Are Leftists narcissists?
The Mayo definition:
"Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental health condition in which people have an unreasonably high sense of their own importance. They need and seek too much attention and want people to admire them. People with this disorder may lack the ability to understand or care about the feelings of others. But behind this mask of extreme confidence, they are not sure of their self-worth and are easily upset by the slightest criticism"
The Mayo clinic is America's leading hospital
Narcissism seems to be getting a lot of press these days. In particular, women are often being advised to be wary of relationships with narcissist men. I think there is no doubt that the term is over-used. Normal selfishness should not be confused with mental illness, where a mental illness is a loss of reality contact
Nonetheless something like narcissism can be observed in some people who have a reasonably good grasp of what the world around them is like. They are selfish and have a high opinion of themselves but not to a disabling degree. They are not blind to where they stand with other people. They are within the psychological normal range.
A related concept is need for approval. The academic psychology literature on that is large and goes back a long way. In that literature it is generally seen it as weak and something to be overcome.
I see something like narcissism and need for approval in Leftists. But to avoid implications of mental illness I have mostly avoided those terms and instead made use of the Greco/Latin term "ego" ("Εγώ"), which simply means "I" in both languages. Freud popularized the word to refer to the conscious self and it has now passed into common use in roughly that meaning. I say that Leftists have "excess ego" or "weak ego", implying that they are people who have a high opinion of themselves but that opinion is weakly held and needs a lot of propping up, similar to what we see in true narcissists
It is excess ego that they badly want to be seen as kind and wise and noble. So it is akin to narcissism but is not as unrealistic. The stances they adopt generally WILL gain them approval.
A classic example that is rather politically hot at the moment is rent control. People advocating it present themselves as "caring" about poor tenants and the policy does at first glance seem beneficial to tenants.
I am not going to give a lesson in economics here but suffice it to say that the policy in fact works out very badly for tenants before long. It reduces the number of places being offered to tenants and makes then pay HIGHER rents for what they get
But the Leftist gets immediate credit for "caring" and that is what they want. The conservative who points out the adverse long-term consequences tends by contrast to be seen as uncaring
I give many more case studies of Leftism in action here:
http://jonjayray.com/leftex.html
So ego need is certainly pernicious. It causes Leftists to advocate policies that sound good even when they are not. An exceptionally moronic example of that in some American cities in recent years has been the cry "defund the police". Most defunders by now have become refunders but the damage done in the meanwhile has been considerableSo, Yes. Leftist ego need is a low grade form of narcissism. It is not a clinical condition but it still does a lot of harm
It should be noted that some care is needed in talking about narcissism among non-clinical populations. Freud's seminal article on narcisissm claimed that traits of grandiosity and vulnerability covaried and that is obviously confirmed in the definition drawn from clinical experience by the Mayo clinic.
But it should not be assumed that the same is true in the population at large. The findings of Paul Wink in particular show that in the general population, not all vulnerable peope have feelings of grandiosity and not all people with grandiose views of themselves also have feelings of vulnerability. Wink found that the two traits formed independent Varimax factors.
http://academics.wellesley.edu/Psychology/Wink/Two%20faces%20of%20Narcissism.pdf
But within Wink's sample, there was a subset of respondents in which the two factors DID go together and it is such people whom we can reasonably describe as sub-clinical narcissists. Such people will be at least strongly inclined towards Leftism. Whether people who are simply vulnerable or simply grandiose are drawn to Leftism is at this stage unknownMy claim that Leftists are people with large but weak egos in an inference extracted from what Leftists do. It explains what they do. But there is also some general population survey research showing that strongly Leftist views are associated with narcissism. See the two U.S. studies by Krispenz & Bertrams below
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-023-04463-x
I make no claim that ego need is the whole of Leftist motivations. As I have discussed elsewhere, there are many influences which may lead to Leftism. Seehttp://jonjayray.com/leftism3.html
Chief among them would appear to be a tendency to anger. The great outpouring of rage and hate that greeted the election of Donald Trump leaves no doubt about that. Never before has hatred been so openly expressed by so many people. Krispenz & Bertrams also found an association between Leftism and antagonistic attitudes. They conclude that Leftist activists "use political activism to endorse or exercise violence against others to satisfy their own ego-focused needs".JR
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NZ Realtor Faces 5 Year Ban for Rejecting ‘Woke’ Training
A real estate agent in New Zealand is at risk of having her 30-year career cut short after rejecting a compulsory course on Maori culture and customary behaviours.
Janet Dickson is seeking to challenge the New Zealand’s Real Estate Authority (REA) in court after the regulatory body allegedly threatened to cancel her licence for five years for refusing to take the course, according to the advocacy group Hobson’s Pledge.
Under current regulations, real estate agents need to complete 20 hours of continuing professional development each year to maintain their licence, including two hours of mandatory topics and eight hours of elective topics.
Ms. Dickson was concerned that the REA overstepped its power by forcing real estate agents to complete courses that had little to do with their jobs, especially on contentious topics.
In a Facebook post, Ms. Dickson called REA’s alleged practice of imposing compulsory courses as “woke madness” and vowed to fight to ensure that other people would not be subject to the same fate.
Ms. Dickson is seeking a judicial review in New Zealand’s High Court to challenge the REA’s power to impose compulsory courses, believing that it is essential in addressing the alleged overreach, and could set a precedent for other professional organisations.
“The ramifications of this case extend well beyond the realm of real estate. Similar mandates have detrimentally affected a wide array of professions, including doctors, teachers, and lawyers,” the webpage of her campaign read.
“The imposition of these mandates, infringing upon the fundamental freedom of conscience, requires immediate action.
“This (the judicial review) is essential not only to rectify the excessive use of authority in the present case but also to establish a precedent that will guide and inform the conduct of other professional regulatory bodies.”
Ms. Dickson’s campaign seeks donations of up to NZ$50,000 (US$31,000) from the public to cover part of her NZ$150,000 legal fee.
Response from Other Parties
Don Brash, the former Reserve Bank of New Zealand governor and Hobson’s Pledge’s founder, criticised REA’s “draconian” rules, saying it was an attempt to impose a particular worldview that was not in line with the majority of New Zealanders. “It’s inappropriate for the REA to force people to do a course that’s not relevant to their work,” he said, as reported by the New Zealand Herald newspaper. “We don’t want a particular view of the world forced on anybody.”
Meanwhile, Bernie O’Donnell, a Poutaki Mātauranga Maori adviser at the University of Auckland, said it was necessary for real estate agents to understand Maori due to the nature of their business.
“You can’t go into that profession blindly in Aotearoa ... it’s important they understand the history of their country,” he said, noting that it was a shame that some people didn’t want to go through that step.
“Maori are the indigenous people of this land, and in this new world, we have to start making an effort to understand their worldview.
“And even though there’s a huge history to this land, people just want to get down to business.”
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Indigenous people sue over alleged Canadian secret medical experiment
An MRI is just a scan. It doesn't do anything to you
Members of a First Nation in Canada have launched a lawsuit alleging they were subjected to a secret medical experiment without their consent that left them feeling “violated and humiliated”.
The class-action lawsuit, which was certified by the Nova Scotia supreme court in early February, revives the painful history of Canada conducting medical experiments on Indigenous peoples and the persistent discrimination they continue to face within the country’s healthcare system.
In a statement of claim, Chief Andrea Paul, the lead plaintiff, says she and 60 other members of the Pictou Landing First Nation participated in an MRI in 2017 for a medical research project administered by the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds.
But after the test finished, staff at the hospital in Halifax kept her for a second test.
“As she lay inside the claustrophobic MRI chamber, holding her breath, and cringing from the loud banging sounds around her, the MRI scans generated data that revealed intimate medical information about her body without her knowledge or consent,” reads the statement of claim. “She had been singled out for the one reason – she was Mi’kmaq.”
A year later, Paul, who also serves as regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations in Nova Scotia, learned that two radiologists had allegedly used the second procedure to conduct MRI elastography to study the livers of Indigenous subjects, without their knowledge or consent.
The class-action lawsuit has named the radiologists Robert Miller and Sharon Clarke as defendants. According to the claim, Miller met with Paul in 2018 and told her the MRI had been used for a broader research project titled “MRI Findings of Liver Disease in an Atlantic Canada First Nations Population”. Miller, an associate professor at Dalhousie University’s faculty of medicine who previously served as president of the Canadian Association of Radiology, allegedly told her the findings had been shared with a radiology conference after initially denying disclosing the test results.
Neither researchers with the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds nor the plaintiffs were given the results of the test.
Canada has a dark history for its treatment of Indigenous peoples under the guise of healthcare, with the deadly effects of systemic racism persisting into the present day.
In the 1940s, nearly 1,300 Indigenous children across Canada were starved for studies about the effects of malnutrition as part of a government-run study. Indigenous women have also been sterilized against their will, leading human rights groups to call for an end to the practice.
“Knowing the long history of subjecting Indigenous people in Canada to cruel medical experiments … and to confirm the Indigenous right to own and control research data of Indigenous people, Chief Andrea felt powerless, vulnerable, and discriminated against because she was Mi’kmaq.”
The claim also asserts that Indigenous people “have been reluctant to participate in health research and receive treatment from non-Indigenous doctors, health centers, and hospitals” because of a legacy of mistreatment and abuse.
“There is an historically and evidentiary based mistrust at the healthcare system,” the claim reads. Paul says in the claim she had worked to persuade community members to participate in the initial MRI test and the actions of the two radiologists is emblematic of the mistrust held by Indigenous communities.
Paul and 60 members of Pictou Landing are seeking a declaration from the defendants for invasion of privacy, unlawful imprisonment, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, charter breaches and damages. They also argue the tests amount to assault and battery because the MRI scan procedures “amount to a medical procedure that was performed on [the plaintiffs] without their knowledge or informed consent”.
A lawyer for the two radiologists has said neither will provide comment. None of the allegations have been tested in court and no hearing dates have been set.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/26/medical-experiment-indigenous-canadians-lawsuit
**********************************************************Australia: Fact checkers fall out
The ABC has ended its partnership with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) FactLab, with which it has operated the ABC RMIT Fact Check project for the past seven years.
On Tuesday afternoon ABC news director Justin Stevens notified staff via email that the national broadcaster would replace the partnership with an internal fact-checking team, known as “ABC News Verify”.
Stevens said Verify would be a “team of specialists with the ability to scale up to support our special coverage in times of crisis. It will be part of the Investigative Journalism and Current Affairs team led by Jo Puccini.”
“In parallel with our decision to establish our own specialist verification team we have also taken the decision to not extend our current participation in ABC RMIT Fact Check when our current agreement expires in the middle of the year,” he wrote.
Crikey understands RMIT management felt blindsided by the decision from the ABC, with sources saying it appeared that the ABC had concerns over pressure from fact-checking politicians.
One source told Crikey that the relationship between RMIT and the ABC had become one-sided in recent years, with the university taking a lot of criticism from conservative media over the Fact Check project.
It comes as the partnership and the ABC have come under significant pressure in recent months over accusations of bias following the Voice to Parliament referendum. In May, RMIT FactLab published a fact check of itself, refuting claims that the organisation was being “used” by proponents of the Yes campaign to “rig the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum”.
The organisation’s participation in Meta’s fact-checking program was briefly suspended last year after its accreditation with the International Fact-Checking Network lapsed.
The Australian reported last year that the ABC had spent $165,000 a year on the RMIT partnership since 2020, according to figures released in Senate estimates.
In budget estimates this year, One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts asked ABC managing director David Anderson about the make-up of ABC RMIT Fact Check in relation to the Voice referendum.
Anderson responded on notice that of the 17 articles published between June 1 and September 29, RMIT ABC Fact Check published two articles focusing on claims made by the Yes campaign or proponents, 10 on the No campaign or proponents, and five on claims made by proponents of both sides.
Anderson said “checkable claims more frequently surfaced from proponents of No arguments than from proponents of Yes arguments” in the ABC’s media monitoring process.
“When a Yes claim surfaced which was checkable and important to the national debate, Fact Check made sure it was covered in a timely manner.”
A spokesperson for RMIT said in a statement that the university was “proud of the long-standing partnership” with the ABC.
“The partnership between RMIT and ABC will conclude at the end of the current agreement [on June 30, 2024]. RMIT is committed to upholding the integrity of public information and will continue to do this through a range of activities,” the spokesperson told Crikey.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2024/02/21/abc-rmit-fact-check-partnership-abc-news-verify/
****************************************My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Kristina Pimenova, once said to be the most beautiful girl in the world. Note blue eyes and blonde hair
Bliss: What every woman wants: to feel safe and secure in the arms of her man. Robert Irwin and Rorie Buckey. See 
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