Deflection, projection, delusion, and denial – along with persecution and paranoia – are all part of the pathology of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which we’ve detailed in our post here. In this post, we’d like to show more in depth what that pathology looks like, as how it is weaponized to perpetuate the identities at the heart of Fascist cults.
DARVO – deny, attack, reverse victim and offender – is an abuse tactic used by people with NPD, and something we’ve seen ad nauseam in political spaces, as evidenced by the reflexive strategies of Donald J. Trump, various Fox News hosts, and cult members down the line until parroted by the rank and file smoothbrains. This is seen in literally every contrary interaction Trump has, in every defense of the various completely batshit claims made by the defenders of GOP nonsense, and in the memes and gotchas – the thought terminating cliches – flooding shared online spaces, none of which exist to serve as convincing arguments full of logic and reason, but solely to defend the group identity, to give the adherents a way out, to cling to their identity uber alles, above all else.
While fallacies like straw men, the gish gallop, and whataboutism all serve their own purposes as copium, to defend, deflect, and deny arguments without any attempt as good faith debate, let’s focus on DARVO for now, as it’s very easy to see once you know what you’re looking for.
When asked about the gilded horse Qatari luxury jet, Trump responded with his classic, angry and attacking word salad.
“They’re giving the United States Air Force a jet. OK? And it’s a great thing. We’re talking about a lot of other things. It’s NBC trying to get off the subject of what you just saw,” Trump said. “You are a real … you know, you’re a terrible reporter. No. 1, you don’t have what it takes to be a reporter. You’re not smart enough. But for you to go into a subject about a jet that was given to the United States Air Force, which is a very nice thing.
“They also gave $5.1 trillion worth of investment in addition to the jet. Go back, you ought to go back to your studio at NBC because Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they ought to be investigated. They are so terrible the way you run that network. And you are a disgrace. No more questions from you,” Trump continued.
Denial: the jet isn’t a personal bribe, it’s a national gift, and is going to the Air Force. Attack: you’re a terrible reporter. Reverse victim and offender: We should investigate NBC. You’re doing this thing that hurts me, you deserve to be punished for victimizing me.
It’s reflexive. Does he think his argument is sound? No, and it doesn’t matter, he’s a soupbrained moron. The entire purpose of this is to 1) protect the delusional and idealized identity at all costs and 2) make the response to the offending interaction or infraction so cruel and punitive that it stops, and disincentivizes further occurrences.
It’s a a maladaptive coping mechanism that has, in Trump, over almost 80 years, become as natural and as mindless as breathing. These strategies become embedded because, in their horrifying fashion, they work. If you just freak the fuck out anything doesn’t go your way, people learn very quickly that it’s just easier to make things always go your way.
For many personality disorders, this is the great challenge of treatment, to rewrite the brain’s operating system so that the emotional utility of “just be the most violently abusive piece of shit you can until everything goes away” is supplanted by, you know, healthy feelings and stable responses. This ranges from “I can’t find my car keys, I’m going to be increasingly terrible until someone finds them for me” to “if the only way I can get you to shut up is to stab you 35 times, so be it”. It’s not a calculated, rational response. It’s a triggered defense mechanism that is ingrained into the brain’s behavioral pathways like a heartbeart.
Functionally, it is a form of what the kids call Copium: self delusional comfort blanket thoughts that aren’t tethered to any reality or to any desire to change hearts and minds, but a reflexive defense of ones’ preconceptions, or a deflection of critique and/or shame.
Sometimes harmless, like thinking we were going to get Fallout 5 or Elder Scrolls VI within a decade of their predecessors, or that your team’s first round draft pick wasn’t going to turn out to be another spoiled child who refuses to work at a pro level. We all do that sometimes.
However, blaming Dr. Fauci because he agreed with the advice that we should stay home as much as possible during a novel virus pandemic that went on to kill a million Americans, to the point of death threats, and Biden feeling he needed to issue him a pardon? That’s fucking BATSHIT.
And it’s not a real argument. It’s extreme copium, deflecting away the shame and fear that came along with the other contrarian identity markers related to the Covid response – ivermectin, hydroxychloriquine, “it’s just a flu”, “the vaccine is worse”, the conspiracy theories, etc, all need a villain, to solidify the emotional utility of the maladaptive, delusional identity. Covid was terrifying, and coping with these easy, safe, magical answers is far easier than facing reality.
And the thing is, the more wrong they are, the more load-bearing the copium needs to be. Doubling down is the only way forward, and these tiny scraps of plausible deniability, no matter how absurd, can keep that structure intact. As long as they have a tiny sliver of copium, they can float along in their Sea of Delulu with their dumbass identity intact.
And it’s what they do with everything, from Climate Crisis to racial and gender oppression, to tariffs, everything. Deny: those aren’t real, that won’t happen. Attack: you’re not a real American, you’re part of the cover up, stupid [insert random slur]. Reverse victim and offender: you’re the real racist, trans athletes ended my mediocre swimming career, look at this pretty blonde woman who was murdered by a swarthy mud race immigrant, etc.
These aren’t arguments. As we’ve written before, especially here, these are bad faith reactions designed to shut down debate, and to punish anyone who challenges the status quo of the group identity. Just as Trump the narcissist lashes out violently and instinctively at literally any challenge to his delusional perfection, we see Conservatives – and others – mirror the exact same pattern, the same maladaptive pathology, the same simple, smoothbrain strategy of just make everything so fucking miserable for everyone else that they simply stop engaging. And then you claim victory, and enjoy your three seconds of dopamine until you go chasing conflict again, because the irony is that you need conflict to validate your delusional victimhood.
It’s still important to counter this copium with facts and logic, of course, it vaccinates the onlookers from getting roped into the weird cheat code that narcissistic sociopathy seems to offer. We just find it helpful, when faced with this deluge of absolutely delusional dogshit day after day, to remember that this is a war of attrition, and every response wears away at that much needed emotional utility, and undermines the superiority complex that lies at the heart of that group identity.
However, also remember that these are literally abuse tactics, made by people who are pathologically bonded to a narcissism protocol, whose addiction to identity is so strong that they have died screaming “no ragerts” into their respirators while full of Joe Rogan’s finest horse paste. These are the Walmart shooters, the pizza place investigators, those who stormed the Capitol, looking for the blood of one of their own.
These are the people so fucking bloodthirsty that they cheer the deportation of four year old cancer patients. They would absolutely cheer Fauci or Hillary or Obama or whoever pissed in their cornflakes this week getting dragged to death behind a Trump-liveried lifted truck like some 14th century peasants cheering the drowning of a witch.
We don’t make this NPD/personality disorder link with some flippant desire to denigrate, or use “pathological” as a pejorative. These are the mechanisms we need to understand in order to defeat the Fascism currently running almost unopposed through our government. And while thoughtful discourse and rational positions are important in any clime, what we see from the Democrats and other Leftists and Centrists and their collective prominent talking heads is less than useless, drinking their own copium to evade the reality of the moment, and their responsibilities to stopping this complete destruction of America.
It is vital to understand this, that these people are not rational. It is purely emotional, and the evidence of the pathology proves it. It’s not an insult or ad hominem, it is a traceable, visible set of maladaptive mechanisms that must be confronted to get these people back to any sense of reality. These people are locked in to a Fascist death cult, and there is no endgame but total destruction. And the first, vital step is to understand what we are dealing with.
They will not stop. They must be stopped.
Kelsoland.Institute 