Bill O'Reilly is a Sociopath

A sociopath is commonly defined as one who entirely lacks a sense of empathy.

Bill O'Reilly fits that description to a T.

After the self-described evangelical Christian Anders Breivik bombed the offices of the leading political party in Norway and then inexplicably murdered dozens of young boys and girls attending a summer camp sponsored by that same political party, O'Reilly went apoplectic even by his standards.  What made O'Reilly upset was not Breivik's actions but the fact that the "media" kept reporting that Breivik was a Christian.

According to O'Reilly it was impossible that Breivik could be a Christian because a Christian would never commit mass murder.  File this under the same O'Reilly philosophy that explained the proof of the existence of a Supreme Being as "tide goes in, tide goes out."

Never mind the undeniable fact that throughout the last 2000 years there have been multiple and repeated examples of Christians committing mass murder (just take for some of the not so controversial examples, the Conquistadors in what is now the Southwestern U.S. and Mexico, the Puritans in Salem, Massachusetts and the Spanish Inquisition to name a few).  The worst thing about O'Reilly's outrage isn't the logical and factual fallacy of his point of view, it is the fact that he would fail to see the obvious parallels of this radical evangelical's twisting of Christian teachings to his own violent ends and the same actions by radical evangelical Muslims who do the same with their religion.

Imagine that it is 2001.  You are a Muslim man living in a quiet American neighborhood with a wife and kids, working hard at your job, being active in your community and doing your best to be a good American and a good Muslim.  Suddenly because of the actions of a small group of radicals who claim to speak for your religion, you are demonized in your own community, treated with suspicion everywhere you go, your allegiance to your own nation is questioned and your religion is smeared night after night after night by people like Bill O'Reilly who do everything in their power to portray you and everyone who believes in your religion to be an enemy of the state.  During the next 10 years, people in elected positions start questioning your right to be able to practice your religion openly, the simplest things such as building a place of worship in your community are met with vocal opposition and even violence, Congressional hearings are convened about the growing problem of American Muslims, you hear terms like Islamist, Islamo-fascist and Sharia law start to seep into the everyday language of our media.  And of course those who are spreading this hysteria for their own political gains know absolutely nothing about your religion, but are simply passing on narrow negative stereotypes which bear little if any relation to reality.

How would you feel?

Perhaps the same way Bill O'Reilly felt when met with just the fact that this Norwegian terrorist had adopted a warped version of Christianity that reflected badly on O'Reilly's view of his religion?

Of course, if Bill O'Reilly had the least bit of empathy he might have used this as an opportunity to attempt to understand what millions of Muslims in the United States and across the world felt in response to the small percentage of their religion who would use it to spread violence and hate.  If O'Reilly had one ounce of simple basic human understanding, he could perhaps take his argument about Breivik not representing the views and actions of the vast majority of Christians to the next logical step of seeing that Al Qaeda and the other radical Muslim terrorists did not represent the true teachings of Islam or the beliefs of the vast majority of Muslims across the planet.  If Bill O'Reilly wasn't a sociopath, he might have used this as an opportunity to spread understanding instead of fear.

But, that's not Bill O'Reilly.  Bill O'Reilly is a sociopath.  Not only did O'Reilly castigate the media for portraying (accurately, mind you) Breivik as a radical evangelical Christian, but in turn used it to further attack Muslims.  Of course he was only furthering the party line of Fox News and News Corp. in general.  This could be seen by the media giant's take on the Norway attack from the get go.  The Daily Mail's headline the day of the attack put in above the information about the bombing and shooting in Norway in quotation marks "Al Qaeda Attack".  On Fox News Channel they would present stories about Congressional hearings on Homegrown Jihadists and use them to transition into stories about Norway's homegrown terrorist, giving the impression that he was somehow a Jihadist rather than someone who was inspired to his violence by his perception that Norway was becoming too accepting of Muslims and other non-Christians.

Of course, I have not heard a single person in the media or elsewhere claim that Anders Breivik in any way, shape or form represented the views or actions of mainstream Christianity or even a large group of Christians.  It was obvious to everyone that Breivik was a very disturbed individual who represented a very small and very misguided group of Christianity that in no way represented what a vast, vast majority of Christians believe.

If only Bill O'Reilly would stop saying that Muslim terrorists represent the mainstream views of Islam.

Of course, that would mean that he wasn't a sociopath.  And he truly is.