An Examination Of Donald’s Amygdala Hijack

Donald launched an amygdala hijack last night which is worth examining. Below is the full debate.

Although by 16:58 you could see Hillary was in high amygdala, we’ll focus on the area beginning around 20:45, when Donald made his big attack. There were several stimuli he mixed.

Well, you owe the president an apology, because as you know very well, your campaign, Sidney Blumenthal — he’s another real winner that you have — and he’s the one that got this started, along with your campaign manager, and they were on television just two weeks ago, she was, saying exactly that. So you really owe him an apology. You’re the one that sent the pictures around your campaign, sent the pictures around with President Obama in a certain garb. That was long before I was ever involved, so you actually owe an apology.

Pointing out lying, hypocrisy, and blaming her for criticizing Obama.

Number two, Michelle Obama. I’ve gotten to see the commercials that they did on you. And I’ve gotten to see some of the most vicious commercials I’ve ever seen of Michelle Obama talking about you, Hillary.

Hillary tries to in-group herself by trying herself to Michelle, Donald points out Michele criticized her, reminding Hillary of a third party’s criticisms and attacks, putting Hillary on the outside, showing she’s a liar, and adding some hatred/envy which Hillary has for Michelle.

So, you talk about friend? Go back and take a look at those commercials, a race where you lost fair and square, unlike the Bernie Sanders race, where you won, but not fair and square, in my opinion.

Recalling a painful loss, out-grouping her over cheating Bernie, and recalling Michelle’s commercials insulting her.

And all you have to do is take a look at WikiLeaks and just see what they say about Bernie Sanders and see what Deborah Wasserman Schultz had in mind, because Bernie Sanders, between super-delegates and Deborah Wasserman Schultz, he never had a chance. And I was so surprised to see him sign on with the devil.

More out-grouping over Bernie.

But when you talk about apology, I think the one that you should really be apologizing for and the thing that you should be apologizing for are the 33,000 e-mails that you deleted, and that you acid washed, and then the two boxes of e-mails and other things last week that were taken from an office and are now missing.

Trump does strange things like saying “acid wash,” but what does that do in the mind? It triggers the error-detection circuits of the ACC, which is already being called on to produce aversive stimulus. This is kind of like a subtler violation of expectation in the brain, which itself activates the ACC’s error detection, amplifying the aversive stimulus it throws out. From the perspective of feel, imagine how you would feel if you were accused rightly of some wrong. Now imagine if you were accused wrongly, and everybody still castigated you. It’s more painful, because you mix error detection in the ACC with a call for aversive stimulus to the ACC from the amygdala.

For us, it was a niggling nudge in the background that snapped us to attention and focused us on the moment. I was just a little bit bothered by it. This was because I was not in the midst of a call to my ACC for aversive stimulus. I think in Hillary, her ACC snapped her brain to attention just a little more, focusing her and giving her a little more irritation from what Trump was doing.

Again, in normal minds, amygdala hijacks are bothersome, but in the damaged minds of the personality disordered, these little extra kicks are what give it that extra push toward the breaking point.

And I’ll tell you what. I didn’t think I’d say this, but I’m going to say it, and I hate to say it. But if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation, because there has never been so many lies, so much deception. There has never been anything like it, and we’re going to have a special prosecutor.

Boom. This was the big one. It is not only a trigger, but an actual threat that would hit her amygdala right between the eyes. In today’s corrupt Washington DC, it is even a violation of expectation, because everyone knows you never prosecute an elite for a crime.

When I speak, I go out and speak, the people of this country are furious. In my opinion, the people that have been long-term workers at the FBI are furious. There has never been anything like this, where e-mails — and you get a subpoena, you get a subpoena, and after getting the subpoena, you delete 33,000 e-mails, and then you acid wash them or bleach them, as you would say, very expensive process.

This outgroups with the people, and the FBI, and introduces an image of angry mobs. Also notice, he knew the right word, bleach, from the software Bleachbit. He was using “acid wash” on purpose. Whether it was an error detection trigger to focus and boost aversive stimulus, or whether that references something we don’t know about I cannot say for sure.

So we’re going to get a special prosecutor, and we’re going to look into it, because you know what? People have been — their lives have been destroyed for doing one-fifth of what you’ve done. And it’s a disgrace. And honestly, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

This entire thing was also a violation of expectation. Nobody ever talks to her like this.

She was almost certainly medicated heavily to try and control her amygdala, and yet it still worked.

At 22:17 she could not even enunciate “fact check.” Also notice the attempt to portray herself as in-grouped and Donald as out-grouped, before her amygdala quit and gave up trying to figure out a logical response in favor of auto-piloting her standard criticism:

Last time at the first debate, we had millions of people fact checking, so I expect we’ll have millions more fact checking, because, you know, it is — it’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.

And before she catches her wind, Trump hits her again:

Because you’d be in jail.

The super calm tone was perfect.

Hillary’s response was so lame as to be pathetic, but her amygdala could not find anything else to say. And at 22:45 look at her rush to sit after speaking. Between 23:24 and 23:47 look at how fast she is talking, and she is not even aware of it.

I take classified materials very seriously and always have. When I was on the Senate Armed Services Committee, I was privy to a lot of classified material. Obviously, as secretary of state, I had some of the most important secrets that we possess, such as going after bin Laden.

Her amygdala is in high gear, and her pointing to all the classified info she has as part of her “power,” and the Bin Ladin raid are attempts to assuage feelings of weakness, and attempt to re-in-group herself with the crowd. At that point, she is on her heels, amygdala-wise. That is when you bear down, and keep doing what you were doing to get there, if you want a stroke.

By 25:00 her face shows clear signs of high amygdala, and by 26:14 she is looking down as she talks to avoid eye contact, even though Donald has pulled back his direct attack by then.

I was so enthused, because for a moment I though Donald was really pissed and just decided to fuck with the debate and the moderators – he would go for the full hijack and put her on the ground. Sadly, or maybe not, Donald was far too disciplined. He pulled back, and then won the debate as Hillary was unbalanced for the rest of it.

Amygdala hijacks are not fun when you first start doing them, if you are normal. Don’t assume it is all fun pushing buttons and watching your opponent collapse. You will be hitting your amygdala as well, if you decide to go nuclear, as Donald did.

Notice Donald’s voice, his posture, and his use of breath all change somewhat, as he turns on Clinton, especially as he says, “I didn’t think I’d say this, but I’m going to say it, and I hate to say it.” He is clearly under some amygdala strain himself. What that tells me is Donald is an easygoing guy who doesn’t like initiating the badfeels you need to initiate to hijack an amygdala. Recognize you will probably feel the same strain on your amygdala.

People in general see amygdala strain when initiating an open confrontation, especially while in the midst of a nationally televised public speaking exercise, as Donald is. It is much easier to just let everything slide, and hold your tongue.

Look closely at Donald, and feel the stress he is under as he makes the move and changes the entire tone of the debate. Make sure you expect that stress, you want that stress, and when it happens, you will feel fine with it, because you will know that the hit on your opponent’s amygdala will be twice as bad, and they can only handle half the stress you can.

With time and repetition, that stress will give way, and you will be able to do it more sociopathically. One tool I used was focusing all of my attention on the areas around and just under my Narcissist’s eyes, and focusing my brain on trying to create a model of their emotional state in my brain, so I could feel what they were feeling. That is a very brainpower intensive process, and while your brain is occupied with that, it will be considerably distracted from the strain of the confrontation. Additionally, it will have a still-facing quality as the eye contact and your visible emotional disconnect drives the target’s amygdala revs up to high gear.

The feedback you should get will also assuage your strain, as you see clear gains and your opponent’s brain power deteriorates. Once I heard Clinton talking that fast, and stumbling as she tried to say “fact check,” my amygdala would have downshifted two gears. I would then have begun to enjoy the process of turning each accusation on her, infuriating her with personal criticisms, and envy-initiators, locking eye contact, making every criticism burningly personal, out-grouping, denigrating, using demeaning turns of phrase and imagery designed to portray her as helpless and her position as hopeless, all designed to diminish her status within the eyes of the group in ways that would enrage her.

As I pressed on, she would have gotten more flustered, her speech would have failed more, that would have frustrated her, and all of it would have pushed her amygdala faster and faster. Under those conditions, you do not just keep talking faster and faster, until you sound like a fast-forwarded tape deck. Long before that, the amygdala grows overwhelmed, and then weird things begin to happen. The mind can’t think, hands shake, voices begin to break, you run out of breath, and you feel your brain not doing what you are telling it to. You can salvage it by raging openly, but here, obviously that would have had cost, so I suspect Hillary would have stifled it until the stroke. As those things happen, they further freak out the target, and you will get to the point the brain will force a reboot. At that point, you will see a conscious human being with parts of their brain literally shut off for a minute or two at least – and it can be as long as ten to fifteen minutes. If they have a propensity for seizures, that is what will be cued up.

How could Donald have made it more hijacking? I would have used the word “rape” more, and I would have said it sharply with emphasis as I looked right at Hillary with disgust. When I criticized Hillary I would have done it while primarily attacking the media for not describing her scandals, and I would have turned to Hillary and locked eye contact as I explained to her what a shitbag harpy she is by recounting the scandals the media had ignored and how important they were. I would have also focused a little more on out-grouping by couching her shortcomings as costing the audience, or being performed at their expense. I would have emphasized her disloyalty to America and my loyalty to it, and I would have emphasized the selling-us-out arguments over immigration, trade, taxes, and so on. Everything would have been her either allying with our enemies, or enriching herself at our expense. Still, all of that is Monday morning quarterbacking by me. The man in the arena did a good amygdala hijack, in so far as he apparently didn’t want to take her out.

Donald clearly decided he had produced the effect he wanted, and I can’t argue. Hillary was clearly under high stress for the rest of the debate, and never quite recovered her holier-than-thou act quite as well. When she argued about how awful Donald was in the beginning I would have believed that she believed herself. By the end, the forced smile, the fake laughing, the glassy eyes, even her manner as she said things all appeared as clearly an act. People pick up on that, and it makes them feel lied to.

If, as I suspect, the next debate is a round table, Donald needs to direct each criticism directly at Hillary while locking eye contact. He needs to bang the table with his hands for emphasis of points when she looks down to take notes and is unprepared for it. And he should prepare sound bites designed to maximize Hillary’s denigration, envy, diminution of stature, criticism, highlighting of failures, and out-grouping.

I hope that with no other debates, he decides to put her on the ground. I really think he can do it, and nobody deserves it like Hillary.