supplements and cleaning products;

    New Romney is both a floor wax AND a dessert topping!

  25. 25.

    GregB

    February 22, 2012 at 6:04 pm

    No wonder this guys son killed Natalie Holloway.

    Snark off.

  26. 26.

    R-Jud

    February 22, 2012 at 6:07 pm

    @WaynersT: I get a chat ad with a brunette kicking her feet on a bed. Her name is “Summercusp”.

    I’m the wrong audience for that ad for a number of reasons, but mostly because I’m trying to remember whether or not there was someone called “Summercusp” in a Dickens novel.

  27. 27.

    brettvk

    February 22, 2012 at 6:10 pm

    Multi-level marketing schemes are legal Ponzis, unfortunately. The people who allow themselves to be victimized by them are the same reality-challenged types who vote GOP. A former partner of mine gave me an up-close study of the pathology.

  28. 28.

    AnotherBruce

    February 22, 2012 at 6:11 pm

    When you pick the right parents, you tend to be spoiled rotten. These people need to be slapped down, figuratively of course.

  29. 29.

    Mouse Tolliver

    February 22, 2012 at 6:23 pm

    He looks and sounds like he might be a character from a Cohen Brothers movie. I wonder if he has quintuplets or a wife that he paid somebody to kidnap.

  30. 30.

    BruceFromOhio

    February 22, 2012 at 6:28 pm

    @Arm The Homeless: The first ‘graf of the linky spells it out – the guy is a sleazy fuck with no soul. That’s all you gotta do to get rich anymore!

    O/T the sperm chick is doing a nice Angelina Jolie channelling. I’m BruceFromOhio, and I approve of this ad.

  31. 31.

    opie_jeanne

    February 22, 2012 at 6:38 pm

    @brettvk: The fact that most of his victims are Mormons should have come as no surprise to me, since MLMs seem to be particularly attractive to Mormons for some reason, and Mormons used to be pretty trusting, naive even.

  32. 32.

    Jay in Oregon

    February 22, 2012 at 6:39 pm

    @david mizner:

    Sick Rantorum

    Where would you like your internets delivered?

  33. 33.

    Tokyokie

    February 22, 2012 at 6:40 pm

    @Moesha: I disagree inasmuch as they do have core values. Well, value. Sadly, it’s their buttholes.

  34. 34.

    grape_crush

    February 22, 2012 at 6:44 pm

    Sociopaths are about 1% of the general population, 4% of top corporate execs/businessmen. Same lack of empathy present, only channeled into profitmaking rather than running around with a machete and a hockey mask.

  35. 35.

    red dog

    February 22, 2012 at 7:00 pm

    Congressmen become rich because of pay-offs and those who pay them off become richer by influencing the laws that benefit them. Then they have kids so the cycle goes on and on.

  36. 36.

    poco

    February 22, 2012 at 7:01 pm

    @R-Jud: Esther Summerson? Bleak House?

  37. 37.

    Short Bus Bully

    February 22, 2012 at 7:11 pm

    John, you’re still conflating PERSONAL WEALTH with SELF WORTH. It’s a common misconception and a cause of much of the world’s problems.

  38. 38.

    D0n Camillo

    February 22, 2012 at 7:12 pm

    @grape_crush:

    Sociopaths are about 1% of the general population, 4% of top corporate execs/businessmen.

    I’d have guessed much higher than 4%. It seems like the present system of corporate management and compensation actually seeks out and rewards sociopathic behavior.

  39. 39.

    JGabriel

    February 22, 2012 at 7:14 pm

    John Cole @ Top:

    How do so many obviously unstable crazy people manage to get so filthy rich?

    Because that’s what happens when you have unstable crazy incentives.

    Also, many crazy filthy rich people were born crazy and filthy rich. Cf., Koch Brothers.

    .

  40. 40.

    Holden Pattern

    February 22, 2012 at 7:17 pm

    @D0n Camillo:

    I’d have guessed much higher than 4%. It seems like the present system of corporate management and compensation actually seeks out and rewards sociopathic behavior.

    There’s a distinction between /being/ a sociopath, and /behaving/ like a sociopath. Sociopaths just aren’t wired to have any empathy, where people who are merely behaving like sociopaths have trained themselves to ignore it.

    So, yes, the proportions are much higher when you factor in people who merely behave like sociopaths professionally — the system is certainly structured to reward it.

  41. 41.

    Kyle

    February 22, 2012 at 7:21 pm

    @D0n Camillo:

    I’d peg that proportion considerably higher than 4% in some of the corporations I’ve worked for.

  42. 42.

    Brachiator

    February 22, 2012 at 7:25 pm

    How do so many obviously unstable crazy people manage to get so filthy rich?

    Lots of unstable crazy people up and down the income class ladder. Generally, it’s easier to ignore crazy poor people.

  43. 43.

    rikyrah

    February 22, 2012 at 7:27 pm

    @Moesha:

    Sociopaths have no shame, no empathy and no core values. That’s how..

    yes yes and more yes

  44. 44.

    jrg

    February 22, 2012 at 7:27 pm

    How do so many obviously unstable crazy people manage to get so filthy rich?

    There are more risk takers in the crazy population. Since there are more of them flipping coins, more of them wind up with 10 heads in a row.

  45. 45.

    Gex

    February 22, 2012 at 7:42 pm

    If you are decent and honest and care about others, assume that they are like you and they want more or less the same kinds of things, you will never have what it takes to get that rich. Only people with abnormal socialization patterns end up this wealthy. It always comes at the expense of someone else. Moreover, healthy people stop collecting money at a certain point and they move on to doing what they would really like to spend their lives doing: travel, hobbies, whatever. These people only care about money, they only want to make money, and there is always the possibility of having more money, so they are stuck on that path.

  46. 46.

    rea

    February 22, 2012 at 8:32 pm

    It’s not so much that they’re crazy–it’s that there is nothing to restrain them.

    The strong do what they will and the weak do what they must, like Thucydides said.

  47. 47.

    Joey Giraud

    February 22, 2012 at 8:42 pm

    Corporations absolutely require sociopathy at the top.

  48. 48.

    Fwiffo

    February 22, 2012 at 9:23 pm

    Well, in Glenn Greenwald, I suspect he’s found his bigger bully.

  49. 49.

    DW

    February 22, 2012 at 9:56 pm

    It’s what you might call the Caligula effect. A lot of the crazies were born to wealth and really have no clue how life is for normal people and no experience at being told “No!” It produces men who are used to always getting their way and freak out when they don’t. Remember Dubya’s continual state of resentment at having to compete with lesser born but more talented rivals. By contrast, note that Al Gore’s dad had him do farm chores so he’d have some sense what life was like for those not part of the lucky sperm club.

    In addition, remember it only takes a small percentage of the big rich to cause a lot of damage under Citizens United. You don’t hear from the sane billionaires because they aren’t so convinced they’re entitled to tell everyone else what to do.

  50. 50.

    AHH onna Droid

    February 22, 2012 at 10:37 pm

    If you read the article this is a typical Mormon story, fleecing the good sheep who line up to be sheared, then using the proceeds on defending their sacred cows: BSA & marriage discrimination.

    Extremely authoritarian and patriarchal. The kiddy diddler coverup is Catholic bishops in parallel.

    Or Penn State. Love child molesters, hate f—s. Yeah, that makes sense. Getting raped tuffins ya up, ya sissy.

    I wonder if MLM watch has a Melaleuca page.

  51. 51.

    300baud

    February 22, 2012 at 11:11 pm

    I think there are two sorts of billionaire.

    There are those with some freakish talent and a lot of drive to achieve something. For them, wealth is a side effect and a working medium. E.g., Gates, Buffett, Zuckerberg.

    Then there are those who are insatiable. They want MOAR and they will to whatever it takes to get it. Their insanity isn’t the barrier to their success; it’s the motivation.

    I’m pretty sure this asshole is an example of the latter. Meleluca is a big old MLM scam. He’s worth comparing with the Herbalife MLM scammer:

    http://articles.latimes.com/print/2001/feb/18/magazine/tm-26780

  52. 52.

    moderateindy

    February 23, 2012 at 2:48 am

    @Moesha:
    Exactly. If you have no qualms about lying cheating stealing and screwing others and can justify anything you do by concluding “it’s just business” then it is much easier to get rich.

  53. 53.

    bob h

    February 23, 2012 at 6:46 am

    How does a nutcase like Rick Santorum make $900k a year, for that matter?

  54. 54.

    Paul in KY

    February 23, 2012 at 9:46 am

    @Fwiffo: I hope he sends a letter to Glenn. Glenn will make him regret that action.

  55. 55.

    Berial

    February 23, 2012 at 10:48 am

    If you are crazy and poor, there are all sorts of restraints on your behavior. If you are crazy and well off, there are still, all sorts of restraints on your behavior. If you are crazy and filthy rich there are hardly any restraints on your behavior.

    Why do celebrity’s behave the way they do? It’s because there aren’t any other people around them, that are able or willing to tell them to cut that shit out. If everyone in your circle is dependent on your good will and money, then you can count on them to agree, that whatever crazy ass thing you do is perfectly rational, and all those other people saying bad things about you are just ‘haters’. Same thing with the mega-wealthy.

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