What I don't understand then is why we don't just hate biology? If it's true that nurture has no value, then we are what we are regardless of our environment.
Maybe if someone had listened to Casey, encouraged her to find and be herself, encouraged her to let go of the idea that her mother was her keeper and that KC was an extention of her mother and her puppet, had felt the warmth of a parent who really cared about what was going on inside of her, on and on . . . oh, and made it painful for her when she did lie and steal, KC may have felt differently about herself by age eighteen. I'm still not clear about the graduation story, but if someone chooses not to earn their diploma due to being only one credit shy, they are working at becoming a looser - just imo.
But, again, we don't know what's true and what's not true.
I never said said nurture has no value. It does for people who are not sociopaths. I think Casey could have been and was encouraged to do better, but chose not to. It was far too easy to keep stealing from her mother, other family members, and friends than get a real job and have a real life. Yes, Cindy did enable Casey, and that did contribute. But I think even if she hadn't, Casey wouldn't be a different person. There are sociopaths that came from good families that commit crimes. Nurture is only helpful to a certain point. At some point, a person makes choices for themselves regardless of how they were raised. At some point, a person has to be responsible for themselves and not blame other people for their problems.
Casey has never admitted to or been responsible for anything in her life and never will be. All she knows how to do is blame other people and evade responsibility as much as possible. While nurture helps a lot of people, I do think that some people are just born bad and that's not a thing that can be done about it. In fact, if Cindy hadn't enabled her, all that would have happened is Casey would have skated by for a decade or two more before getting into trouble. A personality like hers, a sociopath, is a user and abuser of people for purely selfish reasons. There is no empathy for anyone but themselves, no love, no nothing except for their own selfish needs. She fooled people for a long time, but Caylee pushed her too far by being the sweet, beautiful, innocent child that was so opposite of Casey that Casey couldn't stand it. She couldn't stand Caylee being the center of attention, and all money going to Caylee. This was a disaster in the making. Cindy really should have let her give Caylee up for adoption. If so, Caylee would be alive today.
There's no hope for Casey, no chance for change, no hint ever of remorse or sorrow for the death of her child. While I do think her parents contributed to the way she is, and really don't like them, they didn't choose to kill a defenseless child and throw her away like garbage. Casey chose to do that. Casey continues to choose her own destiny by letting her defense rum amok and not making all of this end by admitting to what she did. She'll never do that, and this will continue to be a circus for the next six months, maybe even into the trial itself.
I learned the hard way about this, btw. I used to blame my mother and other people for my problems. My mom was a lot like Cindy when I was growing up. Fortunately, I matured and woke up to the fact that my problems were caused by me, and it's me that has to change and make my life better. I could have easily gone down Casey's path, but I'm not a sociopath, and I chose to make my life a good, law abiding one.
There's no solid answer for what could have prevented Casey from making this choice. She was on a path to destruction regardless of Caylee being there or not. Someone was bound to cross her path in a way she could not ignore and in a way that would make her so jealous and enraged that she would have to do something about it, and that includes murder as a choice for her. Poor Caylee just happened to the person that got in Casey's way and she chose that Caylee had to die. To her sociopathic mind, it was the only way to get all attention and money back onto Casey for good.
