It’s been said that most people make up their minds based on emotions and then find the data to justify their positions. I suggest a recent study claiming that those who are less compliant with the public health diktats about isolation, masking and vaccinating are higher on the narcissism scale is consistent with that observation. In fact, I argue the opposite conclusion than the one from the study authors. It’s those in favor of the sanctioned control measures who are exhibiting high levels of narcissistic behavior:
LETTER TO SOCIAL SCIENTISTS: (emailed to study authors, lightly edited)
In my experience, I have found the most narcissistic people are avidly pro-control/mitigation efforts whether the topic is masks, vaccines, lockdowns, mandates, passports, etc. They are also very aggressive.
I have been appalled by the comments within my decidedly liberal and well-educated circle that the unvaxxed all deserve to die and explanations that the vaxxed who got sick probably caught it from someone unvaxxed. I’ve had two long term friendships of 40+ years durations abruptly ended because I have medical reason not to be vaxxed and therefore they aren’t even comfortable maintaining socially distant relationships, including phone calls.
I’ve been told that people like me are preventing them from getting back to a normal life. I don’t even have to talk about it. Initially they assumed they couldn’t catch Covid if vaccinated, then they seem to feel that I was just much more likely to be sick than they even though I had a mild case of Covid in June 2020 and have been totally healthy since then, and that posed a threat to them and their families. Apparently, just thinking about me makes them angry.
When I’ve explained why I have a medical exemption, I’ve been told I should still take the chance of disability or death because it is the 'right thing to do.' How much more narcissistic can you get? I should play Russian Roulette with my life because they believe it is the right thing for me to do for their safety?
I’ve told them if they want the vax, get it. Same applies to wearing a mask. However, from my analysis of the literature, confirmed by many scientists, population masking does little if any good and can cause harm. I’ve had to rush out of buildings from lack of air and once ended up on the floor of a sandwich shop waiting in line, and I know the mask that I reuse, even after dropping on the ground is not the most sanitary item. However, if it makes you more comfortable, I will wear a mask when required and/or keep socially distant, not that 6 feet does anything. Maybe 10 to 20, maybe. I’m doing this out of consideration of your feelings, i.e. I’m being empathetic.
The pro-control group, on the other hand, seem to lack any empathy. Instead they possess the following narcissistic characteristics:
ENTITLED: You need to do what I want you to do because I believe it is safer for me.
DYSREGULATED: You are out of my life if you don’t conform.
SINGULAR PERSPECTIVE: Masks work. Something is better than nothing. It’s okay if I take mine off to eat and then put it back on, or slip it below my nose from time to time - they still work.
WARPED WORLDVIEW: I don’t care about the data or science that contradicts my belief. I know I would have been sicker than I was when I caught Covid if I hadn’t been vaxxed.
SPLITTING: You are a bad person if you don’t do what I say. You deserve to be isolated from society and prevented from making a living. And I won’t listen to Bobby Kennedy because he’s a whacko. I trust Anthony Fauci and Joe Biden.
REJECTION OF REALITY: I don’t believe the reports of vax-injuries & deaths. I don’t care what the life-insurance statistics say about deaths, the hospital records say about vax-injuries, the large number of athletes from middle-school to professional sports having SCA while at play, the air-line pilots reports of being disabled after the vax, the whistleblowers at DMED and elsewhere documenting fraud, or the FOIA records of the studies from FDA (executed by pharma) that show higher all cause mortality at 6 months within the study arm of vaxxed subjects (with 5xs more cardiac deaths.) Don’t care about data from other countries that show vax might only work for a few weeks, either. And I don’t care about your several cousins who died in their 50s and 60s “unexpectedly” within weeks of vaxxing or those who developed chronic rashes, blood clots and heart problems immediately after vaxxing. It was a coincidence. And I’m not interested in the impact of mitigation measures on economy or education. I have enough money to remain comfortable. Your financial difficulties aren’t my concern.
PROJECTION: Like all of those with narcissistic traits, the pro-control lobby accuses the ‘skeptics’ of being the selfish narcissists. They do not get the irony.
The vaxxers justify, confabulate and scapegoat. They belong to the Cult of Covid, a pseudo-church founded by Fauci & Collins in America and Ferguson & Farrar in the UK that was built on superstitions and garbage modeling intended to frighten people into compliance. That’s narcissism.
Data:
Economy: https://brownstone.org/articles/can-we-now-see-that-economics-does-not-diverge-from-public-health/
Taking personal responsibility for our own medical decisions is about personal agency. We used to encourage patients to get 2nd opinions and respect their choices as to risks they want to assume, consistent with the doctrine of individual medical consent. On the other hand, controlling other people is the ultimate goal of narcissism, and controlling others is consistent with the sanctioned Covid narrative.
Really, if even the princes of the Catholic Church can’t wear their masks correctly, how can anyone expect the entire world to be perfectly compliant? Wonder what Patti LuPone would have said to the cardinals if she was at Christmas Eve Mass?
Maggie Russo is the author of “Dance with the Devil: Love in the Age of Covid”
Hello! I’m a new subscriber and enjoyed this article as my first read of the morning. Thank you! Good stuff. Sending sympathy at your lost friendships. I’m lucky to have mainly lost only friends online over this. It still hurts, but your story was so so sad. Luckily I have made many new friends online to keep me sane. Every now and then I pluck up the courage to argue with the normies and see how it goes. My last attempt was jumping into the leaked SCOTUS decision mêlee. As a pro choicer for decades I thought maybe we could find common ground. Not so. And when I told this person her empathy was fake if it didn’t extend to my medical freedom she fought tooth and nail to explain that forcing other people to “do the right thing” is the most empathetic position. They sure don’t like it when you call out their hypocrisy! But we keep trying. Keep up the good work!
I agree with almost everything you said. I am slow to slap on the 'narcissism' label though, it is a complicated phenomenon. What is not complicated is the reality of 'denial' which is so commonplace and powerful as a defense against reality. What an eye opener this fiasco has been regarding the flaws in human character, such as willful denial, and irrational reactions masked as virtue.