What Happens When A Narcissist’s Smear Campaign Backfires?
What happens when a Narcissist’s Smear Campaign Backfires? What is the Narcissist’s Smear Campaign? How do you deal with it? Let us get going to the answers to these questions through this article.
If you have already dated a narcissist and decided to rescue yourself from an abusive relationship, you might have encountered various toxic reactions. One such response is smearing your image which you might already know. But for readers unaware of the Narcissist’s Smear Campaign; let us know what exactly it is.
What is the Narcissist’s Smear Campaign?
The Narcissist’s Smear Campaign is when the narcissist presents someone as bad and lies to others about what that someone has been doing to them. Narcissists can lie bluntly to save themselves and their image and destroy someone else’s image just to save their own image. Narcissists smear your image when they can no longer control you or have you, or when they want to teach you some sort of lesson just because you did not act according to the way they want.
When you end the relationship with the narcissist, or when they break up with you this is when the narcissist undertakes the smear campaign to make themselves feel better, to satisfy their ego, and to maintain their image in society.
They would exaggerate the situation, twist the plot of the story of what they did to you, present it as something you did to them, would ask everyone to believe just their part of the story, and would conceal your part, would tell others the half-truth of the situation and how they were the victim in the situation, would tell lies about you, or just present it completely as they were innocent and you victimized them by doing the wrong with them.
A narcissist would not hesitate even once to spread rumors about you and would tell all sorts of stories and lies to turn people around you against you. They would wish all people just cut ties with you and then you have to rely on them. They would not allow people to know your side of the story.
During a smear campaign, the narcissist goes around telling everyone about how their ex-partner or a family member, a friend, or whom so ever it is by whom the smear campaign was influenced, how nasty their behavior was, to tell the relationship gossip and tell tales about how their relationship started on a good note but ended on a bad note just because of the other party whom they project as bad.
Narcissists would try to save their own selves by acting the victim and hiding their real toxic selves they project all the bad that they have done with you onto you and tag you as the bad person here claiming all the bad or the wrongdoings under your name.
Why would a narcissist use a smear campaign?
Narcissists use smear campaigns as a shield to hide their toxic behavior from society so that nobody doubts the high-end shiny image that they have created just based on mostly falseness.
The smear campaign helps them maintain their intact personality and make the other person against whom they have been smear campaigning, looks like a maniac who is either obsessed with them or planning on taking revenge on the narcissist who seems innocent due to the false facade that they have created to hide their toxicity from the society.
Narcissists use smear campaigns to either look like someone heroic who helped others like you or just to look like the innocent victim who has been prey for someone bad and shrewd like you, who has been taking advantage of the incident narcissist.
Narcissists would gain other people’s empathy and sympathy for them by creating half-truthful scenarios or just complete lies. They would exploit other people’s feelings and make them think you are the villain in this case.
Narcissists would simply gain attention and their narcissistic supply by using the smearing campaign, taking advantage by exploiting other people’s feelings, and turning people against you by smearing your reputation.
When the narcissist loses control over you, they spread a smear campaign just to control the situation. They establish control over how other people perceive you. This is an indirect form of punishment that they use just to get back at you whenever they feel they have been wronged and their mask of false goody image might drop off and their real toxic selves might be revealed by you. This is when they spread a smear campaign.
The main motive of such a narcissist smear campaign is to basically make you suffer, make you feel embarrassed publically, smear your reputation, and belittle you in everybody’s eyes.
Narcissists use smear campaigns to get back at you and they use heinous tactics just to make you taste even the last bits of their toxicity.
What are some of the signs to know that the narcissist has spread the smear campaign against you?
There are a few signs that may indicate the spread of the narcissist’s smear campaign against you, and those are mentioned below,
- People around you start avoiding you and even ignore encountering you specifically.
- People might curse you for behaving badly towards the narcissist and being the bad guy in the relationship.
- People might give you unlikely and unwantedly bad looks, hint you out as an evil person to others, avoid going wherever you are headed, and would talk behind your back whenever you pass by them.
- Poele would ask you to apologize to the narcissist, even without knowing your end of the story.
- People start to drift apart from you, and you might lose the fake friends in the process, but thankfully you might actually find your real friends who would believe in you no matter what, a because of the smear campaign.
- The Flying monkeys would pull in more support for the narcissist and try to bring down your image even if they have to cross certain limits and assault you verbally.
“Flying Monkeys” is a term used by mental health experts with reference to the characters of the Wizard of Oz, who followed the wicked, scary, and bad witch.
What does the term flying monkeys mean in the context of mental health issues?
“Flying Monkeys” is a term used for describing people who bid for narcissists, side with them, or do their dirty work to charge punishments on their targets. Flying Monkeys are the supporters, minions, and helpers who help their cruel agendas of threatening you, showing you what you are missing, forcing you to get back with them, or even being a reason that a narcissist might be upset with you when you share a concern regarding them with one of their flying monkeys.
A narcissist would assist one of their flying monkeys to lie, gossip, and spread rumors so that nobody questions their image and it may seem as if you are the one cheating and lying to them.
What happens when a Narcissist’s Smear Campaign Backfires?
But, People would come to see the truth. People eventually and always do not like to hear just the negatives all the time. So people start losing interest in the narcissist’s smear campaign and avoid it completely to not be affected by the negativity that the narcissist has been spreading.
Their ignorance and loss of trust in the narcissist can be considered as a sign of the smear campaign backfiring at the narcissist and this may take the attention off you and you might be in a new light altogether for the people just because of the backfiring of the smear campaign. People would know the truth about you and the narcissist and eventually support what is righteous.
When can the smear campaign backfire on the narcissist?
The narcissist has had a series of relationships be it their partners, family, or friends and they have used such smear campaigns against all of them. This becomes such a repetitive cycle that everyone around the narcissist knows their tactics and either loses their faith in them.
Everyone knows who they really are, or knows about their regular tactics after the narcissist discards someone and starts looking at the narcissist differently like their eyes are stating, “Here! you go again, the same old the same old thing.” This reduces the effectiveness of the narcissist smear campaigns and can even be the first step for their smear campaign backfiring.
When the inner circle or people close to the narcissist know about their toxicity, and when someone innocent like you is being suffered at the hands of the narcissist, the closest people look down upon the good, lovely, humble selves and degrade the nice good image to their toxic image.
People eventually and always do not like to hear just the negatives all the time. So people start losing interest in the narcissist’s smear campaign and avoid it completely to not be affected by the negativity that the narcissist has been spreading. Their ignorance and loss of trust in the narcissist can be considered as a sign of the smear campaign backfiring at the narcissist.
When the narcissist loses the faith of the people and is no longer able to influence and convince people by mirroring or trajectory of all the lies against someone, this is when they realize their smear campaign has backfired.
When people no longer believe in what the narcissist has to say, and the narcissist’s authenticity and credibility are lost and instead people start to listen to the other party against whom the smear campaign has been launched and try to understand the other party rather than fearing and believing the narcissist. This is exactly when the narcissist’s smear campaign backfires.
When the person against whom the smear campaign has been spread, just ignores it or does not give in, or simply does not react against anything that they have been claiming against you, then the smear campaign for the narcissist seems to backfire on them.
What happens when a Narcissist’s Smear Campaign Backfires?
- The narcissist might be unhappy and frustrated and would do everything to get back things under their control.
- The narcissist would be more vengeful than usual.
- Be ready to face narcissistic rage.
- They would try to intensify and even make the smear campaign kind of a big deal just to get a reaction out of you.
- They get so frustrated and look like a crazy person here at this point because they no longer have control over the smear campaign started by them.
- When the smear campaign backfires, the narcissist is so focused to rectify the backfiring of the smear campaign, that they actually forget how their true toxic selves have been revealed to the people and their mask of falseness and fakeness is vanishing gradually.
- When the narcissist’s smear campaign backfires because of you. As you do not play along with the narcissist’s game, this fact messes with their mind that they have lost control and this causes a narcissistic injury to them; which may be able to reveal their ugly toxic selves within no time.
How to overcome a Narcsist’s Smear campaign?
In such situations, do not get worried and feel lonely, as this is one of the techniques used by a Narcissist when they lose control over you. In such situations, you should,
- Tell people your side of the story and have faith in you so that they do not abandon you with all the wrong ideas of you.
- Initially, a Narcissist might seem winning for some time, but eventually, people would notice the truth and would side with you.
You never really know how indeed a Narcissist would react when you cut ties with them, and also every individual is different so a unique reaction is expected. But these reactions are a little common among all narcissists and these may change depending upon the situations ad circumstances and also with your relationship with them.
The deeper the bond the more drastic and loud their reactions would be. So it is better to be prepared mentally before triggering a narcissist. Be ready for anything unexpected and unusual and also have a backup in case things get out of your hand and when people victimize falsely with their loud actions and assaults; in such cases seeking help from family, friends, or even the law would be advisory.
Inference
When you end the relationship with the narcissist, or when they break up with you this is when the narcissist undertakes the smear campaign to make themselves feel better, to satisfy their ego, and to maintain their image in society.
They would exaggerate the situation, twist the plot of the story of what they did to you, present it as something you did to them, would ask everyone to believe just their part of the story, and would conceal your part, would tell others the half-truth of the situation and how they were the victim in the situation, would tell lies about you, or just present it completely as they were innocent and you victimized them by doing the wrong with them.
But, People would come to see the truth. People eventually and always do not like to hear just the negatives all the time. So people start losing interest in the narcissist’s smear campaign and avoid it completely to not be affected by the negativity that the narcissist has been spreading.
Their ignorance and loss of trust in the narcissist can be considered as a sign of the smear campaign backfiring at the narcissist and this may take the attention off you and you might be in a new light altogether for the people just because of the backfiring of the smear campaign. People would know the truth about you and the narcissist and eventually support what is righteous.
Be patient, ignore the narcissist and the smear campaign, and just give some time to people to notice the truth. People would eventually come around and understand you and befriend you again when they notice the truth. And let go of those people who do not come along as they were never really your friends. In a way, the smear campaign might allow you to filter and make it clear who your true friends or true supporters are and whom you should just let go of and not be bothered about.
From Relationship, Depression, and Personality Disorder to Narcissistic problems, I have helped a lot of people find their solutions. Upon gathering a number of common problems that people face, I decided to put the information on this blog so that anyone can get their answers easily.
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