Yeah, we had quite a while of that, and Billie NOT going seemed set up before we had direct confirmation – if only because she was still downplaying her issues and trying to present the Head Cheerleader Alpha Bongo persona to the Forrest Quaddies. Her decision to go was marked as pretty significant – a decision she made because Ruth made it clear she WASN’T in for sexy self-destruction anymore, and which she’s reinforced since with that talk with Forrest Quad that included an attempt at self-sabotage, but also a ‘holy shit it finally hit me that that DUI was a Big Fucking Deal’ moment. We’re not getting a clear sign Billie’s being evasive here, and she’s showing way more self-awareness than before.
I was more referring to the universe caring what you do being like a god watching over you, and altering events accordingly as a test or passing judgement.
Well, it’s more like “I hate me” but, yeah- does seem like Billie is.. ah, what’s the term the kids use.. “down for anything”?
..oh, hey, apparently there’s a song by that title. Hmm, the lyrics kinda fit?
“Every time you look away
I just want it more and more
And even though we can’t afford the pain
I’ll take it till we figure it out baby
Let’s figure it out, figure it out now
We’ll figure it out baby, another day
You know I’m not sorry
For loving this way”
Oh, not at all. But Ruth seems to have been mired in depression untreated for years, and made herself all hard and mean between that and Sir’s abuse, so I can see it being an unfamiliar emotion to her again. (Lord knows I’m not pleasant during an episode, and I’ve never lasted that long without treatment.)
Totally plausible. Depression makes one seem selfish, because there’s legitimately so much to deal with in here that we can’t look outwards (as we normally would when we aren’t depressed).
I was often agonizingly aware that I was being insufferable or selfish, but I also *had* to be, on account of my brain being on fire.
It’s super healthy that Ruth is able to begin looking outwards more often! Yay! She’ll keep having support as she graduates to increasingly dealing with the world outside her own head.
Ooh, I don’t need no cure
I don’t need no cure
I don’t need no cure
Sweet lovin’
Sweet, sweet love
Sweet, sweet love
Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet love
Don’t call a doctor (sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet)
Don’t call my momma
Don’t call my preacher (love)
No, I don’t need it
I don’t want it…
Amber finally finds out that Danny is bi and sets him up with a recovering Mike. Mike is conflicted because of his promise to Ethan but he owes Amber for getting his parents to finally leave.
For me a running theme of this comic is that you don’t get what you think you want or think you deserve (positive or negative). You get what you get, then you deal with it in a more or less constructive way, and you let it change you (or not) for better or worse.
See for example… every single character of the strip, but maybe Joyce, Sal and amber are most on the nose.
It’s largely a defense, but I think Carla at her best outnarcissises Malaya readily. I mean, look at how she owned Joyce in the shower and Sal on skates.
The thing with Carla is that it’s unclear to what extent her narcissism is genuine and how much of it is a role she’s playing (as you say, largely as a defense). Carla owns her narcissism, highlights it, and jokes with it — you can call her on it and she doesn’t deny it, just goes even further and claims it’s justified. Malaya is genuinely self-obsessed and isn’t even aware that she is, which to my mind is the sign of true narcissism. If you accused her of being a narcissist, she’d stare at you blankly, not understand what the hell you were talking about, and find an excuse to accuse you of being fake.
I’m not sure I understand all the Roz-hate in the comments. Sure she can be abrasive and manipulative at times, but she’s super passionate about people and topics who aren’t herself!
A narcissist would definitely not have seen Leslie’s lesson plan as “well played”; a narcissist would’ve exploded that the criticism was unfounded, or more likely, missed it entirely. Roz also considered Leslie her favourite teacher, because Roz learns in this class when she didn’t expect to. She’s somebody who legit wants to grow, not somebody who has built a fragile castle on thinking that they’re already perfect.
Carla is pretending to be uncaring, as a protective front. She would be glad for us to think she’s a narcissist, but she isn’t one,
she cares about people despite her protests that she doesn’t want to.
Mary might be — she’s certainly a hypocrite with a very inflated ego, like when she tells AG that she has to be the beacon of Christ or something, and she and her boyfriend are making out about how she the only righteous person. It’s weird. She’s weird. Could be.
Yeah, I’ve never understand the Roz-hate. She’s eighteen and passionate, she’s just kind of hardheaded about all of it and doesn’t have the life experience to understand when to pick her battles, and when she’s hurting more than helping. She will eventually get there.
What I really don’t get is that people are willing to jump down Roz’s throat for everything she does, but Danny pulls that BS he did in the hospital and people are defending him.
Mary isn’t a narcissist, not IMO. She’s too genuinely self-righteous. Mary is an evangelical, is the problem. She was raised in an environment that taught her everyone around her that doesn’t follow her religion in the exact same way she does is evil, and she’s better than them. Not just a little better, she’s Special, her church is special, and everyone else is less than human. They’re all stupid, misled, and sinful. She can do no wrong, of course, because she’s the Right Kind of person, who goes to the Right Church and follows the Right God. That’s how evangelicals think, and that’s how they raise their children. And they raise them to be smug and loud about it, too, it’s their /thing/. They give their children treats and rewards for bringing friends to youth services, and then they try and convert those kids too, no matter their family’s religion or lack thereof, and if that kid doesn’t immediately convert, Mary and kids like her were told to never speak to those kids again at school or wherever. It’s her whole worldview, and she’s been taught only her worldview is correct and if she ever thinks differently, she’d be Wrong. She’d be stupid and evil too. Joyce and Mary are literally two sides of the same coin, except Joyce had people in her life who insulated her from the more insidious parts of this sect. Mary absorbed all the vitriol and maliciousness, right down to the bone.
Nah, Mary’s worse.
We don’t know much about how Mary was raised. Mary’s problem is more than the church. She’s got all that and it certainly helps, but she’s also a schemer. Early on, Joyce would see someone doing something she thought wrong and go all self-righteous and holier than thou, Mary would just take note of it and wait for a way to use it against them.
Mary’s definitely worse. After all, Joyce got the upbringing March describes, and she’s shown that she can outgrow it in just a few weeks.
Meanwhile, IIRC, Word of Willis is that Mary’s parents are actually perfectly nice people and not very religious, and that Mary became an evangelical of her own volition, leaving her parents baffled at how they created a monster. She’s kind of like Mike in that regard. On that basis, until Willis reveals otherwise, I’m assuming Mary’s personaltiy flaws came first and that she gravitated to evangelism because it gave her the perfect framework within which to give in to all her worst impulses and feel great about doing so.
Carla isn’t narcissistic, but rather she knows that vulnerability isn’t allowed. So she plays her greatness up and then lets herself relax around her friends.
Malaya, given what we learned about their views on their gender identity, I think it’s less narcissism and more that they’re externalizing their views on “fake” people.
For sure.
I don’t know about Malaya. She’s somebody who only defines themselves by what they dislike, which isn’t narcissism, but it’s a thing. I hope considering her (their?) gender identity will bring out some kind of authenticity or redeeming qualities or character depth, or something.
Today we will certainly be talking about Heisenberg’s uncertainty. You can either know where an atoms electron is, or it’s angular momentum, but not both. If Mike’s parents are in visiting him, and know his angular momentum, then they cannot know which room he is in, or even if he is in the hospital. And conversely, if they visit him and SEE where he is, then they cannot Know his angular momentum.
Since we know his parents are in there watching him, we cannot know his mental state. Oooops, hey, I just found a nickel. Maybe Mike is OKay after all!
Uh, no. Narcissists don’t believe they ever deserved to be punished.
That didn’t happen.
And if it did, it wasn’t that bad.
And if it was, that’s not a big deal.
And if it is, that’s not my fault.
And if it was, I didn’t mean it.
And if I did…
You deserved it.
I don’t think Billy or her therapist are referring to narcissistic personality disorder, most likely they’re just talking about narcisstic traits.
Like Billy is right that Ruth’s line of thinking that the universe is out to punish her specifically is a pretty self-centered way of looking at things. Even if you believe in divine punishment, you’re not the specialest person in the world if you’re having a string of bad luck or are facing consequences for your actions because there are still other people also having a bad time. And sure, Billy might not be communicating that in the clearest way, but Ruth needs to get her head out of her pillow and move away from that mindset.
it’s also an anxiety thing: being guilted and blamed to the point of feeling guilt for things that have nothing to do with us and finding an explanation because we can no longer entertain the idea that it wasn’t our fault.
generally the people who try to guilt me for feeling guilty turn out to be the narcissistic ones because they don’t understand a mindset that isn’t one of self-importance. the people who know it’s a symptom of a lifetime of emotional abuse don’t go around telling me i’m selfish for being ashamed ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There is also the philosophical treatise of solipsism, you created the world you live in and are the primary cause and effect of everything in your world, and the world ends when you die.
That is not true. You are confusing narcissists with abusers because that is literally a thing I’m sure I have seen used word for word before to highlight the ways abusers gaslight their victims. And no, despite reddit treating them as the same thing and demonising NPD, they are not the same thing and ‘narcissistic abuse’ is not a real thing, it is just abuse.
Narcissists do not have unique brands of abuse to be called out for, narcissists are not inherently abusers, encouraging armchair diagnosing people with a condition because they act cruel is wrong and conflating NPD with being abusive just harms mentally ill people. There is no ‘makes people evil’ condition. There is no mental condition correlated with being abusive (if you don’t believe me, read Lundy Bancroft’s book ‘Why Does He Do That’ because he is an actual expert, and while pointing out that people with certain conditions can be more severe with their abuse, 98% of abusers do not have one, mental illness is not the root cause of abusive behaviour).
It is incredibly possible for someone with NPD or narcissistic traits, due to their self-centred way of seeing the world, to feel *extra* responsible when bad things happen for not having put in effort to prevent that exact thing. People with NPD aren’t smug bastards that never faced a struggle in their lives, they are often abuse victims that don’t have real self-confidence, they have an ego that acts like a balloon where praise and attention fills it and makes them feel amazing and criticism pops it and makes them feel like they never deserved to be alive. Billie is more reminiscent to someone with actual NPD from my knowledge, than the image you have been sold, because people with conditions, unbelievably, are still real, complex people, not caricatures, and there is no ‘damns you to be evil and to treat everyone horribly and to never improve’ condition.
Seeing the universe is a chatic place where weird things happen is a humble way of appreciating life. The lack of meaning means you can create meaning, the lack of purpose means you can follow your own path instead of one written by someone else, the lack of gods means we are responsible for our own actions, and the lack of the supernatural means we can be surprised by new stuff that can be more beautiful than every fairy in a fairytale book.
I am not saying to abandon faith, since forced atheism is a mistake. I am saying, embrace uncertainty and do things with good faith instead of following blindly with bad faith.
Ha, the punchline made me laugh out loud. An actual laugh laugh not an internet “lol” which translates to a faint passing smile.
Damn you, Willis! And by “damn you” I mean thank you.
And hey, Billy really went to therapy! Yay! Progress!
If it’s any consolation, some level of narcissism is a fine and natural trait to have. The narcissism innate to anxiety is a healthy dose of it. It’s only even the slightest problem if it begins to negatively impact those around you.
Well, it’s certainly not a “fact” even for Ruth. Anxiety and depression warp your perceptions and genuinely make you think that misery and despair are the status quo, and they’ll keep pulling every thread they can to keep you thinking that way.
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“joke’s on them, it’s actually LIKE MINDS attract!”
though then it’s like, do I like you for you, or for “another me”?
The question stops mattering when you realize that separation is an illusion.
We are all Willis.
Except less talented.
Harsh!
But meh it’s true
Who ever suggested those were mutually exclusive? These are complementary possibilities.
If you fall in love with your identical twin, is THAT narcissism?
‘Almost’ literally. In the classical sense.
I think it’s more proper when it’s your own reflection in the mirror, though.
I believe there is a different term for that, and it starts with the letter ‘I’.
Sorry, is that the letter l or the letter I. Oh wait, never mind.
Sans serif fonts can be so confuzing.
Narccissism is best; roll your own.
No, doesn’t work.
Awww, they’re so cute when they’re trying desperately to get their lives together in the face of rising ennui and peripheral tragedy.
Though actually you could have stopped after cute.
HOORAY FOR THERAPY!
YAAAAAAAY Billie seems to be getting at least a little out of it too to be so casual about it all!
Always assuming that she didn’t go to therapy the same way she quit drinking when Ruth did. Billie is not the most reliable of narrators.
This feels more real though. Not how Billie would lie about it.
Plus we just had the whole “Billie is lying about therapy” arc. It would seem a rehash to go straight to “And she’s still not really going”.
Yeah, we had quite a while of that, and Billie NOT going seemed set up before we had direct confirmation – if only because she was still downplaying her issues and trying to present the Head Cheerleader Alpha Bongo persona to the Forrest Quaddies. Her decision to go was marked as pretty significant – a decision she made because Ruth made it clear she WASN’T in for sexy self-destruction anymore, and which she’s reinforced since with that talk with Forrest Quad that included an attempt at self-sabotage, but also a ‘holy shit it finally hit me that that DUI was a Big Fucking Deal’ moment. We’re not getting a clear sign Billie’s being evasive here, and she’s showing way more self-awareness than before.
I thought it was called religion
It is if you are releasing your inner Thetian.
CLEAR!
You are really ‘On’ today, quips and comments all top drawer.
If Narcissism is your religion, you may have a future in politics.
I was more referring to the universe caring what you do being like a god watching over you, and altering events accordingly as a test or passing judgement.
I love Ruth and Billie, I hope they get the help they need and have a long happy relationship.
That’s what I hope for, but what does Willis have in store for them?
Misery, most likely, but I love these two as well, so I prefer to relish in the good while I still can.
Well, if you WANT a long happy relationship for them then Willis almost definately DOESNT have that in store for them.
You don’t know that. There is at least a one in two quadrillion chance they could live happily ever after.
I’m a Corellian, kid. Never tell me the odds.
I mean it depends on what you mean by long. By our time standards it’s pretty much guaranteed.
Well, now Ruth is feeling a much more familiar, and therefore manageable, emotion: annoyance.
Good job, Billie. You knocked her right out of her funk, like a good girlfriend does.
Ruth’s annoyance with Billie, and Billie’s amusement at Ruth’s annoyance with Billie, are the bedrock of the relationship.
I mean, those two things you mentioned certainly do seem to be what get the bed rocking, yes.
“Go Leafs.”
I mean, normally, their relationship is like:
Ruth: I hate you.
Billie: That’s so hot.
But, I guess, now it’s like:
Ruth: I love me.
Billie: That’s so hot.
Well, it’s more like “I hate me” but, yeah- does seem like Billie is.. ah, what’s the term the kids use.. “down for anything”?
..oh, hey, apparently there’s a song by that title. Hmm, the lyrics kinda fit?
“Every time you look away
I just want it more and more
And even though we can’t afford the pain
I’ll take it till we figure it out baby
Let’s figure it out, figure it out now
We’ll figure it out baby, another day
You know I’m not sorry
For loving this way”
It’s not so far-fetched that she feels more empathy now that she is taking antidepressants.
Oh, not at all. But Ruth seems to have been mired in depression untreated for years, and made herself all hard and mean between that and Sir’s abuse, so I can see it being an unfamiliar emotion to her again. (Lord knows I’m not pleasant during an episode, and I’ve never lasted that long without treatment.)
Totally plausible. Depression makes one seem selfish, because there’s legitimately so much to deal with in here that we can’t look outwards (as we normally would when we aren’t depressed).
I was often agonizingly aware that I was being insufferable or selfish, but I also *had* to be, on account of my brain being on fire.
It’s super healthy that Ruth is able to begin looking outwards more often! Yay! She’ll keep having support as she graduates to increasingly dealing with the world outside her own head.
My computer can’t handle the ads but it’s a really good use of the space
Well it’s good to know what you’re into.
Ooh, I don’t need no cure
I don’t need no cure
I don’t need no cure
Sweet lovin’
Sweet, sweet love
Sweet, sweet love
Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet love
Don’t call a doctor (sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet)
Don’t call my momma
Don’t call my preacher (love)
No, I don’t need it
I don’t want it…
(“Love Hangover” by Diana Ross, spring of 1976)
Things goes… well?
I think that is… good?
Yeah, I’m worried too.
Billi: *goes to therapy*
Me: *slams hands on desk* GOOD FOR HER!!!
This is still an insanely unhealthy relationship so I’m still side-eyeing it.
Take the same arc and put Mary and Malaya here and y’all be questioning it too so
True.
…but honestly, if Mary and Malaya looked at each other like that, I might root for them too.
You deserve better ships Bagge. We all do.
Well Ethanny is in the dumpster so as far as future potential ships go we have… oh no, Joe/Joyce?
Amber finally finds out that Danny is bi and sets him up with a recovering Mike. Mike is conflicted because of his promise to Ethan but he owes Amber for getting his parents to finally leave.
The S.S. Joece is my Flying Dutchman…
For me a running theme of this comic is that you don’t get what you think you want or think you deserve (positive or negative). You get what you get, then you deal with it in a more or less constructive way, and you let it change you (or not) for better or worse.
See for example… every single character of the strip, but maybe Joyce, Sal and amber are most on the nose.
When it comes to ships… Every ship that involves Walky, Joyce and Danny seem to hammer that point home, and Ruth and Billie are a master class.
I’d be down tbh
I hope that’s a joke because otherwise it’s…not good.
I love how Billie is drawn in this strip though! She’s so round and friendly-looking! And good on her for finally going to therapy!!
So… Billie’s deciding to echo what Ruth’s been saying?
*waits for like three people to get that joke*
There have to be more than three Classics majors around
Classics majors? Don’t they teach myths in school any more?
I thought it was a therapy joke. “Let’s talk about how you feel about being a narcissist.”
It took me a second, but I got it!
When I was very young my parents got us a set of books and one had a bunch of myths from around the world and this one was in there.
(Trying to think of the ACTUAL biggest narcissist of the cast)
…Better keep Billie away from Malaya…?
It’s largely a defense, but I think Carla at her best outnarcissises Malaya readily. I mean, look at how she owned Joyce in the shower and Sal on skates.
The thing with Carla is that it’s unclear to what extent her narcissism is genuine and how much of it is a role she’s playing (as you say, largely as a defense). Carla owns her narcissism, highlights it, and jokes with it — you can call her on it and she doesn’t deny it, just goes even further and claims it’s justified. Malaya is genuinely self-obsessed and isn’t even aware that she is, which to my mind is the sign of true narcissism. If you accused her of being a narcissist, she’d stare at you blankly, not understand what the hell you were talking about, and find an excuse to accuse you of being fake.
Malaya did have a brief, minute, temporary moment where she went, ‘Oh no! Am I fakey?’
So a stopped clock, etc.
I think Mary actually takes the cake? Or Roz? Carla’s a worthy contender, though.
I’m not sure I understand all the Roz-hate in the comments. Sure she can be abrasive and manipulative at times, but she’s super passionate about people and topics who aren’t herself!
A narcissist would definitely not have seen Leslie’s lesson plan as “well played”; a narcissist would’ve exploded that the criticism was unfounded, or more likely, missed it entirely. Roz also considered Leslie her favourite teacher, because Roz learns in this class when she didn’t expect to. She’s somebody who legit wants to grow, not somebody who has built a fragile castle on thinking that they’re already perfect.
Carla is pretending to be uncaring, as a protective front. She would be glad for us to think she’s a narcissist, but she isn’t one,
she cares about people despite her protests that she doesn’t want to.
Mary might be — she’s certainly a hypocrite with a very inflated ego, like when she tells AG that she has to be the beacon of Christ or something, and she and her boyfriend are making out about how she the only righteous person. It’s weird. She’s weird. Could be.
Yeah, I’ve never understand the Roz-hate. She’s eighteen and passionate, she’s just kind of hardheaded about all of it and doesn’t have the life experience to understand when to pick her battles, and when she’s hurting more than helping. She will eventually get there.
What I really don’t get is that people are willing to jump down Roz’s throat for everything she does, but Danny pulls that BS he did in the hospital and people are defending him.
Mary isn’t a narcissist, not IMO. She’s too genuinely self-righteous. Mary is an evangelical, is the problem. She was raised in an environment that taught her everyone around her that doesn’t follow her religion in the exact same way she does is evil, and she’s better than them. Not just a little better, she’s Special, her church is special, and everyone else is less than human. They’re all stupid, misled, and sinful. She can do no wrong, of course, because she’s the Right Kind of person, who goes to the Right Church and follows the Right God. That’s how evangelicals think, and that’s how they raise their children. And they raise them to be smug and loud about it, too, it’s their /thing/. They give their children treats and rewards for bringing friends to youth services, and then they try and convert those kids too, no matter their family’s religion or lack thereof, and if that kid doesn’t immediately convert, Mary and kids like her were told to never speak to those kids again at school or wherever. It’s her whole worldview, and she’s been taught only her worldview is correct and if she ever thinks differently, she’d be Wrong. She’d be stupid and evil too. Joyce and Mary are literally two sides of the same coin, except Joyce had people in her life who insulated her from the more insidious parts of this sect. Mary absorbed all the vitriol and maliciousness, right down to the bone.
Nah, Mary’s worse.
We don’t know much about how Mary was raised. Mary’s problem is more than the church. She’s got all that and it certainly helps, but she’s also a schemer. Early on, Joyce would see someone doing something she thought wrong and go all self-righteous and holier than thou, Mary would just take note of it and wait for a way to use it against them.
Mary’s definitely worse. After all, Joyce got the upbringing March describes, and she’s shown that she can outgrow it in just a few weeks.
Meanwhile, IIRC, Word of Willis is that Mary’s parents are actually perfectly nice people and not very religious, and that Mary became an evangelical of her own volition, leaving her parents baffled at how they created a monster. She’s kind of like Mike in that regard. On that basis, until Willis reveals otherwise, I’m assuming Mary’s personaltiy flaws came first and that she gravitated to evangelism because it gave her the perfect framework within which to give in to all her worst impulses and feel great about doing so.
Here’s my take.
Carla isn’t narcissistic, but rather she knows that vulnerability isn’t allowed. So she plays her greatness up and then lets herself relax around her friends.
Malaya, given what we learned about their views on their gender identity, I think it’s less narcissism and more that they’re externalizing their views on “fake” people.
For Carla I think it’s all defense mechanism. She’d rather be hated for that persona than for the underlying truth.
Malaya I’m withholding judgement until we see more of her coping with the gender identity thing.
For sure.
I don’t know about Malaya. She’s somebody who only defines themselves by what they dislike, which isn’t narcissism, but it’s a thing. I hope considering her (their?) gender identity will bring out some kind of authenticity or redeeming qualities or character depth, or something.
I love these two, I genuinely do, but . MIKE. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MIKE! *Tears out hair*
There, there. I’m sure we’ll find out in tomorrow’s comic.
Mike tomorrow, Mike yesterday, but never Mike today
oh good lord, not this again
I always love a good roundabout compliment.
I am attracted to non sequiturs.
Thus, marmosets make excellent pets.
Today we will certainly be talking about Heisenberg’s uncertainty. You can either know where an atoms electron is, or it’s angular momentum, but not both. If Mike’s parents are in visiting him, and know his angular momentum, then they cannot know which room he is in, or even if he is in the hospital. And conversely, if they visit him and SEE where he is, then they cannot Know his angular momentum.
Since we know his parents are in there watching him, we cannot know his mental state. Oooops, hey, I just found a nickel. Maybe Mike is OKay after all!
Well, that would be fine if they hadn’t moved Mike’s parents out because of the shooting.
Since they can’t see him, we can be reasonably sure his angular momentum is zero measured relative to the surface of the Earth.
Uh, no. Narcissists don’t believe they ever deserved to be punished.
That didn’t happen.
And if it did, it wasn’t that bad.
And if it was, that’s not a big deal.
And if it is, that’s not my fault.
And if it was, I didn’t mean it.
And if I did…
You deserved it.
I don’t think Billy or her therapist are referring to narcissistic personality disorder, most likely they’re just talking about narcisstic traits.
Like Billy is right that Ruth’s line of thinking that the universe is out to punish her specifically is a pretty self-centered way of looking at things. Even if you believe in divine punishment, you’re not the specialest person in the world if you’re having a string of bad luck or are facing consequences for your actions because there are still other people also having a bad time. And sure, Billy might not be communicating that in the clearest way, but Ruth needs to get her head out of her pillow and move away from that mindset.
it’s also an anxiety thing: being guilted and blamed to the point of feeling guilt for things that have nothing to do with us and finding an explanation because we can no longer entertain the idea that it wasn’t our fault.
generally the people who try to guilt me for feeling guilty turn out to be the narcissistic ones because they don’t understand a mindset that isn’t one of self-importance. the people who know it’s a symptom of a lifetime of emotional abuse don’t go around telling me i’m selfish for being ashamed ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There is also the philosophical treatise of solipsism, you created the world you live in and are the primary cause and effect of everything in your world, and the world ends when you die.
Solipsism would have been the better “diagnosis.”
Damn, but that is a scary recap, sounds spot on. Thanks for that.
That is not true. You are confusing narcissists with abusers because that is literally a thing I’m sure I have seen used word for word before to highlight the ways abusers gaslight their victims. And no, despite reddit treating them as the same thing and demonising NPD, they are not the same thing and ‘narcissistic abuse’ is not a real thing, it is just abuse.
Narcissists do not have unique brands of abuse to be called out for, narcissists are not inherently abusers, encouraging armchair diagnosing people with a condition because they act cruel is wrong and conflating NPD with being abusive just harms mentally ill people. There is no ‘makes people evil’ condition. There is no mental condition correlated with being abusive (if you don’t believe me, read Lundy Bancroft’s book ‘Why Does He Do That’ because he is an actual expert, and while pointing out that people with certain conditions can be more severe with their abuse, 98% of abusers do not have one, mental illness is not the root cause of abusive behaviour).
It is incredibly possible for someone with NPD or narcissistic traits, due to their self-centred way of seeing the world, to feel *extra* responsible when bad things happen for not having put in effort to prevent that exact thing. People with NPD aren’t smug bastards that never faced a struggle in their lives, they are often abuse victims that don’t have real self-confidence, they have an ego that acts like a balloon where praise and attention fills it and makes them feel amazing and criticism pops it and makes them feel like they never deserved to be alive. Billie is more reminiscent to someone with actual NPD from my knowledge, than the image you have been sold, because people with conditions, unbelievably, are still real, complex people, not caricatures, and there is no ‘damns you to be evil and to treat everyone horribly and to never improve’ condition.
Thank you for this. It is exhausting seeing people constantly equate narcissists with abusers, and is really harmful toward people with NPD.
Cute 🙂
One day, Ruth will have a clearer idea of how Billie’s brain works but something tells me that it isn’t this day.
Seeing the universe is a chatic place where weird things happen is a humble way of appreciating life. The lack of meaning means you can create meaning, the lack of purpose means you can follow your own path instead of one written by someone else, the lack of gods means we are responsible for our own actions, and the lack of the supernatural means we can be surprised by new stuff that can be more beautiful than every fairy in a fairytale book.
I am not saying to abandon faith, since forced atheism is a mistake. I am saying, embrace uncertainty and do things with good faith instead of following blindly with bad faith.
^ Thumbs up!
Ha, the punchline made me laugh out loud. An actual laugh laugh not an internet “lol” which translates to a faint passing smile.
Damn you, Willis! And by “damn you” I mean thank you.
And hey, Billy really went to therapy! Yay! Progress!
Holy crap i’ve just realised we’re only a few weeks away from the tenth anniversary. This is still a ‘new webcomic’ in my head.
HOORAY for Billie that finally has decided to make something for her (and Ruth) own good!
Aww, these two :3
“Let’s talk about you. And then let’s talk about you and I.”
Why do I sense the imminent loss of a femur for Billie?
I can’t make out what Ruth’s eyes are doing in the last panel.
Rolling, looks like.
“It reminds me of me” is a good joke, but in all likelihood it unconsciously reminds her much more of her father.
So…now I feel anxious about the fact that my anxiety is actually narcissism. Which, TBH, I already worry about. So…bollocks.
If it’s any consolation, some level of narcissism is a fine and natural trait to have. The narcissism innate to anxiety is a healthy dose of it. It’s only even the slightest problem if it begins to negatively impact those around you.
Well, it’s certainly not a “fact” even for Ruth. Anxiety and depression warp your perceptions and genuinely make you think that misery and despair are the status quo, and they’ll keep pulling every thread they can to keep you thinking that way.