His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will **believe a big lie **sooner than a little one; and **if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it. **
"Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than “politics.” They were lovely people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. You know who weren’t nice people? Resisters."
- Naomi Shulman
It's very much like how people have created cults, slowly pushing the boundaries people will accept, while also claiming to be the authority of everything and accept no blame. And people crave a sense of belonging, and community. By the time people find out they are following a monster they are so far down the wrong path they feel trapped and it's the path of least resistance to just go with it. Also an example is made of anyone trying to rock the boat.
Was an episode of The Dollop (podcast) about a teacher that created a cult of his students to show them this exact scenario (how everyday Germans got behind Hitler). I'll look it up later if nobody beats me to it before then.
Edit - nevermind found it faster than I thought I would.
The only time Trump ever told the truth was when he said "I could shoot someone on 5th Ave and not lose any supporters" all he would have to do is say they were a pedo Democrat and he'd gain support...
I actually thought of Musk first but Trump or Putin or any other dictator probably also fits. Generally most high level politicians are probably like this, but maybe to varying degrees of severity.
No, NPD is a social disability that causes great distress to the patient. Trump is not socially impaired and is not distressed by his ego, so it's not NPD.
Here's a decent litmus test for whether someone is disabled or an asshole: if you can feel sympathy for them, can see that the whole world is against them, if you feel sorry for them and want them to be helped, it might be a disability. If they're a famous politician and billionaire with millions of fans, they're not disabled, they're an asshole.
What kinda bullshit is this? "Only people i feel sympathy for can be disabled" is the dumbest take of the week.
People can be disabled and assholes at the same time. There are lots of mentally ill people that i dont feel sympathy for, because they are also horrible people. Hitler most certainly had some level of mental disorder and so does Musk.
You cant easily see from the outside if anyone is distressed or not so your entire line of thinking is flawed.
I think you are being too restrictive with the concept of "distress". The description in the image is about such distress.
Vulnerability in self-esteem makes individuals with narcissistic personality disorder very
sensitive to criticism or defeat. Although they may not show it outwardly, such experiences may
leave them feeling ashamed, humiliated, degraded, hollow, and empty. They may react with
disdain, rage, or defiant counterattack. However, such experiences can also lead to social
withdrawal or an appearance of humility that may mask and protect the grandiosity.
Interpersonal relations are typically impaired because of problems related to self-preoccupation,
entitlement, need for admiration, and relative disregard for the sensitivities of others.
Individuals with narcissistic personality disorder can be competent and high functioning with professional and social success, while others can have various levels of functional impairment.
Extracted from the DSM-5-TR (2022); emphases are mine. Their distress revolves around self-esteem. As you can see, NPD can manifest in different ways too.
A person can suffer from NPD while, unrelated to it, they might hold questionable political views. Those two things are not mutually exclusive; if they were, all people with NPD would be irreproachable.
The sad part is that they are assholes, as you put it, but perhaps in some cases we failed them helping them not become who they became.
Hitler, Trump and many other influential people are obviously neurodivergent. This type of person often cannot access formal education in the way most people do and they end up as dilettantes. Self esteem is damaged by their inability to fit into society and oppositional defiance sets in. Self awareness is often poor or non existent.
Society cannot absolve itself from a duty of care for these people. Most of them end up sidelined, in prison, substance users or in the worst cases, in leadership roles that they are unqualified and unsuited for.
It need not be this way. We should be teaching our children that it's okay to be different and we love them anyway.
Don't blame horror on neurodivergence. We have no idea whether or not they were neurodivergent. People use that as an excuse for their horrible behavior all the time (like Elon Musk, who has also never been evaluated).
You can be a horribly immoral or amoral person and not be neurodivergent.
Society cannot absolve itself from a duty of care for these people
On paper, sure.
In practice, what is the solution for the failson of a billionaire? He's got better access to mental health care than any of us. He's surrounded by police. He's spent most of his life in the limelight, with a professional media class endlessly indulging his neurosis.
You seem to think everything I post is a personal attack against you. First you thought a post about Elon Musk was about you, now you think a post about Donald Trump is about you. I don't even know you.
I completely agree with you. However, anyone can write anything and as long as it is what people want to hear it will be spoken of as truth. No source required. But if you write something that people do not want to hear, even with sources, many people will not listen and will attack you. Tis a crazy thing about us humans with our biases. Some studies in this human trait would be interesting and beneficial.
Well, u get my upvote because i like promoting intellectual individuals.. As a side note , as a person living in an actual third world country, i warn that perhaps a few first world countries have their status hanging by a thread, if it isn’t for a few intellectual and selfless persons carrying the burden of the rest..
#RIP #AndrewBreitbart