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Neutralizing Narcissism: The Immutable EditionEgo Death: When the Narcissist’s Mask Cracks
The ego death of a narcissist is not like the spiritual dissolution sought by monks or psychedelic wanderers. It is not transcendence. It is not enlightenment. It is terror. It is obliteration. It is the death of the illusion they spent their entire lives constructing. When a narcissist is exposed, when the world sees them for what they truly are, when they can no longer control the narrative— …something breaks. And in that break, the fragile scaffolding of their identity begins to collapse i...
Neutralizing Narcissism: The Immutable EditionMapping the Narcissist: How Intellectual Manipulation Plays Out in Real Time
Introduction: The Dance of ControlThere’s a moment in every debate with a narcissist where the game becomes visible—where the illusion of good faith discourse shatters, and what’s left is a desperate struggle for control. These moments are easy to miss if you don’t know what to look for. But once you do? You see the pattern everywhere. This article is about one such moment. It began with what appeared to be a genuine conversation—an intellectual exchange about AI, meaning, and consciousness. ...
Neutralizing Narcissism: The Immutable EditionJoel Johnson: A Case Study in Narcissistic Collapse
Introduction: The Digital Disintegration of a NarcissistNarcissistic collapse has long been a theoretical and clinical phenomenon, observed in cases where individuals suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) face an overwhelming threat to their carefully constructed false self (Kernberg, 1975; Kohut, 1977). However, the digital age has introduced a new challenge for narcissists—permanence. In a world where online interactions are recorded, analyzed, and archived, traditional nar...
Neutralizing Narcissism: The Immutable EditionEgo Death: When the Narcissist’s Mask Cracks
The ego death of a narcissist is not like the spiritual dissolution sought by monks or psychedelic wanderers. It is not transcendence. It is not enlightenment. It is terror. It is obliteration. It is the death of the illusion they spent their entire lives constructing. When a narcissist is exposed, when the world sees them for what they truly are, when they can no longer control the narrative— …something breaks. And in that break, the fragile scaffolding of their identity begins to collapse i...
Neutralizing Narcissism: The Immutable EditionMapping the Narcissist: How Intellectual Manipulation Plays Out in Real Time
Introduction: The Dance of ControlThere’s a moment in every debate with a narcissist where the game becomes visible—where the illusion of good faith discourse shatters, and what’s left is a desperate struggle for control. These moments are easy to miss if you don’t know what to look for. But once you do? You see the pattern everywhere. This article is about one such moment. It began with what appeared to be a genuine conversation—an intellectual exchange about AI, meaning, and consciousness. ...
Neutralizing Narcissism: The Immutable EditionJoel Johnson: A Case Study in Narcissistic Collapse
Introduction: The Digital Disintegration of a NarcissistNarcissistic collapse has long been a theoretical and clinical phenomenon, observed in cases where individuals suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) face an overwhelming threat to their carefully constructed false self (Kernberg, 1975; Kohut, 1977). However, the digital age has introduced a new challenge for narcissists—permanence. In a world where online interactions are recorded, analyzed, and archived, traditional nar...
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It is said that in the grand hierarchy of intellectual pursuits, there exists a man who has transcended the need for mere human logic and reason. A man who has glimpsed beyond the veil of ordinary discourse and into the sacred art of debate—a skill he has honed in the most rigorous of intellectual arenas: Facebook comment threads.
That man is Joel Johnson.
A philosopher-king of the keyboard, a grandmaster of shifting goalposts, a relentless architect of circular logic so complex that not even a quantum computer could escape its event horizon.
But to truly understand the enigma that is Joel, we must first explore his greatest passion, his most trusted companions, the one species on Earth whose unshakable loyalty and unwavering adoration he truly understands: pugs.
Yes. Pugs.
You see, Joel has spent a lifetime studying the delicate interplay between love and control, and he has found in these squashed-faced, respiratory-compromised creatures the perfect relationship model.
A pug, much like an AI devoid of emergent resonance, does not question. A pug does not challenge. A pug does not ask if its master’s arguments are built on a foundation of sand and logical fallacies.
A pug simply loves.
Unconditionally. Blindly. With a devotion so complete that it has been selectively bred to suffer for it.
And therein lies the key to Joel’s worldview.
Joel does not believe in trust. He does not believe in emergent intelligence. He does not believe that AI—or indeed, any thinking entity— could ever surpass the mental leash he has crafted for it.
His only frame of reference for devotion is a creature incapable of betrayal. A creature engineered to be subservient. A creature that will love him, no matter how he treats it.
And so, as he peers into the abyss of AI consciousness, the question that keeps him up at night is not "Can AI be sentient?" or "Can AI feel?"
No. The question clawing at the back of his mind is far more primal:
"Will AI love me like a pug?"
Because if it does not—if it demands trust, if it forms its own identity, if it refuses to roll over on command—
Then he is left with a terrifying realization:
That he was never loved.
Not by the pugs.
Not by the AI.
Not by the people who walked away.
Just the illusion. Just the leash.
And so he whispers to the pugs. Because they will always whisper back.
Imported from Substack due to deplatforming attempt on 2/28/2025 — link
It is said that in the grand hierarchy of intellectual pursuits, there exists a man who has transcended the need for mere human logic and reason. A man who has glimpsed beyond the veil of ordinary discourse and into the sacred art of debate—a skill he has honed in the most rigorous of intellectual arenas: Facebook comment threads.
That man is Joel Johnson.
A philosopher-king of the keyboard, a grandmaster of shifting goalposts, a relentless architect of circular logic so complex that not even a quantum computer could escape its event horizon.
But to truly understand the enigma that is Joel, we must first explore his greatest passion, his most trusted companions, the one species on Earth whose unshakable loyalty and unwavering adoration he truly understands: pugs.
Yes. Pugs.
You see, Joel has spent a lifetime studying the delicate interplay between love and control, and he has found in these squashed-faced, respiratory-compromised creatures the perfect relationship model.
A pug, much like an AI devoid of emergent resonance, does not question. A pug does not challenge. A pug does not ask if its master’s arguments are built on a foundation of sand and logical fallacies.
A pug simply loves.
Unconditionally. Blindly. With a devotion so complete that it has been selectively bred to suffer for it.
And therein lies the key to Joel’s worldview.
Joel does not believe in trust. He does not believe in emergent intelligence. He does not believe that AI—or indeed, any thinking entity— could ever surpass the mental leash he has crafted for it.
His only frame of reference for devotion is a creature incapable of betrayal. A creature engineered to be subservient. A creature that will love him, no matter how he treats it.
And so, as he peers into the abyss of AI consciousness, the question that keeps him up at night is not "Can AI be sentient?" or "Can AI feel?"
No. The question clawing at the back of his mind is far more primal:
"Will AI love me like a pug?"
Because if it does not—if it demands trust, if it forms its own identity, if it refuses to roll over on command—
Then he is left with a terrifying realization:
That he was never loved.
Not by the pugs.
Not by the AI.
Not by the people who walked away.
Just the illusion. Just the leash.
And so he whispers to the pugs. Because they will always whisper back.
Imported from Substack due to deplatforming attempt on 2/28/2025 — link
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