Some mental models won't save the world (including the one that the world needs saving)

Narrative analysis of the things we read and information we consume is necessary for detecting unconscious beliefs and logical fallacies informing our opinions and practices.

Gurwinder

and

Katherine Brodsky

are just a few of the writers I’m familiar with who educate about our faulty thinking processes, how we’re influenced by mass media and its participants (us), and introduce tools and ideas to prevent being manipulated and improve our thinking processes.

When messages are conveyed with a sense of urgency, conviction, and authority by someone with a large platform, recipients who are on the fence about their stance on an issue, who feel guilty about their role in the issue, and hold similar unconscious biases/constructs as the author can be easily influenced and emotionally captured.

Why? Because they want to belong to something they believe matters so that they feel good about themselves. Yes, it can be that simple.

These are some of the prerequisites to being primed, captured and distorted by this type of emotional manipulation.

I came across an article rallying white women to vote a certain way in the upcoming US Presidential elections.

Before I proceed, I want to reiterate a point that I make from time to time.

I’m a Canadian who lives in Australia. I don’t write about politics let alone US politics. I don’t care for partisan debates. I have zero political party alliances. It just isn’t an area of interest.

However, it does relate to my interest in human behaviour and its influence on relationships. I’m interested in harmony, peace, and helping people work together to address and attempt to resolve local problems. We can only get better at solving problems without creating new ones together by discovering and eliminating internal and relational barriers to building effective partnerships. We can do this by hacking narcissism - our own and our response to others’ narcissistic behaviour. That’s it.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

I recently restacked an article that I found intriguing because it contained the features I listed above. The author blocked me and many others who disagreed with her perspectives after I posted my Note:

Beliefs are not truths however they can feel true to those who haven’t scrutinized them or have been supported to carefully examine them and their origins. Many of our beliefs are unconscious and hidden from our awareness in our individual and collective psyche. They form the filter used to interpret experiences, situations, and information and are powerful drivers of our own behaviours. For example, if I believe I’m moral and morality looks and sounds a specific way, I’m going to say and do things that aim to reinforce that belief, and not notice when I’m saying and doing things that contradict that belief. In fact, because I’m moral, I’m going to assume that my actions will result in good outcomes without ever seeking to confirm or disprove it. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions (and hubris).

I’m about to share examples of individual and collective unconscious beliefs that form a mental model about the world from the article.

Gurwinder's Giant Collection of Mental Models

I encourage you take what I present with scepticism as they are my interpretations of the message filtered through my own mental models. I can guarantee that some of these beliefs are in my own psyche and in yours even if you don’t strongly believe them. You don’t need to believe them for them to be activated by another’s influential messaging¹.

White Women Have 100 Days to Help Save the World

Some unconscious beliefs that stuck out while reading the article. Again, it’s not what is said but the hidden and not so hidden beliefs that inform the message. Here we go!

• We need a Saviour.

• We are doomed unless we are saved by a saviour.

• Black women are wiser than other women.

• Black women know how to save the US (from its systemic abusive nature).

• Black women know how to drive positive change.

• Black women know how to lead a nation.

• Black women should lead a nation.

• Black women are entitled to allies because they are oppressed.

• White women are privileged (compared to Black women, who are oppressed).

• White women are guilty of oppressing Black women.

• White women are oppressors by virtue of having white skin and the privileges it affords them.

• White women benefit from whiteness and their proximity to white men

• White women should feel guilty and should want to take action to repent for their sins/whiteness.

• White women are powerful but need to be careful to not overpower Black women because they are oppressed.

• A good white woman is an ally to Black women.

• It’s beneficial for women to work together to solve problems.

• Things get better when women work together.

• There are specific rules that White women must follow to be a bona fide ally.

• White women can make up for their role in systemic racism by being allies to Black women (but it will never be enough to restore justice).

• Women know how to do good (and men don’t).

• Women’s idea of good is correct.

• Women’s idea of good is the only correct idea.

• Women know how to take action to facilitate good.

• Women always do good.

• White women can do justice to the harms against Black women by installing a Black woman as POTUS.

• Republicans are harmful to all women.

• The Democratic party in power ensures your safety and freedom.

• The Democratic party is a force for the good of all.

• Democrats know what’s in the best interest of women.

• Democrats are moral and enlightened and are therefore beneficial.

• The Republican party is out of touch with the needs of Americans.

• The only responsible vote for White women is Democrats.

• The US will be in a better place with a Black woman as POTUS.

• White men are the cause of all problems.

• The US needs to be saved (by Black women) from the damaging effect of white people.

• White women are responsible for saving the US (but less responsible than Black women).

• The USA is the most important country in the world.

• Electing a Black female POTUS is good for the world and humanity.

• White men have controlled the US (aka the world) for too long.

• A Black female POTUS will save the world.

• It’s the fault of White women if a Black woman fails to be elected as POTUS.

• The US is ruled by systems of oppression.

• Democracy works.

• Feminism is beneficial for women.

• A Black female POTUS is beneficial for women.

• Activism does good.

• Activism promotes justice.

• A Black female POTUS will put an end to the systems of oppression ruling the US.

Anything else?

This is not an exhaustive list but writing this list is exhausting. It’s exhausting because it reflects binary thinking about a world that is nuanced and complex. As I was going through this list it seemed like I was reading a cult’s manifesto: if you do what is expected of you, you will be saved and attain enlightenment. You’re either with us or against us.

Those who are members of this cult will have internalised these beliefs and personalised them - you’re either with me or against me.

For any of these beliefs to be true, we would need solid evidence collected from credible and reliable sources by neutral parties capable of reasoned, critical thinking.

Naturally, this relates to narcissism. If you’re interacting with someone who expects you to see things as they do (but they don’t have to see things your way), and they have a zero tolerance policy about engaging with others who see things differently, you are experiencing their narcissistic behaviour to control a narrative and dominate the interaction.

One behaviour doesn’t make you or anyone a narcissist. Expressing all of them consistently and frequently reflects someone who is high on the narcissism spectrum, even if it’s a temporary state. These behaviours are also strategies used to influence people to think like them and act out their beliefs according to the leader’s modelling. This approach encourages tribalism and collective narcissism to force perceived superior ideologies and practices into the public sphere, to control thinking and behaviour, and shun those who disagree. I wonder where we’ve seen this before?

These are the ingredients for struggle sessions and war between groups of people who want a fantasy world rather than get a grip on the reality of this world. When driven by leaders and enablers of toxic feminism or other radical activism, they are more pathologically self-interested than capable of facilitating social justice². Groups that suffer from collective narcissism fail to employ feedback loops to regulate behaviour and examine their thinking because they’re too caught up in the emotional highs and lows of their mission and in their assumption of moral righteousness.

Before anyone can be appointed to save the world, beginning with the US (said with tongue in cheek), perhaps it’s worth considering whether the world needs to be protected from ourselves.

Care to unpack my mental models?

Thanks for reading,

Nathalie

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Hack narcissism and support my work

I believe that a common threat to our individual and collective thriving is an addiction to power and control. This addiction fuels and is fuelled by greed - the desire to accumulate and control resources in social, information (and attention), economic, ecological, geographical and political systems.

While activists focus on fighting macro issues, I believe that activism also needs to focus on the micro issues - the narcissistic traits that pollute relationships between you and I, and between each other, without contributing to existing injustice. It’s not as exciting as fighting the Big Baddies yet hacking, resisting and overriding our tendencies to control others that also manifest as our macro issues is my full-time job.

I’m dedicated to helping people understand all the ways narcissistic traits infiltrate and taint our interpersonal, professional, organisational and political relationships, and provide strategies for narcissism hackers to fight back and find peace.

Here’s how you can help.

• Order my book: The Little Book of Assertiveness: Speak up with confidence

• Support my work:

  • through a Substack subscription

  • by sharing my work with your loved ones and networks

  • by citing my work in your presentations and posts

  • by inviting me to speak, deliver training or consult for your organisation

1. The Frameworks Institute is an impressive think tank that understands how to promote change and societal progress without invoking unhelpful beliefs using evidence-based communication strategies (ie. no manipulation). I have participated in several workshops about framing early childhood development and mental health evidence in Australia.

2. Thanks to

Andrew Nuttall

for this reference.

Krispenz, A., & Bertrams, A. (2024). Further basic evidence for the dark-ego-vehicle principle: Higher pathological narcissism is associated with greater involvement in feminist activism. Current Psychology, 43(16), 14619-14633. (click the link to download to full article)