Episode 644 - Psychocast
Jul 17, 2023
We're talking about the pop-culture myth of psychopaths and sociopaths and other stuff like serial killers. Yes those conditions do exist, well sort of (not exactly with those names), but the pop-culture versions we know from the media are mostly myths. The real things aren't as exciting or flashy as the versions we know and love/hate from movies, comic, books, TV shows and podcasts.
Topics and Show Notes
In fact even though people with antisocial conditions we know as psychopathy and sociopathy are over-represented in prisons they still only make up a small part of population there and there are many many more who live free among us and never even think of killing people or committing crimes. Ironically when they DO commit offenses they are not smart about it or devious the way the pop-culture versions are ALWAYS shown because that's not part of the condition. If a deviously, evilly, cleverly planned murder is committed then it's very unlikely to be a psychopath.
We all tend to have the idea that a psychopath is some cold, calculating, very intelligent, evil person. a predatory wolf who observes and preys upon the passive sheep that are the res of humanity… This is pure fantasy and invention. The reality is that psychopaths tend to be less intelligent than most people because the condition they have directly stunts their social interaction and learning ability. They also don't plan out evil schemes because the condition is characterised by a lack of control, impulsivity and an inability to delay gratification. These people are not the evil mastermind super-villains popculture makes them look like, instead they are mentally ill, damaged, and not fully formed. The only thing pop-culture sometimes gets right is the lack of empathy.
Anyway, Tantz is the expert, hear her talk about it on the cast!
What are your fave or least fave things about psychopaths? One of my least favourite shows in Psycho-pass. It's a cyberpunk anime about a police force that uses psychopaths to hunt down criminals because of their “unique” abilities, as well as an all-seeing administrator who controls everything and who has to be a psychopath. They're of course assisted by AI. This is a moronic anime that gets everything wrong about the future and is a total disservice to the entire cyberpunk genre. While Ghost in the Shell is quiet genius, this is simply a fart.
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Comfur-Chan - A bouncing, warm piano lead, rock road-trip. Burning down a hot highway, streaking past the scenery at a fair clip. This tune knows where it wants to go and it wants to get there fast!
Topics and shownotes
Links
DSM entry on “psychopaths” - https://www.psi.uba.ar/academica/carrerasdegrado/psicologia/sitios_catedras/practicas_profesionales/820_clinica_tr_personalidad_psicosis/material/dsm.pdf
Featured comic:
Oni x Fox - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2023/jul/11/featured-comic-oni-x-fox/
Featured music:
Comfur-Chan - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Comfur_Chan/ - by Ksteak, rated E.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
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Next week AI cast
Episode 634 - Boomer-myth
May 8, 2023
Generational tensions are a cultural constant. It's popular to pick on the young and say they're lazy, irresponsible, stupid, changing things in silly ways etc, but it's also just as popular too defend them and debunk myths associated with younger people, we don't have that with older people and I find that a bit sad and disturbing. This cast tackles the myths associated with “boomers”.
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Last week we did a thing of the persistent myths of fiction- fictional conventions that we all just accept, and are repeated over and over and even influence real life- for example: that people are blasted back in reaction to being shot. It started as a way of making shooting scenes more dramatic and obvious on film, but became a convention and we all believe it so much that it influences reality- it's part of the famous JFK conspiracy about a “second shooter” because people foolishly think JFK's head rocking “back and to the left” indicated the direction of a gunshot. The kinetic energy of a bullet is imparted to the medium it strikes, typically through heat and destruction when it hits a soft target like a human.
Episode 571 - Myths of fiction
Feb 21, 2022
There are so many really silly cliché myths from fiction that we all just tend to accept. They're objectively stupid but they get repeated so often that we don't bat an eye when we see them and we can even start to believe them in reality. I thought it'd be fun to dig into them in a Quackcast. I made a thread in the forum for people to contribute to. Unfortunately we didn't get to many in the Quackcast but there's always time to do another!
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Pit and Tantz join me to talk about about fairies, fae, Faery, Fair folk, Yokai, and all that good stuff. They're like the dark-matter of the supernatural world: they're not really gods, demons, monsters, or ghosts (though sometimes they are al of those sort off…), they generally fill the spaces between. They exist in a lot of cultures all over the place. They can be naughty spirits, elemental creatures, or animalistic, but generally they're quite alien and unknowable. This discussion comes from Tantz's newspost on Saturday.
Episode 530 - What is SciFi?
May 10, 2021
So what IS SciFi? Well it's a pretty wide umbrella term and contains a lot of different things. In some senses it's just an imaginative fiction story where science replaces magic. SciFi can simply be a sciencey setting where genre stories take place (romance, adventure, nior, horror). It can be a magical fantasy space opera with a futuristic skin (Star Wars), it can be “hard SciFi” where the story is set in the future but the science is completely plausible, it can be written with strong themes that examine philosophical questions and make interesting points about the nature of humanity, and it can be so many more things too. It's a broad church!
Episode 487 - DD Anthology introduction!
Jul 13, 2020
Boundbun joins us to talk about the plans for the upcoming Drunk Duck Anthology that the proud people of the DD Discord (Aggie and Mel), are talking about. It hopes to be a true mammoth of a project at something like 130 pages! So if you'd like to get in on this and have your work actually published then join the Discord and navigate to the correct chat. You can have your say on what form the anthology takes.
Episode 420 - Substance abuse and use
Apr 1, 2019
The entire gang is here this time again. This marks number 420 of the Quackcasts we've done. 420 is code among some for smoking dope, so going with that theme we're talking about the influence of substances on creative endeavours. People try and use substances to facilitate their creativity, we chat about why they do it, how it works, why it fails, the benefits and the issues. We DO NOT advocate taking illegal things in any way at all. This includes ANY substance, from dope, to coffee, to redbull, tea, wine, beer, cold and flu medication, headache pills, opium, adderall, ANYTHING at all, as long as it produces some mental or physiological change, it counts!
