Analyzing the Childhood Trauma of Major Political Influencers

Nobody loves psychoanalyzing political figures more than I do.

One of the most important lessons you will learn as a mature person is that who you are as an adult is fundamentally shaped by your childhood.

If you tend to be turned off by my California-pop psychology-actor bullshit, take it from Dr. Peter Attia, who puts it’s best in this clip.

“I've learned that most people probably have some degree of unresolved business in their childhood that has produced adaptations, and in some cases many of those adaptations are very good and should continue, but some of those adaptations are negative.

No human being is immune from having developed some type of negative psychological adaptations as a result of their childhood environment, and understanding this allows one to get a much more fuller and more humanized view of not only yourself, but those individuals who shape the cultural and political discourse.

NOTE - I have hyperlinked the relevant interviews for each person discussed, as the most crucial information about this topic cannot be put into words - it must be seen.

Ben Shapiro

I do not like Ben Shapiro’s politics, particularly as it relates to foreign policy. I find some of what he says delusional and abhorrent.

But it became impossible for me to view Ben as just another political commentator I disagree with when I found out what happened to him as a child.

When I first listened to this moment from an interview with Ben Shapiro, I was almost brought to tears.

“I was the outsider the whole time, for sure. I mean, um, I would be physically accosted. There was one situation where, there was kind of a weekend getaway. And that’s where guys legitimately, like, held me down in a bed and hit me with belts. And then that concluded with them, like, somebody brought one pair of handcuffs and they dragged the bed frame outside the cabin and then handcuffed me to the bed frame in front of the entire school.”

I know people reading this are probably quick readers, but I would encourage you to take a moment and re-read that brief story, because that is not something you just gloss over.

I imagine what I would do if I witnessed people doing something like that to my little brother when he was just a child. Skulls would have been cracked on the concrete.

Ben goes on to talk about how he did not have a single friend in high school. No one to confide in. No one to invite him to weekend hangouts or birthday parties. He was alone.

To pretend that Ben’s childhood experience has not fundamentally transformed how he views the world as an adult is a form of delusion. You do not simply walk away from an experience like that unchanged.

Andrew Tate

No one is more deservedly viewed as a degenerate, manipulative, conman than Andrew Tate.

A reasonable person might ask, “what does it take for someone to become a person like Andrew Tate? What has to happen to a child for them to turn out like this as an adult?”

For a man who loves to talk about denying one’s feelings, something drove him to do this interview with a psychotherapist, and it is particularly interesting to watch that part of the dialogue where Tate discusses his relationship with his father.

You need only possess a modicum of emotional intelligence to see how Tate’s entire persona - his aggression, his cut-throat poise, his merciless attitude towards others - is inextricably linked to the fact that his father neglected him as a child.

Destiny

The Left-wing political streamer called Destiny is a very influential figure in the political discourse.

For better or worse, Destiny has adopted a strategy of extreme transparency, where he talks about absolutely anything and everything relating to his personal life.

He has talked before about how his parents basically ignored him as a child, and at times he would just leave the house for hours on end to see if they would even notice.

In his interview with Harvard Psychiatrist Dr. K, Destiny admits to acting like a sociopath due to his cold and emotionless approach to relationships.

But I have found that the most interesting story that Destiny talks about is his strange relationship with his Grandma, who repeatedly killed dogs that Destiny would get attached to (and subsequently learned to never attach himself to).

Sean Strickland

Sean Strickland is not really a political commentator, but he has enough influence to be considered a memetically significant figure in the Great Meme Wars.

A violently aggressive MMA fighter, Sean has said some heinous stuff about gay people, and is understandably viewed as an archetypally toxic male.

But in his interview with Theo Von, Sean suddenly breaks down and reveals exactly where his anger and rage come from.

I do not put much (if any) stock in Sean Strickland’s opinions, but I am brought to tears every time I watch this clip.

Radical Empathy

At the core of Radical Enlightened Centrism - the implicit ideology of all those who are smart, righteous, and good-looking - is radical empathy.

If your goal is to defeat ideological extremism and bring about a better world, you cannot do so unless you accept the fact that the people you regard as ideological opponents are as human as you are.

In fact, the more psychologically disturbed you believe them to be, the greater the likelihood that their detestable ideology is a maladaptive reaction to something in their childhood.

And perhaps most importantly, it will help you realize that your own path to wisdom may require an honest (if not uncomfortable) look at your own childhood.

As Carl Jung so wisely observed, that which you need most is often found in the place where you least want to look.