The Narcissism of the Far Right

I can’t believe I have to write about narcissism, AGAIN! I got so tired of writing about it during the reign of error, explaining the stupid and just plain fucked up decisions or lack of decisions coming out of Trump’s ass that I had hoped with Biden’s election, I wouldn’t have to. Writing about the dark tetrad of personality traits is one thing, but narcissism has just gotten tedious.

However, times have demanded it. The CRT panic, refusing gun reform, overturning Roe v Wade and abortion bans, GRT and mass shootings, and the Big Lie and voter suppression and nullification efforts demand it. What’s the one thing that all the animating issues of far right politics has in common? A healthy heaping foundation of narcissism!

My fears, my “ethics,” my religion, my desires, my worldview are the only ones that matter, and, by god, we’ll all live by them. Anyone who has ever spent time with a narcissist knows that this is essentially how they run their life and the lives of everyone around them.

We’ll focus on just abortion to illustrate our point. You’re welcome to explore other issues in the comments, though. I’d love to hear about it. We’ll leave the nitty-gritty of narcissism to the side bar and previous posts.

Take a moment to read the nine criteria for NPD in the sidebar. Then, read along about abortion we apply them.

The pro-forced birth forces like to say that they are pro-life and that every lie is precious. Most liberals have shouted themselves horse pointing out that only fetal life is precious to those folk. As soon as it is born, as George Carlin pointed out, you’re on your own. And as the baby formula fiasco plays out, you don’t even warrant feeding.

However there are bigger narcissisticier gaping holes in the forced birth position. If the real deal was abortion, then promotion of sex ed and birth control would be at the forefront of their agenda. Afterall, studies show that making birth control easily available decreases the number of unplanned pregnancies and, therefore, abortion.

If they were only having a Jesus loves all the little children moment, then they would be promoting programs that actually help children fetal or otherwise like prenatal care, WIC, Medicare for all, school lunches, SNAP, Section 8, and other such social programs because they help children live happier, healthier, more satisfying lives, and grow up to be productive contributing adults.

Just a cursory review of the facts of the issue reveal that the hearts and minds of the forced birth crowd aren’t with the children or even abortion. They aren’t interested in doing anything other than punishing fornicating women by forcing them to have babies. Of course, as long as it hurts Blacks worst and first — white women and girls will be able to travel to get safe abortions.

If they were worried about life, they wouldn’t outlaw abortions. They would acknowledge that outlawing abortion just stops safe legal abortions for poor women and girls. Women and girls driven to desperation to end a pregnancy will take unbelievable risks and death rates will go up. But, that is only for the poor, who, according to most Puritan religious-types, deserve it because god shows his love by the amount of riches we have on earth, right?

Forcing women to carry unplanned for pregnancies to term will affect many aspects of women’s lives, especially their economic lives. Having babies is expensive in terms of time and money. Studies have shown that access to safe and legal abortion helps women continue and better their education, remain employed, and further their careers.

So, if the motivation for the forced birthers isn’t about life and babies, what is it? It’s about…

• …thinking they are more important than they are or non-believers are.
• …deluding themselves about how exceptional they are. Their beliefs are superior and all that crap.
• …lying through their teeth about what their real goals and desires are. Banning contraception and extramarital sex?
• …fapping to fantasies of your own success, power, brilliance, beauty. Definitely fapping at least to porn given the Google search terms. And, definitely overly confident that their interpretation of God and Christianity is the right one.
• …needing to have their ass kissed constantly. I can’t make a wedding cake for the gays!
• …needing special favors and exceptions to be made for you because you are some kind of a special fragile snowflake. I can’t make a wedding cake for the gays! I can’t provide birth control or abortion coverage for my employees.
• …expecting all of us to ask how high after they’ve screamed jump at us and like it! We all just need to roll over and follow their “god-given” rules because they’re “right.”
• …taking advantage of others to get what they want. They certainly have at least some voters hoodwinked into thinking it is just about abortion when it is imposing their restrictive Christian agenda on all of our social lives.
• …being an insensitive asshole unable to acknowledge the emotions or needs of others or even that others exist outside of the purpose of meeting their needs. This is the biggie. They KNOW that banning abortion is going to kill people; they either just don’t care or it’s part of the plan.
• …seeing everyone around you as being green with envy for them and their bullshit. They think that the rest of us are envious of their political prowess and influence.
• …being a stuck-up shit like some little queen bee high school mean girl. They don’t need to talk to the rest of us or interact with us other than to call names and look down upon us from their high fucking hobby horse.

There is an arrogance and conceit that is part and parcel of having such rigid views. You have to be absolutely confident that you are correct. That kind of rigidity is dangerous. Flexibility and adaptation is necessary for survival because of the changes that occur in our environment, and they don’t have it. In fact, they are so certain that they are right that they’re willing to kill for it and risk all of our lives to achieve it.

Their bloated egos mean that they are easily manipulated by telling them what they want to hear. They are easily riled up by inflicting narcissistic wounds causing them to lash out and destroy those that offend them. Like Trump, they are ticking time bombs, leaving destruction and destroyed lives in their wake.

Image Attribution

“Danse Macabre: The Evangelical” by Dylan Meconis is licensed under CC BY 2.0.