Pwnallthethings: The consequence of that is that he respects those who are respected or who have power, because he thinks those people have successfully fooled their way to that position, and thinks that all power derives from will and fooling rubes. He has no other frame for understanding or interpreting actions.

100% true. Trump is a narcissist, in the classical sense: he believes only in power, and the construction of reality from will: His viewpoint is imposed on others through only will, and that there is no objective reality beyond that, and lacks the empathy to see others do not view the world that way

Read @adamserwer.bsky.social as always: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv... When it comes to Trump...I'm very convinced that he sincerely believes that all trials (and elections, etc.) are "rigged" and nothing is ever on the up-and-up so the only possible explanation to losing is "rigged." And...

The consequence of that is that he respects those who are respected or who have power, because he thinks those people have successfully fooled their way to that position, and thinks that all power derives from will and fooling rubes. He has no other frame for understanding or interpreting actions.

That's /why/ he lies in the way that he does. It's not that he thinks the lie is true, it's that he doesn't think of lies and truth in the way normal people do. He thinks of reality as an extension of will, and his lies are an attempt to manifest a new (more favorable) reality into existence

once again, knowing his childhood pastor was norman vincent peale helps a lot of his behavior click into place

Also that his childhood lawyer was Roy Cohn.

nah. narcissists are made at home. it is a personality disorder generally caused by very early childhood trauma and we know his father was a hardcore abuser not saying there’s anything exculpatory about it but he didn’t just pick up a way of thinking from someone, this is fundamentally who he is

I had to click through to see if this was talking about Donald Trump, Elon Musk, or Sam Altman.

The difference between narcissism and fascism is just power.

yep when trump ran for president, i told everyone the election was about nothing else but family dynamics writ large narcissists are authoritarians by definition, their very nature

I would argue they go hand-in-hand

For a real fascism you need narcissistic sociopath. Just narcissism may be not enough.

It's also true of Scott Adams.

Speaking power to truth.

I remember when I read this Vox piece eight years ago and really internalized what it was saying. Suddenly a lot more about Trump made sense. www.vox.com/2016/9/29/13...

The question of what Donald Trump “really believes” has no answerwww.vox.com It is a category error.

having grown up with one, it’s not even about will. it’s more fundamental than that. he doesn’t think he’s bending reality things just Are the way he wants them to be bc how could they not? he’s the only real person after all, so all of this “reality” is designed just for him, the audience of one

So narcissisim is the clinical version of main character syndrome?

Extension of his will. Every other perceived reality is the enemy until he can destroy them. Since flattery to them is transaction trump genuinely does believe he controls Kim and putin

That's the only thing that can explain something as blatant as using a sharpie on a map to hide that he misspoke

This is also how small children below a certain age function. I guess Trump is what happens when they never have to mature out of that.

Trump's 34-0 felony conviction might be the first time he has been told, "No!" since he was a small child below a certain age.

Maybe. We'll see if the appeal process turns it into a "fine, but just this once."

So, a "triumph of the will," if you will?

This was my experience of my narcissistic ex - I now abhor and avoid all lies and omissions

"Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

And he thinks his right to his reality supercedes anyone else's right, even to the point where his reality causes someone else's death. Almost as if he never grew out of the egocentrism of a 3 year old.

"The Triumph of the Will" wasn't something they just made up because they thought it sounded like a cool title.

That's also why it's foolish to try to appease him, he sees that as a win and it encourages more of the same behavior. People like him only understand power.

The irony is when he sees someone with authority, he respects them for having fooled their way to that position, but if he obtains something from them, he chalks that up to having fooled /them/ and then loses respect for them. It's the narcissists' dilemma:

that the person who opposes his will is an enemy, but the person who appeases his will is a rube who cannot be respected.

This dilemma shows up in the search for a vice president.

100%

Oh the VP will have no respect, no matter who. They are there to serve the orange god.

I've worked with people who have these traits, they are not happy people. But still miserable to deal with.

Content warning: I'm gonna Godwin this thread. Obviously Hitler was like this, insofar as AH believed his own power of will brought him to the summit of power. The downside was AH expected his subordinates to triumph over all adversity by their own will power. The army has no diesel? Power thru it

Is the German amy out of fuel oil? No spare parts for tanks? Power thru it. Russians closing in? Impose your will on reality. I did, why can't you? If the generals don't win in spite of shortages, that just proves the generals never had the will to win. I imposed my will on reality, why can't you?

Difference is AH was a product of decades of antisemitic political machinations & a long tradition of philosophically pompous 3rd rate philosophers like H.S. Chamberlain pushing a dumbed down version of Kantian transcendentalism While Trump is a product of NY real estate developers/organized crime

Narcissists have a knack for authority though, people with more power than they have are respected. But there's no saturation point, they want that power, too. That's the only thing that drives them.

The math checks out: everybody that's not him sucks.

The question is not what Trumpers believe, but whether they are capable of having beliefs. They do not believe objective reality exists in the sense that our beliefs approach reality by assessing evidence. They know some ideas lead to power, & other ideas don't. They have appetites, not beliefs.

A dumb narcississist too dumb to realize that others are much smarter. Imagine how much of the world might as well be magic to him?

Meet the occasional person in Sales who seem to think things can be talked into existence.

Can't you just...

A long-lost former colleague called it badger-engineering.

Exactly.

he doesn’t really respect anyone tho. to the extent he does, he “respects” people when he sees himself in them bc that’s the only thing he values. he respects only himself

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