Debating Manipulating Arrogant Narcissist Personalities

These people have to be some of the most irritating, infuriating, and irrational people to have a disagreement or debate with the arrogant, manipulating narcissist. They are always attempting to twist things that you say. Is it possible to win a debate with them even when you have facts and evidence to back up your points?

This Personality

These people have two of the four traits that make up the dark tetrad. They are the Narcissists and the Machiavellian manipulators.

Narcissism gives them their shallow and superficial view of life, with a great desire to appear good to others. This is part of their short-sighted strategy of how they feel good about themselves. Their desire to appear good, when combined with their inclination to manipulate to get what they want, this is a difficult combination to deal with.

They have selfish motivations while pretending to be moral and self-less, all designed to make them look better, and to increase their social status.

Judgements & Assumptions

They make assumptions about what you mean without hearing your entire point. Not only is this annoying, it’s also distracting, and it can throw you off your point. This happens when someone just goes with the first thought that pops into their heads. This first thought is often flawed because it comes from a place of their own knowledge limitations. So, they interrupt what you were saying with a wrong assumption. This in part comes from their narcissistic over-estimated intelligence. The Dunning-Kruger Effect very much applies to these people.

They also have shallow and superficial views on intelligence and thinking, and they don’t research things. They confuse the first judgement that pops into their heads as truth or fact. They confuse this fast judgement with thinking, and because the judgement comes quickly, it aids in their belief that they are intelligent, and that speed is the only aspect of intelligence, while neglecting depth of knowledge and deep comprehension.

Because they cannot admit or even consider that they could be wrong, they will discard opposing views and evidence that contradicts their view or opinion. It’s their ego overriding any ability for rationality that they may have. Opposing views and contradicting evidence will hurt their ego and threaten their fragile self-image.

If you provide statistics and evidence to back up your claim, which comes from actually researching a subject, they will even try and use that against you. They will attempt to mock the fact that you are more informed about a subject. For example, they call you a nerd for actually being educated on a subject. As insane as this is, this has actually happened to me. Even when someone is proven wrong, they will still try and twist it into something that makes them look better and you worse.

Motivations

Their narcissism causes a strong desire to appear good to others, therefore to feel good about themselves. Their Machiavellian trait means they will manipulate to achieve their shallow narcissist ambition. Can you win a debate with these people? Yes, however, it will likely be very difficult, plus, they will never admit it.