And the idiots aren’t even the problem, it’s the disingenuous experts. When your a voice of authority and are spreading misinformation, well that’s the end of humanity.

I’d say so. Deep down, I don’t actually like myself. I’ve said before narcissism is like scar tissue or armor that limits your “range of emotion.” I’m either angry or feeling absolutely nothing.

I have Avoidant Personality Disorder, and from what i have learned and experienced, the main difference between me and someone with NPD seems to be our coping strategy to deal with the low self-value we assign ourselves. While a narcissist makes everything about them to avoid facing their lack of self-worth (replacing the internal issue with external means), i seek to avoid attention because it makes me face my lack of self-worth (the external is what i feel inadequatedly defended against) - this lack is a constant companion for both of us.

Both conditions show signs of significant distortion of the self-image.

Both are malfunctioning coping mechanisms - they worked at early development stages in childhood, when they were adaptions to bad conditions - one needed to be attention seeking to an extreme point, while I had to avoid attention to feel safe. Sadly, these frameworks become a lot more problematic as someone grows up, and these things are hard to change at all (not impossible, but it takes a lot of effort. I have been in weekly therapy for at least 25% of my life, and while i have made advancements, i still struggle daily)

We are both very bad at accepting critique - when i was younger, online comments were able to keep me awake at night, and in-person critique e.g. at work was hell, especially if there’s no time to mentally prepare myself for it. I can understand why we both might just delete everything instead of facing it. Damn, sometimes i have to take a few deep breaths to calm myself before i look at my notifications.

In a overly simplified way yes. It tends to be more the inability to have self confidence or lacking the natural ego to foster it healthily. So a over correction occurs.

With out treatment or outside help that results in problematic behavioural responses, and other issues.

So funny enough the lack of self esteem results in a facade of too much self esteem.

Again this is GROSSLY over simplifying it and doesn’t even cover some of the more complex expressions of the topic.

Least this is how it’s been explained to me by phycologists when we where helping my uncle deal with his narcissistic and bipolar disorders.

That man was a walking mine field of mental issues. Thankfully he’s doing better now, only took 40+ years.

Delete this

I used to be a conservative, so this has happened to me several times. I used to actually believe in trickle down economics and even supported India when they were almost gonna get rid of the income tax altogether.

I then tried to find any example of when trickle down worked and… I couldn’t. The Kansas Experiment was a rousing failure and then tried to look to Gary Johnson and his “success” as the governor of New Mexico where he cut and never once raised taxes.

This put the state in debt long term and he privatized a ton of industries like prisons which have had longstanding impacts on the state. I couldn’t find anything, not a single piece of honest to god evidence showed my opinions were right.

If I am being completely honest, I had a full on panic attack in like 2020, coming from a mix of things to be fair but realizing I am wrong was part of it, because then it feels like reality and life itself are calling you stupid. I think a part of why I became a narcissist was my own mother would call me a retard when I was a kid and my teachers in high school bullied me, saying I’d never amount to anything. So my narcissism is like some kind of scar tissue that limits my range of emotion.

After my panic attack, I met some other people in real life who were former conservatives and admitted they were wrong and kind of just came to get used to being wrong. That maybe being wrong isn’t a mark against you. Maybe you can just move on from it. Maybe sticking to your guns isn’t a sign of strength, but weakness?

It’s a hard life man lmao.

Narcissism isn’t necessarily genetic, predisposition to it may be, but personality disorders seem to be caused by a combination of factors, with a major one being childhood experiences. Source My father has (unmanaged, but not particularly severe) NPD and I just wound up with CPTSD and no personality disorders. Same for all my siblings.

In my uneducated opinion, a much better school based approach would be to keep an eye out for children displaying signs of personality disorders, possibly even screening for them, and then trying to help get them access to treatment from a young age so they can stop hurting themselves and others sooner

Fair question, I guess it just depends on how I feel that day and whether or not it’s even worth engaging with even myself about it rather than expunge the dumb thought from existance. I don’t necessarily forget it, but the feels linger if I leave it hanging, and I only get so much time on this planet.

I guess it’s just easier to delete it and move on with my life and the next time I come across the thought I approach it differently for everyone’s sake.

I like to think I’m okay with being wrong, but just like every interaction, it goes smoother if I don’t need to backtrack and regain the trust of my interlocutor. Mulling on it myself instead of with someone I’ve already pissed off is probably more productive. I guess that’s also part of the learning curve.

Eres un perdedor.