Just when you think it might be getting better, things go sideways.
I previously wrote about the Karpman Drama Triangle in Drama Games, and flying monkeys in Living in Oz, but since the media’s ad hominem attacks concurrent with the indictment of former President Trump for fraud and the announcement of a presidential bid by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have me very alarmed that frenzied panic and more polarization loom on our horizon, I want to examine triangulation more closely in the present context.
In the News
What I’ve been hearing from news outlets is more akin to malicious gossiping than news reporting. Worse, the narratives continue to label people in ways that simply aren’t reflective of reality.
My friends include one group who believe both Trump & Kennedy are criminals (they love Tony Fauci and Joe Biden) and another group who believe both Trump & Kennedy are saviors (they hate Tony Fauci and Joe Biden).
Then there are those like me who believe Trump is a complete fraud who is guilty of all sorts of criminal activity, and that Kennedy, while not perfect, is absolutely on point when it comes to vaccines, fluoridation, wireless technology including 5G & smart meters, GMO, and pesticide use. We tend to believe that Fauci is even more criminal than Trump and that Biden is as narcissistic and manipulative as Trump, just more of a moral narcissist and less of a malignant narcissist. Moreover, some of us don’t think Kennedy running for the presidency is a smart move - but we have the humility to admit we don’t know where his candidacy will lead.
Yet, the dominant narrative of both liberal and conservative media stereotype all of us as either “Elitist Liberals” v. “Conservative MAGA Trumpsters” in an unfair dichotomy, although I do know people in both of those camps, too, it’s just that isn’t representative of all or even most of us.
Regardless of where you stand regarding the American political soap opera, the biggest problem I see is media manipulation of our thoughts and emotions concerning these players which is the equivalent of triangulation.
TRIANGULATION: When a person utilizes a third person as their proxy during interpersonal disputes, it creates a hostile environment and inserts additional drama into relationships for the purpose of pressuring a person to behave in a certain way. It can involve direct or indirect communication. Triangulation is a destructive dynamic favored by Cluster B Personality disorders.
Enticement
We all want to be liked, to be part of a group, and to experience positive feelings and other benefits from our inclusion. It’s a motivation for joining a fraternity of any sort- it provides us with a tribal identity. There is nothing the matter with that. Humans are wired to connect with others.
One of the fastest ways to establish a bond with another is to identify a common enemy- and that is where it can go wrong, fast. Identifying a common enemy is what the media does when they attach gratuitous statements of condemnation to reports about an individual, such as “known for his conspiracy theories which are rejected by his family” when talking about RFK’s presidential bid. They are essentially saying to their audience, “if you are watching our show, this is the way you need to think in order to belong.”
Late night comedians do the same thing on their shows. Although taking shots at public figures in political satire is an acceptable form of entertainment, today’s commentary is harsher than the satire of Johnny Carson or Mark Twain.
The meanness is the equivalent of the “bad mouthing” that goes on when people take sides in family matters, whether it involves spousal abuse or perceived grievances that are exaggerated by a narcissist seeking to control a relationship. The audience chimes in, passively agrees with a head bob, or keeps their mouth shut, because a line has been drawn in the sand. This behavior evokes a kind of mob hysteria because the manipulated emotions trigger chemical reactions. It’s a band-of-brothers thing. But our survival is no longer based on positive social bonding as much as on destroying an enemy.
Entitlement
One of the many the sad things about “othering” is that the self-proclaimed good guy in the scenario has to paint the other person as bad in order to justify their own bad behavior towards the targeted person. It’s an illogical argument - you must be guilty because I punish you because I say you are guilty, and I’m always right. This is a variation of the “post hoc” fallacy or circular reasoning fallacy. It is also symptomatic of “splitting” - when an antagonistic personality can’t see nuances but only can characterize a person as all good or all bad.1
An underlying assumption of this logical fallacy is that the initiator and the army of flying monkeys feel entitled to judge and punish the targeted other. This is what we are seeing when PBS news anchor Judy Woodruff gratuitously claims Dr. Scott Atlas is unqualified and without credibility or fawns over Anthony Fauci. Ms. Woodruff may sit at the big desk, but Dr. Atlas was far more qualified and on point in his pandemic involvement than Dr. Fauci was - it’s just Tony Fauci had more power. Ditto for Rachel Maddow, Don Lemon, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and other ideologues- none of whom have demonstrated journalistic integrity in recent years.
Estrangement
Ultimately, flying monkeys involved in the Karpman Drama Triangle may achieve emotional satisfaction from the game, but it is a murderous game that destroys psyches and relationships. It’s one that leads to polarization and estrangements.
This is what resulted from the relentless media and government promotion of the sanctioned narrative about lockdowns, masks, socially safe distancing, and vaccines that was contrary to accepted scientific protocols and real world data documenting harm. We were fractured - and the media and those in positions of power doubled down widening the rift, especially in America.2
Power, pleasure and profit drive narcissists, psychopaths, and media.
Conclusion:
In interpersonal relationships, it is a bad move to involve a third party for the purpose of dictating “right” thinking to the other party- it’s the unresolvable victim-villain-hero scenario. It’s an unstable dynamic that more often than not results in fractured relationships and family estrangements.
Seeing self-righteous media personalities engage in this type of triangulation in 2023 is filling me with dread. They have learned nothing, and I feel our society is as fragile as a china teacup.
Maggie Russo is the author of “Dance with the Devil: Love in the Age of Covid”
Splitting presents a false dichotomy based on flawed logic and fabricated memories, whether in individuals or biased organizations. Everything good that once may have happened in the relationship is dismissed, suppressed, or recast. Splitting protects fragile egos by creating an alternate reality.
Sweden which never adopted the lockdown fared well, as did the continent of Africa with its very low vaccine uptake. The other Nordic countries and several European countries, Germany, Switzerland, the UK, etc., are not recommending the vaccine any longer for multiple demographics. Even the WHO does not recommend the vaccine for children. Yet, the U.S. under the Biden administration continues to push mandates down to 6 months.
https://genius.com/Stealers-wheel-stuck-in-the-middle-with-you-lyrics
I just watched a long clip where the ladies on "The View" ganged up on Bobby Kennedy. Essentially, not a thing they declared as fact was true. They even mischaracterized the clip of Bobby that they aired where when talking about the inability to escape the global public health edicts he said that people could climb the mountains or hide like Anne Frank did in order to escape the brutal totalitarianism that was Nazi Germany.
We may not like it, but totalitarianism happens fast, but not overnight, and where we are now is exactly where Germany was circa 1940. Since the expression "never forget" means to look for those signs in order to prevent similar genocides, the ladies got it totally backwards. Bobby was honoring the memory of the Holocaust victims, and for the record: Vera Sharav, a camp survivor and activist, agrees with him.
This is triangulation, with a bunch of grown-up mean high-school girls. Shame on Whoopi and the rest of them!