Thread by @martyrmade

"Social" Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. MSBP refers to a situation when a parent or caregiver invents or induces an illness in a person under care. They do it for attention & sympathy (so brave taking care of a sick child...), and to maintain their charge's dependency on them. /1

Turns out 98% of MSBP abusers are women, for some obvious reasons, some prob hidden. Obvious: more female caregivers, mothers more often home with kids, etc. Hidden: to explain a number like 98%, it's necessary to consider differences in constitution/situation between genders. /2

100 years ago, political & economic decisions were almost entirely in the hands of men, and both realms exhibited the excesses of the gender: insensitivity to suffering, competitiveness, intolerance of failure. What have been the real effects of bringing women into the process?/3

Most men don't start wars, but 98% of wars are started by men. Most women don't poison their kids for attention, sympathy, & dependency, but 98% of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy abusers are women. The first fact certainly has sociopolitical consequences. Does the second? /4

Is it possible that, just as the mental and emotional tendencies of males (tendency toward direct methods, obsession w/physical courage, insensitivity to suffering, etc) were reflected in a violent politics, the introduction of women brings its own pathological excesses? /5

The politics of 1930s Germany resembled an abusive father, but our politics resembles an abusive mother: moral shaming, emotional manipulation, playing one off the other, making them sick so you can care for them, "after everything I've done for you!", keeping them dependent.../6