A-Hole Expert: Senator Ted Cruz is ‘Setting New Standards'

Professor Aaron James has a Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard. He teaches ethics and political philosophy at the University of California Irvine. And he’s also an expert on assholes. He’s even written a book about them titled, “Assholes: A Theory.”

James visited Open Source to weigh in on today’s reigning assholes.

Kanye? “A-hole.”

Bieber? “Almost every teenager has an a-hole phase.”

Ted Cruz? “He’s setting new standards in a-holery.”

So what, exactly, is an asshole? Basically, it’s someone who has an entrenched sense of entitlement for certain privileges and doesn’t care how his actions affect other people in the course of achieving those privileges. James notes that it’s subtly different from a psychopath, which is someone who completely lacks a sense of morality.

“Assholes have a moral concept,” James explained. “They feel indignant when they’re not getting the respect they think they deserve. They’re morally motivated.”