A (Psychological) Reaction to the Biden Pardon

Intro (0s)

• Joe Biden initially stated that he would abide by the jury decision and not pardon his son Hunter, with multiple instances of him ruling out the possibility of a pardon (10s).
• Despite his initial statements, Joe Biden ultimately decided to pardon his son Hunter, sparking various justifications for the pardon (28s).
• Some of the claims justifying the pardon include the idea that Joe Biden was simply acting as any loving father would, and that other presidents have made similar or worse decisions (47s).
• The claim that Joe Biden's actions were those of a typical loving father is found to be particularly appalling and telling (1m4s).
• The pardon and its justifications will be analyzed and commented on to provide insight into its psychological significance (1m12s).

A clear conflict of interest, unforgivable lies (1m19s)

• President Biden signed a pardon for his son Hunter, which is a clear conflict of interest and morally improper (1m19s).
• President Biden had previously stated that he would not interfere with the Justice Department's decision-making, but this statement is considered a half-truth as he also repeatedly said he would not pardon his son (1m50s).
• President Biden and his press secretary had repeatedly denied that a pardon for Hunter would be forthcoming, making the pardon a broken promise (2m1s).
• The Biden Administration, including the press secretary and Democrats, had emphasized Joe Biden's outstanding moral quality, particularly in resisting the temptation to use his privilege to help his family despite emotionally challenging circumstances (2m48s).
• The pardon, combined with the repeated denials and moral grandstanding, is considered unforgivable (3m12s).
• President Biden's claim that he kept his word is disputed, as he is seen as breaking his promise not to pardon his son while technically keeping his word about not interfering with the Justice Department's decision-making (3m31s).

The heroic victim myth, enabling criminality in your family (3m31s)

• The Biden narrative portrays Hunter Biden as a heroic victim who is misunderstood and unfairly treated, but this portrayal is seen as enabling his pathology and capitalizing on it politically (3m50s).
• Joe and Jill Biden have enabled their son's pathology by presenting him as a heroic victim, which is a common tactic used by Democrats to portray criminals as victims (4m13s).
• This approach can have negative consequences, as it can amplify the effects of criminality and create a culture where perpetrators are seen as victims rather than being held accountable for their actions (6m5s).
• Clinical psychologists and criminologists know that psychopaths and narcissists use claims of victimhood to manipulate and victimize others, and that portraying them as victims can be damaging (5m32s).
• When parents make excuses for their children's criminal behavior, it can enable and reinforce that behavior, rather than encouraging positive change (6m12s).
• Research suggests that some children may be predisposed to criminal behavior from a young age, but that proper socialization and parenting can help to mitigate this risk (6m37s).
• Parents who effectively socialize their children's aggression and limit its expression can help to prevent the development of criminal tendencies (7m48s).
• In contrast, parents who enable or justify their children's aggressive behavior can create a culture of entitlement and victimhood, which can have negative consequences for the child and society as a whole (8m40s).

“He’s not 14; he’s 50” — addiction is not an excuse (9m9s)

• The Biden family has been making excuses for Hunter Biden's behavior, similar to what a parent might do for a 14-year-old juvenile delinquent, but Hunter is now 50 years old and such excuses are no longer valid (9m32s).
• The Bidens portray Hunter as a victim of addiction, and his criminal actions as a consequence of that addiction, but addiction is not an excuse for criminality (10m7s).
• Making excuses for Hunter's behavior is not a sign of admirable empathy as a parent, but rather an indication of codependency and pathological enabling (12m34s).
• The language used by the Bidens to discuss Hunter's transgressions is reminiscent of the language used for a 14-year-old juvenile delinquent, which is not suitable for a 50-year-old man (9m43s).
• The idea that addiction is an excuse for criminal behavior is not acceptable, and Hunter should be held accountable for his actions (10m22s).
• The discussion touches on the idea that some ideologies have supplanted Christianity and the importance of seeking wisdom and love (11m18s).
• The concept of love and wisdom is mentioned as being essential, and that attempting to achieve wisdom without love is going radically wrong (11m48s).
• The importance of personal responsibility and accountability is emphasized, particularly in the context of Hunter Biden's behavior (12m30s).

The golden boy and the black sheep, three water-damaged laptops (12m45s)

• The Biden family dynamic is described, with Joe Biden being portrayed as "The Golden Boy" destined for great things, such as the presidency, while his son Hunter was seen as the "black sheep" with little expected of him (12m47s).
• Playing the role of the "black sheep" can evoke strong emotions, including unconscious anger and hatred towards one's parents, which may have contributed to Hunter's actions (13m21s).
• Hunter Biden dropped off three water-damaged laptops at a repair clinic a week before his father announced his presidential run, containing compromising information that would later lead to a massive scandal surrounding Joe Biden (13m36s).
• The motivation behind Hunter's actions is questioned, with the possibility that he intentionally wanted to sabotage his father's presidential campaign, as suggested by the psychoanalytic concept of looking at the outcome to understand motivation (14m7s).
• The outcome of Hunter's actions was the emergence of a massive scandal surrounding Joe Biden, which may have been the intended consequence, highlighting the possibility of malevolent behavior (14m30s).

Hunter’s action suggest a lifestyle of revenge and bitterness (14m51s)

• Hunter Biden's actions suggest a lifestyle of revenge and bitterness, as evidenced by his affair with his brother's widow, enticing her into addiction, filming their sex, and uploading the video online with the title "Lo Widow" (15m11s).
• This behavior can be seen as circumstantial evidence of a pattern of revenge, possibly as a result of his brother's death and his parents' enabling behavior (15m32s).
• Hunter's lifestyle, including his addiction, consorting with strippers and hookers, and involvement in nefarious business affairs, demonstrates a need for his parents to set boundaries, which they have failed to do (16m17s).
• Joe Biden's decision to pardon his son can be seen as a continuation of this enabling behavior, which is not admirable or loving, but rather pathological and naive (18m0s).
• The Democrats who have come to Joe Biden's support, proclaiming his virtues as a loving parent, are also enabling and confusing empathy with care, which is a pathological element of the Democrat political platform (16m54s).
• This enabling behavior is also seen in the Democrat party's approach to so-called trans children, where they confuse empathy with care and fail to set boundaries, allowing children to make decisions about their bodies and reproductive capacity at a young age (17m8s).
• Joe and Jill Biden's treatment of Hunter as a child, despite him being a 50-year-old man, is also a manifestation of this enabling behavior, and his actions are no longer excusable as he has passed from being a victim to a perpetrator (18m19s).

“Selectively and unfairly prosecuted” (18m31s)

• Hunter Biden was not selectively and unfairly prosecuted, as the penalties levied against him were not egregious and he was found guilty in a credible legal investigation (18m34s).
• It is argued that the Biden family, including Hunter and Joe, were unfairly and selectively shielded from prosecution despite their multi-decade transgressions (19m2s).
• The blanket pardon granted to Hunter Biden, covering crimes that may have been committed over an 11-year period, is seen as strong evidence in favor of this hypothesis (19m15s).
• The pardon has raised questions about the future and the implications of such actions, with some arguing that it sets a precedent for unequal treatment under the law (19m30s).
• In contrast to Hunter Biden's case, people who were late paying their taxes due to serious addictions and paid them back with interest and penalties under duress are typically given non-criminal resolutions (21m51s).
• It is argued that Hunter Biden was treated differently and let off lightly, with some suggesting that he was not prosecuted meanly but rather given a lenient treatment (22m8s).
• The charges against Hunter Biden came about after several of Joe Biden's political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack and oppose him (22m29s).
• The charges in Hunter Biden's case arose after the Biden laptop scandal emerged, which was falsely attributed to Russian disinformation by the FBI and 50 major members of the intelligence community (22m40s).
• The New York Post was kicked off Twitter for reporting the truth about the scandal, and evidence mounted that Hunter Biden was involved in shady business dealings (23m8s).
• Joe Biden should have never allowed Hunter to be involved in these dealings, given his knowledge of Hunter's addictive propensity and quasi-criminal behavior (23m31s).
• Letting Hunter off the hook by attributing the prosecution to the malign intent of Joe Biden's political opponents, while refusing to take responsibility as a father, points to the pathology in the Biden family that generated Hunter's misbehavior (24m2s).
• The prosecution of Hunter Biden was not a result of political pressure, but rather a fair and reasonable resolution of his case, which was unraveled in the courtroom (25m40s).
• The contents of the Hunter Biden laptop reveal something seriously rotten, with the laptop reading like a mafia crime movie, and it's ugly in a low-rent, pathetic, cringing, victim-claiming way (26m28s).
• A plea deal agreed to by the Department of Justice unraveled in the courtroom, but there's no evidence of impropriety apart from the fact that it didn't turn out the way the Bidens would have wished (25m37s).
• Hunter Biden's actions, including using cocaine in a manner that does not appear heroic or indicative of victimization, suggest that he should not be viewed as a victim. (26m55s)
• A reasonable person examining the facts of Hunter Biden's case would likely conclude that there were valid reasons for him to face consequences, which were mitigated by his relationship to Joe Biden. (27m9s)
• The suppression of the story and the punishment of the New York Post for reporting on it, as well as the blame placed on the Russians, are seen as unreasonable and indicative of a lack of objectivity in evaluating Hunter Biden's case. (27m30s)
• The notion that Hunter Biden was singled out because he was Joe Biden's son is not supported by the facts, and it is more likely that his relationship to the president protected him from consequences. (27m45s)

The “effort to break Hunter” and Joe’s failure as a father (27m55s)

• There has been an effort to "break" Hunter Biden, but it's argued that if anyone has broken Hunter, it was Hunter himself and his parents, with Hunter having been five and a half years sober despite facing unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution (28m2s).
• Hunter's ability to withstand these challenges is questioned, given his age and privileged lifestyle, with millions of dollars, luxury apartments, and hotel rooms, suggesting he should be able to tolerate some level of adversity (28m50s).
• The idea of a conspiracy to break Hunter is seen as a "sob story" that the Democrats love to promote, with the Bidens making political capital out of it for decades (29m21s).
• As a clinical psychologist, it's argued that the Bidens have sacrificed their son to their own moral pretensions, with Joe Biden's latest actions being particularly damaging to Hunter (29m47s).
• Joe Biden's decision to publicly discuss Hunter's situation is seen as a betrayal, with a good father allowing his child to take responsibility for their actions and learn from their mistakes (30m17s).
• The behavior of Hunter, including his affair with his brother's widow and the release of his laptops, is seen as a manifestation of deeper issues, potentially caused by Joe Biden's actions (31m22s).
• It's suggested that Joe Biden's actions have made Hunter hate him even more, with this underlying tension contributing to Hunter's misbehavior (31m14s).

Joe couldn’t resist making it about his own virtue (32m31s)

• Joe Biden concluded his pardon by stating that he and his son, Hunter, are bravely moving forward together in the face of attacks on their family's integrity, which is seen as a self-serving and self-congratulatory statement (32m32s).
• It is argued that Hunter Biden has crossed the line from being a victim to a perpetrator and that pity is not the right emotion to feel towards him (33m11s).
• Joe Biden's actions are seen as enabling his son's pathological behavior, which has been ongoing for 30 years, and that this pattern will not stop because Joe did not allow it to (33m32s).
• By using his moral capital as a loving father, Joe Biden has accumulated moral capital for himself, but in a way that is destructive to his son (33m50s).
• It is suggested that Joe Biden's approach to his son's situation would have been better if he had set boundaries and held him accountable for his actions, rather than using his pardon to deflect criticism (34m14s).
• Joe Biden's statement is seen as a demonstration of his own virtue, rather than a genuine expression of love and concern for his son, and that this approach undermines his reputation as the leader of the United States (34m35s).

“A simple principle…” shame on you, Mr. President (34m44s)

• President Biden is accused of not following a simple principle of telling the truth, as he previously stated he wouldn't pardon his son, but ultimately did, which will hurt his son and set a bad example for the American people (34m44s).
• The pardon is seen as enabling the son's self-destructive behaviors, rather than being a loving act, and the decision is viewed as self-serving and a sacrifice of the son to the President's own delusions of morality (35m27s).
• The American people are expected to be fair-minded, but it's unlikely they will conclude that the President's actions were appropriate or loving (36m2s).
• The President's decision is seen as a miscarriage of justice, but not in the way he claims, and it's believed that raw politics has infected the process (36m50s).
• The President's justification for the pardon, citing his role as a father and a president, is not accepted, and his decision is viewed as a betrayal of his son's well-being (37m15s).
• The President's actions are strongly criticized, with the statement "shame on you, Mr. President" being made, and it's expressed that it's fortunate not to have had a father like him (37m24s).