Psychological Nastiness in the Media

Probably the ugliest aspect of contemporary media is the nasty psychological attacks that are made against public figures. They get accused of being “sociopaths,” “narcissists” and elsewise along the same lines. It was done to Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Larry Ellison, Madonna, Brittney Spears, George Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. In all cases my response has been sympathy for these people.

In most of these cases, the person being criticized is better than the person doing the criticism. The critic uses a computer that runs Microsoft, listens to Madonna or Brittney Spears, benefits (or used to benefit) from the prudent economic policies of the Clinton administration, and lives in a city some of whose most famous buildings were built by Donald Trump. These are the people who actually get things done; and I would take Bill Clinton over some ungrateful media nasty any day.

Are all of these people good human beings? No; but neither are most people in the media. Most of these people would be just as “narcissistic” as these celebrities if they had a chance. Instead they are driven by this: Nastiness and envy. Nastiness at the sight of significant things being done, and envy that they are not the ones doing it.

The fastest way to get me to sympathize with someone is to attack them psychologically. And indeed these attacks are completely wrongful. Maybe Hitler had a sociopathic or narcissistic personality disorder; but so have millions of people who did not kill 50 million people. And more people than killed by Hitler were killed by Islamist jihadists and European imperialists, none of whom are accused of being narcissists or sociopaths and all of whom thought that they were completely normal.

What this means is the following: That psychological attacks are simply wrong. Even if Bill Gates has similar psychological makeup as Adolf Hitler, does not mean that he is going to put people into gas chambers. People have choice, whatever their psychology; and that means that even a “narcissist” or a “sociopath” can be a good person and do meaningful things for the world.

The attention of these media people would be better spent fighting real wrong. There are plenty of rackets out there and plenty of conmen who lead people to terrible places. Confront the holocaust deniers, confront the global warming deniers, confront the people who throw sulfuric acid into girls' faces, confront the people who hope for end times so that they not have to be responsible for what they are doing to the planet. Leave psychology to psychologists and recognize that, whatever the person's psychology, they have the free will to do the right thing by America and by the world.