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Comment by rcarr | Hacker News Reader

Would you go to an art gallery with a friend and expect to look at every piece and both be in complete agreement about how wonderful every piece of art was? Do you expect them to all dress the same as you and eat the same foods and drink the same drinks? Or would you expect your friends to have individual likes and dislikes and to notice different elements in each art work according to the way they perceive the world? Would you diagnose any friend who disagreed with your perception of an artwork you consider wonderful to be suffering from narcissistic personality disorder?

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These examples are not applicable and thus straw man arguments, because I limited the scope of my observations to those that are most often and typically critical and unimpressed, and did not include, universally, anyone that happens to not care for something. The symptom is not that they don't like something, rather it's that they don't like anything.

Clearly this new version of CoD is graphically superior to previous versions, yet the criticism is focused on less than perfect minutia that probably also existed in or was inferior in previous versions. The graphic realism is better than any previous version of CoD, yet that still isn't good enough for narcissists. Even if it was absolutely perfect in every way, this still would not satisfy them because they are mentally ill and suffering from specific symptoms that cause them anxiety, to feel like nothing they do is good enough, to feel threatened by others' accomplishments. When they dismiss and denigrate they are really focused on their own fragile ego.

I will admit that I missed that you had limited your scope to those who are “most often and typically critical and unimpressed”. That said I think the main thrust of the argument still stands. You can’t assume that people are comparing this to previous versions. It’s perfectly within the realms of plausibility for someone to comment who’s never played Call of Duty in their life. They might have just been intrigued with the post title, looked at the video and then just stated the details that broke the immersion for them. Would you prefer they just didn’t comment at all? Are they not allowed to voice their experience?

It is also rather wild to throw around narcissistic personality disorder diagnoses based on one aspect of behaviour. I’m not a psychologist but I’m pretty sure you’ve got to match several behavioural criteria consistently to warrant such a diagnosis.

I was replying to the general question,

>>>>> Why is HN so negative about amazing things?

And as that is my experience also, I shared my theory and supported it. Further, NPD is diagnosed through observation of behavior or reports of behavior, and regardless of NPD diagnosis, any symptom of NPD is necessarily narcissistic. My slim hope is that narcissists will become more mindful of their behavior, recognize that they spread misery, get evaluated, treated, and either be cured or mitigate their disorder below detectability, and narcissism will become extinct, because there are few things in this world that completely and utterly suck as much as narcissism, and it is everywhere.

I'm not sure who made pride popular and decided that it can be harmed, because it is an indulgence. The virtue is the opposite of pride, namely, humility, and in general, virtues are the antitheses of narcissism, beyond humility including charity, modesty, gratitude, temperance, patience, courage, accountability, commitment, courtesy, cooperation, empathy, forgiveness, respect, reliability, sacrifice, sincerity, and so on and so forth. Rather than the Golden Rule, narcissists subscribe to egoism to act only selfishly and in self-interest, as their ego is central to the motivation and goal of their own actions. By and large the political ideology of narcissism is conservatism and libertarianism, focusing on exclusivity and their wealth and their interests and their rights against and in contest to those of all others, in contrast to liberalism, which is an ideology of tolerance, liberty, equality, and promoting general welfare.

If I went to several art galleries and they always criticized everything there, I would consider them bad company. Or at least the wrong person to take to an art gallery.

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