I've been thinking back and forth on whether I should actually dedicate a blog post about this issue. But here I am, because I think, it's too important to miss on that one.
There is a problem with ableist language on mastodon. Since mastodon is part of the fediverse, thus decentralized, you have to take into account that there are many instances that interact with each other. The goal of decentralization is to avoid monopolization, focused communities, community orientation and security (the other instances will continue to work should one of them become unreachable). Also, given that instances are interconnected, you can view posts from other instances as well.
The major instances have formed to a likeminded network that agree on a basic code of conduct. Should an instance not abide by that, it can be excluded (banned). This has happened in the past. Essentially, marginalized/vulnerable groups are protected as they are welcome to find a safe space there.
In terms of mental health and disability, this can be summed up as:
No discrimination against people with disabilities, neurodiversity or mental illnesses.
Unfortunately, this particularly important goal falls apart in terms of:
Pathological Narcissism
Now, narcissism has many meanings depending on the context. For one, it's a scale where every human being is located on. For another, in terms of pathology, it occurs in various disorders as an influential personality trait. Last but not least, there is NPD, a distinct personality disorder:
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Since I'm a professionally diagnosed pwNPD (person with Narcissistic Personality Disorder), I will focus on exactly that.
Narcissism can be regarded as the new moral panic. There is a lot of stigmatizing content attacking "narcissists" and pwNPD. You can find this everywhere, be it YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, BlueSky, Facebook, etc.
However, given that NPD is a recognized personality disorder, I'm shocked that discriminatory content is permitted on all mastodon instances I could find.
It's even to that point that users are using exactly the term NPD to label people they deem "toxic" or "evil". Imagine, switching that with something like ADHD, Autism, Anxiety disorders, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorders, borderline, social phobia, etc pp. You'd probably get reported and insta-banned.
Why is it permitted to post discriminatory content against pwNPD?
Here are some of the many examples of abusive content that I found while browsing #NarcissisticPersonalityDisorder using mastodon.social's global feed browser:
The hashtags #narcissism and #narcissist are way more active, and I wanted to post a few examples, but you can just look for yourself. They are fairly political, but we can see here that a lot of people arm-chair diagnose public figures and try to find a simple universal explanation for their behaviours, which - according to the current moral panic - is narcissism.
Regardless of the content, or whom they address, it's important to realize that people weaponize NPD / narcissism to label people as toxic or evil. I also want to make this clear: We should and must call out toxic or abusive behaviour. BUT we should never weaponize medical lingo to arm-chair diagnose people and falsly deduce a general explanation about the roots of toxicity.
I urge you to educate yourself on NPD. Here are some very nuanced, scientifically valid videos by Dr. Mark Ettensohn (licensed psychologist) on why NPD is not a synonym for abuser or toxic person.
Quo Vadis, Mastodon?
In my humble opinion, the established mastodon instances should ban weaponizing medical lingo. If not, we face a problem of double standards. I know they don't mean bad, they just hopped on the bandwagon of the current moral panic. But as a progressive network, proclaiming to protect and offer a home to vulnerable groups, they don't do this well when it comes to NPD. I don't feel welcome there.
NPD affects an individual regardless of gender, skin color, social status, class or other attributes. I sometimes join a very welcoming and understanding NPD support sub on Reddit and there are a lot of different people there. It's actually a very diverse space, being a home to people of different genders, skin colors and nationalities. A lot of the users are queer / LGBTQA+ as well. NPD is not "privilegued person in position of high power and wealth". NPD is a trauma response and results from ongoing suffering during childhood and adolescence, such as neglect, abuse, violence, etc. However, a diagnose of NPD is made in a clinical setting by professional therapists. Not by venting on the internet, arm-chair diagnosing anyone one deems "toxic" or "evil". People with NPD have a lot of suffering each day, many attend therapy or have been patient in a mental hospital before. Often co-morbidities are present as well, such as depression, anxiety, social phobia, paranoia, CPTSD and more.
Discriminatory content can have the following negative impacts:
It moralizes mental health conditions
It associates negative attributes with an entire demographic
Affected people will less likely seek treatment (no one wants to be diagnosed with the "Asshole disorder")
Self-aware pwNPD will be ostracized as "evil villains who prey on the weak"
Encourages binary (good vs bad people) categorisation and offers simple "explanations" for complex, nuanced problems and situations
People may judge others by their disorder, rather than by their actual deeds
What is NPD really about?
A mental disorder resulting from ongoing traumatic events
A recognized scientifically valid personality disorder
A disorder of the self, that influences the perception of oneself and others
Causing maladaptive self-worth regulations as defense mechanisms
Causing problems in social interactions related to ones self-worth
My proposal
Stop allowing discriminatory content! Let people vent, but let them vent without abusing medical lingo. Let them vent without blaming the entire population of pwNPD for their own internal problems, or for ongoing national or global crises.
More resources
If you are curious on the experiences of actual pwNPD, feel free to check out the following resources. Note: I'm not affiliated with any of them, but I find them very helpful and supportive.
➡️ Educational content on NPD:
https://www.youtube.com/@healnpd
➡️ NPD spaces on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/NPDhttps://www.reddit.com/r/NPD_Memes
➡️ Some more blog posts by me:
Awareness for Narcissistic Personality Disorder 🎭Larger Than Life - For Eternity 🎭
There are also a few content creators diagnosed with NPD, who talk about their condition. I don't know if they would be okay with being linked here, so you'll have to search on your own. But some of them are fairly popular and have a large following, so their social media accounts can easily be found.
The hashtags #narcissism and #narcissist are way more active, and I wanted to post a few examples, but you can just look for yourself. They are fairly political, but we can see here that a lot of people arm-chair diagnose public figures and try to find a simple universal explanation for their behaviours, which - according to the current moral panic - is narcissism. Regardless of the content, or whom they address, it's important to realize that people weaponize NPD / narcissism to label people as toxic or evil. I also want to make this clear: We should and must call out toxic or abusive behaviour. BUT we should never weaponize medical lingo to arm-chair diagnose people and falsly deduce a general explanation about the roots of toxicity. I urge you to educate yourself on NPD. Here are some very nuanced, scientifically valid videos by Dr. Mark Ettensohn (licensed psychologist) on why NPD is not a synonym for abuser or toxic person. Quo Vadis, Mastodon? In my humble opinion, the established mastodon instances should ban weaponizing medical lingo. If not, we face a problem of double standards. I know they don't mean bad, they just hopped on the bandwagon of the current moral panic. But as a progressive network, proclaiming to protect and offer a home to vulnerable groups, they don't do this well when it comes to NPD. I don't feel welcome there. NPD affects an individual regardless of gender, skin color, social status, class or other attributes. I sometimes join a very welcoming and understanding NPD support sub on Reddit and there are a lot of different people there. It's actually a very diverse space, being a home to people of different genders, skin colors and nationalities. A lot of the users are queer / LGBTQA+ as well. NPD is not "privilegued person in position of high power and wealth". NPD is a trauma response and results from ongoing suffering during childhood and adolescence, such as neglect, abuse, violence, etc. However, a diagnose of NPD is made in a clinical setting by professional therapists. Not by venting on the internet, arm-chair diagnosing anyone one deems "toxic" or "evil". People with NPD have a lot of suffering each day, many attend therapy or have been patient in a mental hospital before. Often co-morbidities are present as well, such as depression, anxiety, social phobia, paranoia, CPTSD and more. Discriminatory content can have the following negative impacts: