The Shared Toxic Narcissism of Trolls, Predators and Political Extremists

Dark personalities have far more in common than most realize.

 

In 2021, my highly supportive DemCast editors requested a psychological profile of online trolls because they wanted to understand why they were being inundated with them and what their motivations were for wasting so much time and energy by fruitlessly harassing them.

Of course, like most active on social media, I have dealt with my fair share of trolls, but thankfully never had much trouble once I realized most just wanted to waste my time, and learned if you strategically treat them like you would a narcissist, sociopath or psychopath acting in the same manner, they quickly went away on their own, or I just blocked them without a second thought.

The reason I have always felt so guilt-free in blocking trolls is because I first used them as Guinea pigs to test if the best general advice most experts gave in dealing with malignant narcissists worked on trolls, and it worked so well that I never looked back or gave it a second thought. Indeed the counter-narcissist mantras of “cut all ties" and “just get away” always seemed to solve any troll trying to engage, or who needed to be temporarily engaged in defense of others who had fallen into a troll’s trap.

I know this mindset can sound harsh and intolerant but once you fully process the likelihood of pathological narcissists changing for the better ranges from slim to none due to a lack of cure or highly effective treatment, “cut all ties and “just get away” from those who keep trying to drag you into their dark psychological battlefield saves you a lot of time, stress and energy, and has a certain narcissist spectrum synchronicity to it.

I call the blocking trolls process “clown and block” or “whack-a-troll,” and made it into a fun game because one almost never misses, and the end result is you win, because most trolls are usually gone from your life forever, once you block them back down under the rock where they belong.

To be clear, I am usually tolerant, understanding or at least want to hear every other POV at least once, so I have rarely ever used a mute over a block. If someone spews enough stupid with an irrational confidence, that tells me they either cannot grasp or have no interest in logic or truth.

Once it gets to that point where their elevator pitch makes me want them to shut up and go away, I have no regrets in blocking them, because it becomes apparent that I am just wasting time and energy by allowing someone very close-minded and narcissistic to gaslight me with their self-serving agenda.

Do you also find it highly suspicious and telling that spewing stupid with irrational confidence is just one of the endless behaviors that trolls, political extremists, the MAGA GOP and pathological narcissists all have in common, and there is almost nothing that comes to mind to the contrary? (Comments are open for those who want to give it a shot.)

Again, if memory serves, I did not give much more thought to troll psychology before the profile assignment because they seemed handled by clowning, exposing and then immediately blocking most right after. As noted for its usefulness in the Narcissist’s Paradox, denying a narcissist the last word is also psychologically painful for them because you have blocked their compulsion to dominate.

Additionally, if you put up a firm barrier like a “block,” some trolls will even learn not to cross certain lines and may even crawl back under their rocks on their own, but definitely none can believe you so easily silenced them and escaped their self-perceived “yuge” irresistible charisma and dominance.

In arriving at the above and other realizations about how there are well-established connections between trolls and the darkest parts of narcissism spectrum psychology, it made me so glad my editors asked that trolls be put under a microscope, because once again, I discovered the stereotypes that most people (including myself) have about online trolls are mostly logical fallacies, and thus counterproductive.

That is because the more one studies well-established scientific research on the psychology of trolls, the more it is revealed that not only are many of the stereotypes about these dark personalities logical fallacies, once again another toxic category of people perfectly align with the unifying theory of CNI philosophy, by exhibiting the exact same kinds of traits, tells and behaviors of those higher up on the narcissism spectrum.   

I suspect most reasonable people’s experiences with online trolls usually starts off something like mine did.

“I had no idea that my public comments about politics and psychology, no matter how logical, would inevitably attract negative responses from nonsense arguers, toxic abusers, bots, and other forms of trolls, who for whatever reason, wanted to scream back at little old me.”

In the attempt to decipher the psychology of trolls, the following questions were asked in the profile.

“What is the nature of a troll? What causes trolling? What kind of a person becomes a dark troll? Why would anyone waste their time and energy trolling?”

Of course the first step in answering these questions productively is to determine what the definition of a troll really is.

According to Merriam-Webster, “In the late 1980s, Internet users adopted the word ‘troll’ to denote someone who intentionally disrupts online communities.”

I pieced together a more detailed definition of the darker trolls: people who parachute into a public feed, thread or comment, and in bad faith and/or with bad intentions, post moronic, inflammatory or maliciously disruptive comments, images or points of view. They do this to deliberately trigger, trick, provoke or upset people, all in hopes of causing the debate or conversation to change course, go in a negative direction, or — the ultimate goal —  completely devolve into some combination of confusion, shock, horror, outrage, hurt feelings, anger, and/or just plain old chaos.

The reason to start off an analysis of political extremists with lessons from an online troll profile is because after years of observing global political extremism and political extremists who get off on trolling and preying on others, it appears almost certain that a deeper truth is that just like the study of troll psychology perfectly aligns with consistent patterns of pathological narcissist behaviors, political extremist behavior seems to perfectly align with variations of the exact same predatory narcissistic personality disorders that most trolls have. What a coincidence (or not) that political extremists are usually the biggest trolls and often predators in every political environment and system.

Thus, political extremists just like predatory trolls show the world with their words and actions (outside of a little virtue signaling to appear to care about other humans) that they are psychologically focused and get off on grooming, gaslighting, hurting and triggering others to achieve their self-serving goals. How strange that political extremism gives trolls license to abuse and prey on others politically, economically, socially and spiritually in a democracy, if they call it “faith” and “free speech.”

If you really think about it and apply the predatory troll definitions above, considering how many Republicans like trump, Desantis, Abbott, Gaetz, Hawley, Jordan, Cruz and many more seem to take their greatest joy in trolling rivals, enemies and “owning the libs,” you begin to see those deeper connections. Certainly it is shocking but not surprising how much the predictable behaviors of trolling psychology matches the patterns of malignant narcissist abuse, currently known as the so-called “Republican Party’s” political agenda.

What a coincidence that just like trolls, the end goal for everything the politically extreme GOP and its highly narcissistic owners demand are just more relentless attempts to soothe their pathological power cravings, greed, paranoia, cruelty, dominance desires, control compulsions, fears and insecurities, at the expense of everyone else, or anyone willing to take their toxic bait, just like every pathological narcissist.

In another apparent coincidence, trolls, extremists, predators and narcissists all seem to make the same habitual yet eternally doomed attempt to fill the bottomless holes inside where their humanity and souls are supposed to be instead of trying to be a better person.

As credited to the famous mystery novelist Agatha Christie, “One coincidence is just a coincidence, two coincidences are a clue, three coincidences are a proof,” so let us look at what causes predatory trolling to see what other surface coincidences they have with political extremists, whether GOP or otherwise, to establish more truth.

What Causes Trolling?

Initial conventional wisdom on trolling was that normally well-mannered people felt completely anonymous, hidden and thus unaccountable and invincible online, which caused them to behave in ways they never would “in real life.” Trolling researchers call this “the online disinhibition effect.”

This seems logical because the vast majority of us know we have said things online that we would never say to someone’s face, but in truth, this conventional wisdom is mostly a logical fallacy. Lowered inhibitions due to unaccountability and anonymity provide opportunities, not reasons, for someone to waste so much time and energy on self-indulgent “comedy” routines, cruel online “pranks” or political vendettas, when there are so many urgent needs and important issues to resolve. 

As more data came in, early researchers started seeing direct correlations between trolling and the darker sides of human psychology. When they aligned trolling behaviors with similar psychological syndromes and personality disorders, it quickly became obvious that most trolls’ real-life psychological issues closely resembled, if not perfectly matched, their dark online trolling behaviors.

And it makes so much sense that dark personalities with high levels of narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism (known as “the dark tetrad”) in real life are the darkest of dark trolls online as well, because darkness hunts everywhere. Now you understand much of the psychology of the worst trolls and their motives behind wasting so much time trolling. To them, it is not wasting time at all. It is their nature, and being mostly anonymous online, and thus mostly unaccountable, just makes it so much easier for them to spread their disordered darkness online and off.

So let us unpack some of how this troll analysis aligns with the predatory political extremists currently known as the “Republican Party.”

As the anonymity online gives malignant narcissists the opportunity to troll anyone mostly without any consequences, a job that comes with political power also gives a pathological narcissist endless opportunities to act in self-indulgent ways, exact vendettas, abuse and/or troll almost anyone without repercussions, because they always can and do disguise their abusive behaviors and predatory natures by calling them, “beliefs” and “political free speech.”

Again, just as with trolls, political extremism research and data shows direct correlations between extremism and the darker sides of human psychology. When they align extremist behaviors with similar psychological syndromes and personality disorders, it quickly becomes obvious that most extremists’ real-life psychological issues closely resemble, if not perfectly match, their extreme, dark and purely selfish political behaviors.

Once again just like online trolls, it makes so much sense and rings true that dark personalities with high levels of narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism in real life are the darkest of dark political extremists as well, because narcissistic darkness hunts everywhere there is narcissistic supply.

Like with online trolls, recognizing established patterns of behavior helps us understand the psychology of the worst political extremists and their very predictable and typical narcissistic motives behind wasting our time and undermining and sabotaging our government, economy, national security and our democracy itself.

We must all better understand it is their pathological nature to relentlessly push for their own interests and they are constantly hunting new ways for them to stay mostly unaccountable, such as acquiring more political power. Much of this was the Republican’s dark and dirty, wolf in sheep’s clothing secret until trump made the GOP’s extreme narcissistic pathology obvious to anyone willing to scratch beneath the psychological surface.

Perhaps it seems just another coincidence that political power makes it so much easier for narcissists to spread their compulsive disordered darkness that it is mislabeled as “political extremism” to everything and everyone in their reach.

However, for those of us who understand narcissist psychology fairly well, the Republican’s constant repetition of a downward descent into predatory extremism took their alignment with malignant narcissism from coincidence to overwhelming and conclusive proof long before trump showed up, and that is also the case for almost every other kind of troll, psychic vampires and political extremists we see today, from the far left to the far right.

Indeed, far more malignant narcissists than most people realize are hiding their disordered pathologies of selfishness, darkness, abuse and cruelty in plain sight behind both computer screens as trolls and political extremism as politicians and the effect on every political system is toxic and must be countered for our freedoms and liberties to survive, who and what is hunting us.  

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