The Rise of Antisocial Narcissism in America

We need language that is complex enough, and nuanced enough, to explain the world we find ourselves living in. Few phenomena we experience are simple, black or white. This is especially true for the study of human psychology. In many cases it is more helpful to talk about continuums. An example that leaps to mind is that of sexuality. There is little doubt that sexuality is on a continuum that includes e.g., heterosexuality, bisexuality, homosexuality and other tendencies. If people understood and accepted this concept, it would resolve a lot of misunderstanding and conflict.

We now see autism as being on a spectrum. We no longer hear the word “autism” and think of Dustin Hoffman’s portrayal in the film “Rain Man.” In fact, Elon Musk put himself on this spectrum while hosting Saturday Night Live by identifying himself as having Asperger’s.

It’s not a big leap to say personality disorders are on a continuum. Personality disorders used to be called character disorders, which is probably a more accurate description for narcissism and antisocial disorders. Lying, manipulation and the disregard for even the most basic ethical values are strong characteristics of both. What has happened in American culture is that many Americans, especially those who currently identify as Republicans, fall somewhere on the continuum of narcissism and antisocial personality.

Is it possible for millions of people to become afflicted with these attitudes, beliefs and behaviors simultaneously (to varying degrees, of course)? Actually, you don’t have to go very far back in human history to find such an example. Adolph Hitler became leader of Germany in 1933, a mere 93 years ago! He had already written “Mein Kampf,” which clearly laid out his blatant racism. And his hatred for democracy was obvious. In 1933, the German people decided they wanted this, they wanted Hitler to lead their country. That same year he built Dachau, his first concentration camp. Built in Germany, it was initially used to eliminate Hitler’s critics. Many of these people were not Jewish; they simply had the audacity to question the demagogic leader of Germany. (Trump has clearly said he will do the same thing, i.e., build “camps” where he will lock up “vermin.” Chillingly, this is the same language used by Hitler.)

We can look back on 1930s Germany and see the extreme pathology in Hitler. What is often not talked about is that this pathology came to be embraced by a majority of the German people. They seemed completely committed to tossing aside democracy, their widely admired culture and civilization (e.g., Immanuel Kant was German) and replacing these ethical, caring and, frankly, lofty values with extreme violence, narcissism and barbarism.

We are currently seeing these events unfold in America. Donald Trump enjoys unquestioned support and obedience within the Republican Party (e.g., he snaps his fingers: No border agreement because cooperation hurts his election chances!). He has consistently attacked our basic democratic values, denying the results of a 2020 election that saw him lose by over 7 million votes. He and his minions (i.e., other Republicans) have ruthlessly attacked poll workers, questioning their integrity, their honesty, etc. The results of a Trump election are clear: destruction of our democracy, violent attacks on Muslims, Blacks, Latinos and homosexuals, etc. Yet he enjoys strong, unquestioned support by an overwhelming majority of Republicans.

It is instructive to note that Benito Mussolini declared that democracy is actually fascism, a familiar refrain of Trump and Trump-loving Republicans. Let’s take a look at a clear, unambiguous definition of Fascism, since it is a word ruthlessly abused by the far right. This brilliant, concise definition is provided by the Oxford American dictionary:

Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one national or ethnic group, a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach.

To not recognize MAGA Americans in this definition indicates you are well down the slope of criminal insanity. I would rather condemn you now for your cowardly, ignorant and/or shameful behavior than after lives have been lost and Democracy has been ripped away from this country.

How is this antisocial? For those with psychological sensibilities, the answer is blatantly obvious. But the humanities are generally not valued in America, especially by Republicans.  This includes history, philosophy and psychology. In fact, today’s Republicans are so rabid that they see psychological insight as threatening to their cause. “Woke” refers to those who have insight and are capable of empathy. “Wokeness” must be crushed before we can have a fascist state.

With Donald Trump, his lack of empathy is almost comical. Throwing paper towels at hurricane survivors in Puerto Rico, asking survivors, “Is this your boat?” as a large cabin cruiser sits among the rubble of what used to be their home. He then proclaimed, “At least you got a boat out of the deal!” Take note of how often Trump ends a conversation with people, who have just lost everything, with the words, “Have fun!” Contrast Trump’s behavior with Joe Biden’s and Trump’s pathology is obvious. Healthy human beings, who are capable of loving deeply, recognize significant loss and grieve appropriately. Trump doesn’t have the values, nor the emotional maturity, to experience grief or to show empathy for others.

For many years before he ran for president, Trump was seen as an obvious, very public, even comical manifestation of narcissistic personality disorder. Mary Trump, a PhD in Clinical Psychology and Donald’s niece, points out in her book, “Too Much and Never Enough,” that “a case could [also] be made that he [Donald Trump] also meets the criteria for antisocial personality disorder, which in its most severe form is generally considered sociopathy but can also refer to chronic criminality, arrogance and disregard for the rights of others.”

What struck me, shortly after Trump was “elected,” was his strong sense of victimhood. After viciously attacking and trashing other people, if there’s any pushback, he whines about it. Our prisons are full of people with this mindset. Trump’s wealth so far has kept him out of prison, not an unusual scenario in America, especially if the criminal is white.

George Conway, who was married to one of Trump’s chief enablers, is an attorney and a bright guy. Involved with the Lincoln Project, he has pointed out that you don’t need to have a Master’s or PhD in psychology, or be a psychiatrist, to understand that Trump is a narcissist.  He has stated that if you just read the criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Trump fits every single criteria!

Trump is also violent and aggressive. For example, even as an old man, he certainly encourages physical aggression by his minions, including at his rallies. (I never thought I’d hear a U.S. president encourage his supporters to “punch them in the face!”) And from many accounts, including his own, he has been fond of being sexually aggressive towards women.  Trump’s deceitfulness and repeated lying is legendary. Legal experts have said that Trump is likely to perjure himself at trial. In other words, Trump is incapable of being truthful, even in a court of law!

If you even mention the above to a MAGA type (i.e., a Republican), you will be met with howls of protest. Why? The reason, in this case, is quite simple. There is such a strong identification with Trump that, if you attack him, you attack them. If he’s a racist, that means they’re racist. If he’s an antisocial narcissist, perhaps they, also, share many of these traits.

The purpose of this essay is not to diagnose Donald Trump or any other person. It is to show that, in my opinion, there is a moral, intellectual and psychological condition affecting a large percentage of Americans that is best described as having the characteristics of, and falling on a continuum of, antisocial narcissism.

We have a long history of treating minorities in this country very poorly, of course. The near extermination of Native Americans, slavery, 100 years of Jim Crow (which Hitler greatly admired), Islamophobia, blatant hatred of Latinos (especially immigrants, who Trump repeatedly derides as “drug dealers, murderers and rapists”), and the list goes on.

There certainly is a continuum of emotional intelligence and psychological insight. Unfortunately, both of these qualities are not especially valued in American culture, especially among the radical right. It’s much easier to put down and attack those who are different than you if you have no insight into your own flaws, weaknesses and misconceptions. Any attempt to point this out to them will be met with anger. Also with basic and crude defenses, usually denial and projection. Examples include: “You’re a fascist!” (projection) and “January 6 didn’t happen,” “Trump didn’t lie,” etc. (denial).

You could almost say that at least some of these people are on a continuum for idiot savants, since they can otherwise be quite bright. Also, their pundits and their algorithms support their denial and projection which in turn, reinforces their lack of emotional and psychological insight. Their answer to the age-old question is, of course the tree didn’t fall if I wasn’t there to hear it. I can think of senators, governors and at least one otherwise brilliant scientist who seem to have absolutely no emotional or psychological intelligence.

With demographers predicting minority status for whites by 2045, it takes very little to whip up a frenzied hatred for immigrants. Tucker Carlson, Fox News, Donald Trump have all benefited greatly from this hatred. These are deep-seated feelings that are not rational (e.g., Germans’ hatred of Jews) and, therefore, you can’t just “educate” people into becoming more accepting, more enlightened.

In Wisconsin, where I live, we had a State Supreme Court with a far right majority nearly throw out our 2020 presidential election results, even after repeated recounts and absolutely no evidence of fraud, of any sort. One extremist, Brian Hagedorn, decided this went too far and ruled the results should stand, thereby averting a constitutional crisis! The MAGA crowd was incensed, and he’s been paying the price ever since.

Our poll workers have been under vicious attack, verbally and psychologically, ever since the 2020 election. Top Wisconsin Republican officials (i.e., Robin Vos, Chris Kapenga) have attacked our top poll worker and the head of our Elections Commission, Meagan Wolfe. They have repeatedly tried to fire her, all for doing her job! While Meagan Wolfe has shown incredible integrity and bravery, she has probably suffered greatly from these vicious attacks.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a deep contempt for the humanities expressed by the MAGA right. Even though Wisconsin Republicans have been defeated repeatedly over the last 12-13 years, because of severe gerrymandering they have enjoyed a huge majority in both the Senate and Assembly. As a result, our Democratic governor is significantly hamstrung. In turn, MAGA has incredible control over the purse strings of Wisconsin’s budget. They have used this power to attack public schools and the University of Wisconsin system. Separation of church and state, so fundamental to our democracy, is now a thing of the past. Millions upon millions of tax dollars go toward funding private schools, mostly religious. Religious schools in the Milwaukee area, for example, openly admit they would not exist without this tax support (for their religious indoctrination).

Robin Vos, head of Wisconsin’s State Assembly and arguably the most powerful Republican in the state, has angrily attacked all DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs and positions. He refused funding (the University of Wisconsin is already the 8th worst funded university system in the US) for a much-needed engineering program building in Madison and refused to give faculty pay raises unless UW went along with his scheme (i.e. to eliminate DEI)! Of course they finally capitulated. They otherwise risked a significant drain of talent and the loss of engineering students, which, of course, Vos would be fine with. This kind of behavior is blatantly antisocial.

But why is this pathology thriving in America now? Charles Sykes’ book “How the Right Lost Its Mind” does a very good job of describing the increasing toxicity of the extreme right media from the mid-1990s to the present, and how it developed the culture necessary to enable this pathological culture to thrive. Clearly, there would be no Donald Trump without Rush Limbaugh and the hundreds of Rush Limbaugh wannabes around this country. There would be no Trump, obviously, without Fox News.

Closely related is the culture that has emerged in America around internet communication, i.e., anything goes. Partly due to its relative anonymity, people feel free to say the most incredibly disgusting things about each other! Then add to this the political element where Republicans have absolutized, and thereby weaponized, the First Amendment and you have an angry, vile and threatening culture.

And blatant lying has become widely accepted. The Washington Post states Trump told 30,573 lies during his four years as president, and he hasn’t slowed down since! Even the usually timid mainstream media has labeled Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, “The Big Lie.”

Racism, by any measure, has always played an integral role in this country. From slavery to Jim Crow (including thousands of lynchings and other terrorist acts) to intense segregation in impoverished, crime-ridden areas of our largest cities to mass imprisonment, racism has always played a major role in how white Americans conduct themselves. This is clearly and obviously not confined to the South: Wisconsin actually has the highest incarceration rate of blacks in the country. While 6% of its population is Black, 42% of its prison population is Black!

Dorothy Brown has written an important book, “The Whiteness of Wealth.” She describes a Pew Research Center analysis in 2016 that concluded the median wealth of white households was 10 times that of black households. I am a retiree, and I can assure you that my lifestyle, as well as how I feel about my retirement, would be radically different if my wealth were one-tenth of what it is now. A more recent analysis shows this wealth gap, incredibly, has increased since 2016.

I am convinced that the most important factor animating MAGA Republicans is by far the prediction by demographers that, if current trends continue, whites will become a minority by 2045. Some say this has already happened, i.e., that whites are already a minority. This explains so much. Why are white people in Wisconsin so concerned about non-white immigration? Why is “building the wall” such a powerful campaign tool for Trump? With our most recent election, I received a large flyer with my representative, Scott Fitzgerald, leaning against the wall along Mexico’s border: “A Secure Border, A Secure Wisconsin.” I thought, the only thing missing is a swastika!

And doesn’t democracy become the enemy? If majority rules, for the first time, whites will not enjoy the unquestioned power they have always enjoyed. Already 73% of Trump supporters (64% of all Republicans) believe that discrimination against whites is as big a problem as discrimination against blacks! Sycophants like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson (who gets fired from Fox News?!) have made $100s of millions stoking racist fears of whites across the country.

The closer we get to genuine progress, not just tokenism and appeasement, the more threatened white America gets. Who better than a Hitler-quoting, barbaric Trump will protect law-abiding white people from the nightmare of true equality?

Finally, coming from an Evangelical background myself, I am very familiar with the huge impact white Christian nationalism has on American politics. And how incompatible these beliefs are with basic principles of democracy, especially Enlightenment ideals and the separation of church and state. Trump certainly knows this and realizes how desperate this group is for a racist, white demagogic leader. Michelle Goldberg, in 2006, wrote a remarkably insightful, prescient book on this subject, “Kingdom Coming.”

The whole subject of white Christian nationalism is incredibly relevant to today’s political developments, including race, abortion, etc. This group, along with other extreme right groups, is incredibly motivated to destroy democracy as we know it. Will those of us who deeply value democracy and its related values (e.g., honesty, intelligence, decency, empathy), be equally committed and passionate?