Switching Sides and Inverting Values

The US' Betraying Ukraine and Europe for Russia

In a head-spinning upbraiding, Trump and JD Vance humiliated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, February 28th, by raking him over the coals for his lack of gratitude in receiving American military assistance to fight Russia.

This inversion of the truth through the defense mechanism of gaslighting doesn’t hold up under scrutiny, as Zelensky has been humbly grateful to President Biden ever since Russia’s war of aggression began on February 24th, 2022. In every American interview, especially televised, Zelensky has repeatedly expressed his gratitude. It doesn’t matter that JD Vance split hairs around the timing of his expressed gratitude and berated Zelensky, “Have you said thank you once this entire meeting?” because the general complaint emanating from Trump and Vance, and therefore the ostensible kill switch for continued support in their cognitively distorted minds, was an ahistorical lack of the words, “Thank you.”

The real motive and closer to the quick on America’s reneging on an allegiance to Ukraine, and by extension, Europe/NATO likely boils down to Trump’s “loyalty” to Putin, whether motivated by Russian monied interests aiding an insolvent Trump over the years and/or incriminating kompromat. Nearly a century ago, autocrats such as Hitler and Mussolini teamed up, and Trump’s affiliating with Putin is no different. Psychologically, dictator affinities serve to buttress a flagging sense of normalcy; autocrats look to one another for a sense that they are in good company and normal as leaders.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who has emerged as a leading voice in the opposition, posted on X March 1st, “Trump has been calling Zelensky a corrupt dictator and spreading Russian propaganda that Russia didn’t invade Ukraine. All these lies are Trump’s pretext to sign a deal with Russia that hands Ukraine to Putin. Zelensky - who’s been cut out of the talks - knows what Trump and Putin are scheming. A “ceasefire” without any guarantee for Ukraine’s future security is a trap. Trump’s deal will require Ukrainian forces to withdraw, and when they do, Putin will pounce.”

Whether these crazy making lies are gaslighting (intentional/psychopathic) or projection (unconscious, delusional, and etiologically narcissistically motivated), Putin is the dictator, not Zelensky, who invaded Ukraine. Erasing Zelensky, and by effect Ukraine, from deliberations is the height of political narcissistic abuse, whereby he was undermined to a stature even less than that of a child of yesteryear who is neither meant to be seen nor heard— he doesn’t even exist.

If you’re a victim of narcissistic abuse and no one in your society believes you, no one is willing to even listen to what has happened to you, to your witness testimony, to your truth, this would negate you — you as an individual — it would take away your selfhood, your personhood, your agency.

— Gaslighting: Epistemic Injustice, Epistemic Injury by Prof. Sam Vaknin

Breaking down the multiple points of gaslighting during this White House excoriation would be a painful, tedious, and ultimately pointless exercise for writer and reader alike. However, both Trump and JD Vance at different points express sentiments to the effect of Zelensky is the bad guy because he won’t give up the fight and capitulate to Putin.

Narcissism expert Prof. Sam Vaknin defines gaslighting as the, “…deliberate premeditated act or series of actions intended to cause another person to doubt their sanity and their ability to gauge reality appropriately.

The perpetrator, the gaslighter, is perfectly aware of the difference between fantasy and reality, between the gaslight version and what really happened. And there is a power asymmetry in information. A gaslighter knows the facts; you don’t.

A victim of a gaslighter gradually begins to doubt themselves, to question themselves, in order to somehow sustain and restore their reality testing. It’s a crazy making world of make-believe. It’s a paracosm. It’s a fantasy. It’s a delusion. It’s a paranoid space. Be that as it may, you get lost in a forest, and then it is the perpetrator who becomes your only anchor, your only island of stability, your only rock, and your only reality tester. This abuse results in victims’ epistemic injustice (invalidation) and ensuing epistemic injury.”

Sen. Murphy continued his post on X by contesting MAGA’s reframe of Zelensky as the aggressor in the Oval Office, February 28th: Zelensky stated, “Putin has signed many agreements about Ukraine and he hasn’t honored any of them. Aren’t you worried Putin will violate the terms of this ceasefire?” That’s it. That’s the question. And this is where Vance and Trump explode. The trap was set and now the ambush starts. The whole meeting is a set up. By pushing this plan to hand Ukraine to Putin (IN FRONT OF ZELENSKY!), Trump is trying to either humiliate or provoke Zelensky. But he does neither, and so Vance has to light the match.”

Not only are Trump/Vance attempting to distort Zelensky’s reality testing that Ukraine is the country that was aggressed — Trump gaslighted February 18th that Zelensky/Ukraine started it (meaning the war) — this interpersonal and international contest of wills ends up pitting ordinary Americans against one another in where our allegiances should lie — with our heretofore allies or with Trump/Putin.

Most Americans are having difficulty with effectively overnight changing sides on the Russia-Ukraine War. It’s a hard switch to go from values-based alliances to narcissistically transactional (quid pro quo) alliances, replete with deal-making bids extortion for Ukraine’s tech-friendly mineral rights as recompense for the ~$175 billion the United States has given to the country in military and civilian aid.

Teasing out transactional machinations, avowed anti-Trump geopolitical analyst, Sam Vaknin asserts an unconventional viewpoint that may be of interest to those Americans who are uncomfortable switching sides and inverting values:

“It’s a clever move as far as realpolitik because Russia is a natural ally of the United States against China. Russia and China are historical enemies. So what are Russia and China doing here together? The United States had pushed them together.

BRICS is an invention of the United States. It’s brilliant to drive a wedge between China and Russia. Trump’s tempting and seducing Russia away from China. And yes, he’s sacrificing Ukraine and possibly Europe. It’s a new balance of power — spheres of influence — a 19th century approach to geopolitics.

You may disagree, but stupid it is not. Objectively speaking, this was exactly the vision of Kissinger, who was far from stupid.

How dare I say something positive about Donald Trump? I am not neutral. Donald Trump is a menace. Donald Trump is horrible. I see equivalences between Donald Trump and Hitler too numerous to count. And I think he should be taken down by almost all means possible. There’s no neutrality here, but I attempt to be objective, and what he is doing with Ukraine can be perceived as a masterstroke.

Actually, Kissinger would have egged him on, would have said, “You’re great; it’s great what you're doing.”

Also, in terms of geopolitical implications, ‘network state’ proselytizer Balaji is concerned that as America teams up with Russia, it leaves a vacuum for China to swoop in where America was once allied with Europe.

Conclusion

Apart from “stunning” and “disgraceful,” the word “shame” repeatedly comes up in the aftermath of Friday’s cementing of America’s betraying our allies and switching sides on the Russia-Ukraine war.

Narcissism, as a defense mechanism, is self-perpetuating; just as the primary “caregiver” shamed the child, the child grows up to shame their own children and others ad infinitum, and crosshatched with other shamed individuals, systemic compensatory narcissism takes a foothold in culture.

A bottomless pit of malignant narcissist Trump’s shame infects the world and makes wobbly what used to be the West’s sure-footed sense of direction and values.

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