what you’re capable of

CN: spoilers for the movie The Drama; spoilers for an old Twilight Zone episode; general dark stuffOn my sickbed, where I have lazily done virtually no reading at all, I recently listened to an analysis of the newish movie The Drama, which I have not yet seen. I’m not sure that what follows is a spoiler, so I will just plow ahead as if it isn’t. A woman admits to having a close call, as a child, with her own dark tetrad tendencies: sadism, punitiveness, maybe entitlement, definitely antisocial behavior. It’s like Kristi Noem’s horrifying autobiographical admission about shooting a puppy, but inverted: “Understanding the consequences, and the potential for greater tragedy, rewired my brain for empathy, made it my mission in life to alleviate suffering” (as opposed to Noem’s “I can do what needs to be done, inflicting pain, injury, death if required,” a darker, emotionally numb take on the same revelation). The fictional character’s brave admission—an overshare, overexposure, an attempt…

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