Fatal narcissism: the rise of celebrities at the service of the jihadist narrative

The narcissist is a person with an inflated sense of his or her importance in the world, a constant need for admiration, a tendency to exploit others, and who believes he or she is superior to others in one or more ways. However, he also has a fragile resistance to frustration and a great sensitivity to disapproval. It gets its name from a mythological character so arrogant, manipulative and in love with himself, that when he saw his own image reflected in a pond he was absorbed and ended up throwing himself into the waters to drown.

Clearly, intelligence is not a common characteristic of the narcissist.

Many Hollywood or show business stars are narcissists, characters who seek in their existential emptiness some sign of virtue to exhibit. Historically this has been the case: they have exalted dictators and murderers such as Stalin, Che Guevara, Mao, Hitler or Fidel Castro. Generally they have a profound ignorance of what they are talking about and support absurd or criminal causes convinced that they are on the side of altruistic idealism, and that those causes represent them as rebels and brave.

They are generally ridiculous and contradictory in that idealism. They are millionaires who criticize the power of money or wealth, hate the security forces but do not suffer from insecurity and live surrounded by bodyguards, talk about pacifism while enjoying what they have achieved in wars fought by others and pretend to lecture the world about a harsh reality they neither understand nor suffer from.

The latest tantrum from 200 actors and musicians such as Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Ruffalo, Cynthia Nixon, Sir Ian McKellen, Paul Simon, Sting and Brian Eno, is a call for Israel to release Fatah terrorist leader Marwan Barghouti. Given the very advanced age of Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian movement is promoting Barghouti as his successor and these celebrities, functioning as useful fools, are campaigning for him, portraying him as a symbol of unity whom they consider illegally detained.

The reality is that they are calling for the freedom of one of the cruellest protagonists of the Second Intifada, who has committed heinous murders against innocent people. We don't know how much research Sting or his friends have done on the judicial process that followed this butcher, which by the way, were conducted with all the guarantees and due process that would be unthinkable in a country governed by Sharia law. Nor do we know if Ruffalo and his friends know the history of the Second Intifada, but we do know that they are great propagators of Islamist propaganda, especially that produced, for narcissistic minds, by Qatar.

Their ignorance is proportional to their self-condescension, which is why they are so easily seduced by communist regimes, by guerrilla movements and by the exercise of violence that they do not disapprove of because they consider it resistance. These stars are convinced that the ends of Che, Sinwar or Chavez justify their means. They are the gratuitous diplomacy of dictators. But when it comes to hatred against Israel and the Jewish people, they are reaching parameters that make Leni Riefenstahl pale.

For example, Guy Pearce, who, incredibly, played a Holocaust survivor in "The Brutalist," has become a fanatical disseminator of the most rancid antisemitism, saying that Israel is the most fanatical anti-semitism, claiming that the largest pornography companies are owned by Jews, that there is a Jewish religious mandate to murder Christians, and that "Jewish Zionists" control gambling and prostitution in Las Vegas. He also suggested that Israel was responsible for both the 9/11 attacks and the murder of Charlie Kirk, finishing off with that he had "never" felt such disgust for a group as the "Israelis."

Pearce, an Oscar nominee, has endorsed libels that anyone with a minimal knowledge of history would recognize as false and racist, but decency, truth and morality do not apply to this textbook narcissistic nefarious.

Pearce's case is not an isolated event, but part of an ecosystem where narcissism, political ignorance and an increasingly blatant antisemitism among artists and activists combine. There appears Kneecap, the Northern Irish rap trio, who went so far as to celebrate Hamas with a "up Hamas" after the massacre of more than a thousand Jews, only to present themselves as victims of racism when they received criticism.

Another case of narcissistic imbecility was the pledge recently signed by more than a thousand actors and directors, among them Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Ava DuVernay, Asif Kapadia, Boots Riley, Joshua Oppenheimer, Olivia Colman, Mark Ruffalo (infallible when it comes to harassing Jews), Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Riz Ahmed and Guy Pearce, not to work with Israeli festivals, production companies, cinemas and broadcasters that, according to them, would be involved in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people. The document, celebrated as an act of moral conscience, comes amid a climate of protests, hunger strikes, politicized concerts and global calls to align with a pro-Palestinian narrative.

"Pro-Palestinian activism has normalized the inversion of truth and lies. These pathetic narcissists now promote a murderer as a hero."

But these actions do not withstand the slightest scrutiny. The pledge signed by these thousands of Hollywood stars was based on the resolution of the self-styled International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), which declared that Israel met the legal definition of genocide according to the UN. The organization was immediately found to be little more than a front: the process for the resolution showed relevant fragilities.

IAGS, an association founded in 1994, passed a resolution accusing Israel of genocide through an extremely lax voting system: anyone could join by paying an annual fee of $30, with no academic credentials required. Only 28% of those registered participated in the vote, a figure that the association presented as a great support, hiding the fact that it represented only a tiny fraction of the total. The lack of rigor was even more serious: the citations used included unverified data and references to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health. Among the "experts" were names such as Mickey Mouse, Adolf Hitler and Mo Cookie, showing the total absence of basic controls.

The scholars who analyzed the case noted that many of the signatories were not genocide specialists, but activists, graduate students, a veterinarian or an expert in medieval Islamic art. Despite this, their pronouncements were repeated uncritically by international media, and, of course, by the celebrity signatories of the boycott against Israel, unaware that IAGS itself acknowledged that its report was corrupted. But this discovery did not make the signatory actors retract. They were assisted by their narcissistic shell.

The advance of political Islamism in the West is thanks to the biggest anti-Western influence operation in history. This operation has many strands, the Islamo-left in the universities, the right-wing woke through influencers and the dissemination of antisemitism in show business. The idea that these armies of maniacs and eccentrics think they have the right to lecture is too absurd.

Now, the infantilized, self-serving Hollywood mob is infatuated that Marwan Barghouti is a political prisoner they want to see free on streets they themselves will never set foot on, attacking helpless people they don't care about. This is what happens when privileged narcissists get their knowledge from reels from Instagram or bots on X, plus fancy incentives funded by Doha.

They have no idea what they're talking about, but they sign anything that makes them feel superior.

Only an ignoramus, eager for easy applause, in love with himself and foolish enough to believe anything without first checking what he publishes, could advocate for Barghouti's release. But these are the same people who endorsed a declaration of genocide written by Mickey Mouse. Pro-Palestinian activism has normalized the inversion of truth and lies. These pathetic narcissists now promote a murderer as a hero. They are not interested in reality, only in their own image reflected in the pond in which, with their imbecility, they intend to sink the entire West.