It’s the malignant narcissism
Nancy LeTourneau explains why many journalists were suckered into thinking Trump had changed simply because he managed to pretend to be serious for a few minutes on Tuesday.
It is infuriating to watch political reporters get sucked into the nonsense delivered by this president over and over again. But David Roberts recently described why that happens.
Ask someone who’s been in an abusive relationship with a malignant narcissist. One reason they’re able to maintain appearances/jobs/etc. is that they are relatively rare & unusual & the normal people around them simply can’t absorb that they are what they are…They try again and again, thinking there must be normal human intentions & emotions in there somewhere. It’s just remarkable how far someone w/out shame or conscience can get by exploiting this cognitive/emotional blindspot.
I do it myself. I can’t help continuing to think – despite knowing better – that if someone sat him down and explained to him (there would have to be a gag in his mouth) what an evil monstrosity he is, he would get it. That’s ludicrous, but it seems to be deeply wedged into my thinking process.
When Roberts writes about how we keep trying to see normal human intentions and emotions in someone who has never exhibited them before, it is because projection isn’t merely a matter of assuming that others are capable of our worst instincts. In general, we tend to project all of our responses onto others in an attempt to understand their actions. Since most of us aren’t malignant narcissists, it is difficult for us to grasp the levels of depravity exhibited by those who are.
It is. I can’t seem to do it despite knowing it. I know it and I don’t know it. If I really knew it, knew it all the way down, I would just ignore him. I can’t just ignore him, so clearly I don’t know it in that way. I want him to realize what a shit he is, and I guess wanting that makes it impossible for me to internalize the awareness that he never will because he’s not made that way.
I have never had that with Trump. Maybe because I grew up with malignant narcissists, and got used to thinking of myself as the oddity. But there are still people who take my breath away, the ruthless corporate types I was reading last night who basically said that a few hundred thousand (even a few million) deaths is nothing compared to getting the economy running again. These aren’t malignant narcissists, they are just capitalists without a conscience. For them, it isn’t about power, or ego, it’s all about money. Those are the ones I still struggle to wrap my mind around, even though as an environmental scientist, I encounter them all the time.
In a lot of conversations I’ve had about Trump, there is often one person who insists that there must, must be a thought process, a plan buried in there somewhere. If there isn’t a plan, some hidden method to the madness, then the only remaining conclusion is that he really is as stupid and petulant and cowardly as he seems. There seems to be a reluctance to accept that possibility purely because of how horrifying and (for Americans) embarrassing it is.
Accepting this would require unlearning a whole load of flattering myths people have with respect to America, and society in general.
“because he managed to pretend to be serious for a few minutes”
This is how I imagine they got him to do that:
Someone: Mr. President, if we keep doing what we’ve done until now, somewhere between 1 and 2 million people will die.
Trump: Uh huh.
Someone(somewhat stunned*): People who might vote for you in November.
Trump: Oh, now I see what you mean.
* I still imagine there are people around Trump who can be stunned, i.e. are not as heartless and ignorant as he is.