Sociopath alert: Shaun King

Shaun King has been dubbed "Dolezal II" by a number of outlets this past week for having perpetrated a similar scam.

What kind of person keeps up a long-running subterfuge like that? A brief glimpse into King's life, and his own words, as reported in this CNN article, tell you all you need to know: he is indeed a sociopath. A few excerpts (in italics):

"I refuse to speak in detail about the nature of my mother's past, or her sexual partners, and I am gravely embarrassed to even be saying this now, but I have been told for most of my life that the white man on my birth certificate is not my biological father and that my actual biological father is a light-skinned black man," he said.

Have you ever heard the expression, "He's the type of guy who'd throw his own mother under the bus"? Meet Shaun King. King is essentially trying to maintain his scam here by calling his own mother a whore.

Note that he says he "refuse[s] to speak in detail about the nature of my mother's past" -- what a gentleman! Also note that he claims to be "gravely embarrassed." Except that sociopaths don't feel embarrassment.

Shaun King's statement is even less credible given that he looks just like "the white man on my birth certificate," Jeffery Wayne King:

If in fact Jeffery Wayne King were not his biological father, that would be a remarkable coincidence.

"It is horrifying to me that my most personal information, for the most nefarious reasons, has been forced out into the open and that my private past and pain have been used as jokes and fodder to discredit me and the greater movement for justice in America," King wrote [on his blog at the Daily Kos].

But the one who "forced" this "personal" and "private" information out into the open in the first place was King himself, by claiming to be black.

Wrapping oneself in the flag is typical sociopathy. King tries to imply here that those who have exposed him as white are trying to discredit the movement for "justice" in America. This is a time-tested technique for trying to deflect attention from oneself.

King later Tweeted, "This attack isn't about me so much, but is about derailing Black Lives Matter and the movement against police brutality."

Translation: if you claim King is white, you are supporting police brutality.

CNN's Don Lemon exchanged text messages with King on Wednesday night and asked him directly whether he was black or white.

"Initially, he did not answer but later referred to himself as biracial," Lemon said. "But then when I asked him if that's what it shows on his birth certificate I did not hear back from him. No answer on that."

It takes a little while to get your lies together, which is why sociopaths are often slow to answer personal questions.

In one of a series of tweets Wednesday, King said, "First off, the key facts about my biological relatives are all wrong. They tried, but my family, like many of yours, is one big mess."

After all, all families are just big, complicated aggregations of imperfect humanity, are they not? So why should his be any different?

He also compared his situation to President Obama's "birther" controversy. "In essence, what is happening to me now, is like conservatives demanding Obama's long form birth certificate," he tweeted.

Yet another tactic from the sociopathic playbook is equating oneself to someone perceived (by some) as noble and exalted. In other words: Don't you even see? I'm another Barack Obama!

(Note to Shaun: next time, aim for Nelson Mandela.)

On Thursday, King wrote: "Never have I once identified myself as white. Not on forms, not for convenience or privilege, and not for fun and games, have I ever identified myself as white. I was never a white guy pretending to be black. Not once, ever, did it occur to me that I was being phony or fraudulent or fake."

This sort of overemphasis is also typical of liars: Never…once…not…not…not…ever….never..not once, ever. And it wasn't enough to say that it never occurred to him that he was being phony. He had to say that it never occurred to him that he was phony OR fraudulent OR fake. (What's the diff?)

King is not only innocent, he is, like OJ Simpson, absolutely, 100 percent, not guilty.

And, since we already know King is lying about his race, for him to say it never occurred to him that he was lying is simply another lie. In any case, describing his own feelings, falsely or not, would hardly constitute proof of his veracity.

Another charge against King is that he lied about being the victim of a hate crime 20 years ago when he was a high school student in Versailles, Kentucky.

King said he was beaten by a "racist mob of rednecks" so badly that he missed almost two years of school while recovering from fractures to his face and ribs as well as severe injuries to his spine. A Forbes magazine profile called it "one of the first registered hate crimes" in Kentucky history.

"In March of 1995, it all boiled over and a racist mob of nearly a dozen students beat me severely, first punching me from all sides, then, when I cradled into a fetal position on the ground they stomped me mercilessly, some with steel-toed boots, for about 20 seconds," wrote King.

"I had fractures in my face and ribs, but most badly damaged was my spine. I ended up having three spinal surgeries and missed 20 months of school over it. My entire family endured this deeply painful time in my life ranging from the surgeries, the brutal recovery, physical therapy, and professional counseling. It was rougher than my words will ever do justice."

The Blaze disputes King's claims, citing police reports and witness statements that describe his injuries as minor and the incident as a fight between him and another person, not a beat down from a racist mob. The Blaze also reported that the FBI didn't have any record of hate crime incidents reported in Versailles in 1995.

According to the Blaze report, the detective assigned to the case said that witnesses reported that King threatened to break a female student's neck if she didn't repay him the $8 he felt she owed him, and shoved her against a wall. The girl's ex-boyfriend then defended her and got into a fight with King, which resulted in "minor" injuries to King.

Falsely claiming to be a victim is of course another typical sociopathic behavior. And it's exactly the kind of hoax you'd expect from someone who wrongly labels his own mother a whore.

You needn't be part of "a racist mob of rednecks" to recognize that Shaun King is a sociopath.