You don't have to be mentally ill to be these things. Considering the type of people that rule our world
(
) it seems that the most well adjusted people in our society are not only more than capable of being this, it seems like a requirement.
So I am no longer comfortable using the word psychopath (or any other "dark triad" nonsense) to describe these types of people. These people aren't struggling to function with a mental illness, they're of the exact mindset that thrives in our backwards society.
However I'm struggling to think of a suitable replacement word that carries with it the same "This is serial killer coded shit" vibe that calling someone a psychopath carries (and associating such a thing with psychopaths is ableist so I don't want to use the word in that way anymore)
Calling them ghouls, fascists or nazis doesn't carry the same weight. What kind of word bests describes the casual, dangerous heartlessness of people without throwing the mentally ill under the bus?
I thought maybe sociopath, but looking it up I find it IS a medical condition.
Unfortunately culturally the words that resonate with the most power are ableist. You don't find the other words to generate the same feeling because we've culturally turned people's ailments into our regularly used pejoratives; other words that aren't ableist don't strike the same because of culture.
Sociopath and psychopath while once used as medical designations are now considered to be slurs for cluster B personality disorders. People use them interchangeably, doesn't help the actual DSM designations are asocial personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder