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The Enemies He's Created
Last edited Sat Apr 11, 2026, 11:02 PM - Edit history (1)
Paranoia is the maladaptive attribution of hostile intent to others, especially when evidence is absent, limited, or ambiguous. It is seen in a wide array of disorders and syndromes, including malignant narcissism.
Paranoia is often self-fulfilling. The paranoid person behaves in ways that alienate the people around them, which causes them to react defensively. This reinforces the paranoid subject’s suspicions and triggers them to escalate their aggression. And the cycle repeats ad infinitum.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jimstewartson/p/the-enemies-he-created-trumps-paranoia?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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The Mirror, Twilight Zone, Peter Falk
Sometime later, Clemente is approached by a priest named Father Tomas, who asks him to end the executions which have been going on for a week. Clemente refuses, saying that as long as he has enemies, the executions will continue. Eventually however, Clemente seeks counsel from the priest, but finds no comfort in the priest's response that all tyrants have but one real enemy, whom they never recognize until it is too late.
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