BIRDS OF A FEATHER -- What Lies Beneath Trump's Fixation With Strongmen Like Duterte

[DonViejo]

From Erdogan to Putin to even Kim, President Trump has plenty of kind words for authoritarians—and their shared narcissism has a lot to do with it.

Michael DalyMICHAEL DALY05.02.17 2:20 AM ET

The younger Donald Trump and his father had considerable dealings with organized-crime figures who loomed large in New York’s construction industry.

So we should not be greatly surprised that our new president so readily connects with such gangsters as Vladimir Putin of Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Kim Jong Un of North Korea and even Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, who has been called “the Trump of the East.”
But this bonding seems to run deeper than some Art of the HUGE Deal notion that befriending such figures is part of doing business, just as it was back when The Donald needed to keep deliveries coming to the Trump Tower site during a citywide concrete strike.

Trump appears to delight in authoritarian strongmen who operate on the principle that might makes right. The allure for a guy such as him may be partly explained by a group of German psychologists who published a study last year concluding that “narcissists of a feather flock together.” Psychology Today summarized their research, saying, “The theory driving the study was that friends of narcissists are themselves narcissists. In other words, the only people who can stand being friends with narcissists are other narcissists. Narcissists are not only tolerant of narcissism in their friends, they also are not turned off by the selfishness, arrogance, and bossiness that would drive non-narcissists away.”

The Psychology Today article quotes the study as finding, “Similar narcissistic friends might help each other to achieve such a rapport by respecting the same life strategy, avoiding conflicts, sharing the same mating behavior and preferences for competition, and displaying the same non-caring attitudes.”

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/02/what-lies-beneath-trump-s-fixation-with-strongmen-like-duterte

[Solly Mack]

1. His heroes have always been assholes.

[nikibatts]

2. He wishes he could be like them and kill all his enemies.

[freddyvh]

3. well.....

he did keep a copy of Mein Kampf on his night stand

[smirkymonkey]

4. This kind of explains the entire republican party.

"In other words, the only people who can stand being friends with narcissists are other narcissists. Narcissists are not only tolerant of narcissism in their friends, they also are not turned off by the selfishness, arrogance, and bossiness that would drive non-narcissists away.”

[G_j]

5. both are practiced at inciting people

to turn against each other..