Fragile
Zoom Today, Sunday, Noon PT / 3PM ET
Narcissism is a complex phenomenon but, generally speaking, there are two types: grandiose narcissism (of the type we all recognize in Donald Trump) and vulnerable narcissism. Vulnerable narcissism can lead to narcissistic rage—and there is increasing evidence that narcissists can fluctuate between the two types.
Vulnerable narcissists are self-absorbed, exploitative, aggressive, and harbor grandiose thoughts, much like grandiose narcissists. Although both vulnerable and grandiose narcissists also share highly entitled beliefs, vulnerable narcissism is even more strongly associated to high levels of entitlement rage than grandiose narcissism . Vulnerable narcissists report that they become more upset or angry when they do not receive what they think they deserve. Thus, vulnerable narcissists are much more sensitive to judgments of outcome fairness, ruminating over the outcomes they did not get but believe they deserved.
Vulnerable narcissism is fragility. It is a shame-management system where status becomes emotional oxygen. Bigotry becomes a shortcut to status. And self-love becomes outgroup hate.
We are seeing an explosion of fragility around members of the broligarch class—a fountain of narcissistic rage coming from their vulnerable egos.
Elon Musk is one of the most racist accounts on his own platform. His bigotry is constant and unavoidable, by design. But of late he has dropped all pretense about his internal model of the world. His paranoia about protecting white people has become his primary focus.
Musk’s internal model of the world is a perfect illustration of the vulnerable narcissist justifying his own bigotry—and compensating for his own shame. It’s everyone else who’s wrong.
The person Musk chose to promote is a dedicated “scientific racist”—who thinks white people are intrinsically more intelligent than brown and Black people.
As one more example of this broligarch fragility in the wild, PayPal Mafia member and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, who has been accused of sexual assault of a Stanford student, is in a fit of narcissistic rage over criticism of Pete Hegseth’s murders in the Caribbean.
“He should brag more. Masculine truth: bold, virtuous men deter evil.”
To drive his point home, Lonsdale, speculating on his future leadership potential, wants public hangings as a “three strikes law.”
“It’s time to bring masculine leadership to protect our most vulnerable.”
The truth is the “most vulnerable” among us are Joe Lonsdale and Elon Musk’s fragile egos. The world is not bending around their internal model of a white male-dominated society so they are lashing out in narcissistic rage—in increasingly violent terms.
The most fragile are the most dangerous—before they fall apart.
Zoom today at Noon PT / 3PM ET to discuss the week’s events, process the madness, and talk about whatever is on your mind—with an intelligent, supportive community. No pressure to talk but it’s open to all questions and comments. Hope you can make it! Details below.