Even more astounding is the disparity in commentary from people of different political leanings. I honestly don't understand how anyone who actually listened to that driveling mess, or read a transcript of it, could think anything positive about it at ALL. But on the far right, there are folks lauding him for "owning the press" and "handling the media like we've always wished a President would do!" I can only think that these people live on a different planet from me. What I heard was a lot of anger, much like a teenager who lashes out at his parents when he gets in trouble, and then trying to blame the parents for having things in place like rules that just make him look bad. And well, not much else. If you haven't, you should check it out, but be warned that it will take some fortitude to get through it.
Last night, I was trying to make sense of all the commentary, both that which agrees with my point of view that this administration seems to be flying apart and desperately trying to hang onto its power at any cost, and that which disagrees with me and thinks this man is literally a gift from God to our country. To take the latter view, these commentators appear to assume that the entirely of the mainstream media is a dark state out to get the government, that Russia has our best interests at heart more than our own intelligence agencies, that every single legitimate expert on this stuff is lying to us all outright in order to undermine the power of the President, and that the only person in the country telling the truth is the President himself. Occam's Razor, however, suggests that the opposite is true--that the liar is the President himself, especially since his lies have been well documented from day one of his campaign and have been disproven by verifiable facts over and over and over again.
And how can this man, who speaks at a 6th grade level, lies at every turn, insists that easily proven falsehoods are true even after they have been shown to be false, who is obsessed with his own campaign win, who seeks money and power and adulation above all else, speak such loads of insanity so passionately and with such conviction? This is where I was last night when a friend suggested that I look up the Dunning-Kruger effect. Another suggested that I re-read the definition of Malignant Narcissism. I did this, and let me tell you--I don't feel any better. Let me share with you the definitions the definitions from Wikipedia:
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which low-ability individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability as much higher than it really is. Dunning and Kruger attributed this bias to a metacognitive incapacity, on the part of those with low ability, to recognize their ineptitude and evaluate their competence accurately. Their research also suggests corollaries: high-ability individuals may underestimate their relative competence and may erroneously assume that tasks which are easy for them are also easy for others. Dunning and Kruger have postulated that the effect is the result of internal illusion in those of low ability, and external misperception in those of high ability: "The miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others."This is our President, people. He is mentally ill and unfit to serve.
Malignant narcissism is a psychological syndrome comprising an extreme mix of narcissism, antisocial personality disorder, aggression, and sadism.Often grandiose, and always ready to raise hostility levels, the malignant narcissist undermines organizations in which they are involved, and dehumanizes the people with whom they associate.
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