Meghan Markle labelled a 'narcissist' in cheap shot from publication - we look at why it's unhelpful

Being on a list alongside Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Kanye West and Sam Bankman-Fried would set alarm bells off in most people's minds.

Imagine then being the most online verbally abused royal in recent times, Meghan Markle, and finding yourself on that list.

Politico has come under fire for including Markle on an end-of-year list of 'narcissists' alongside the horrifying roll-call mentioned at the start.

Who is to say whether anyone on that list is actually a 'narcissist'. The word means someone who has a mental health condition in which they have an unreasonably high sense of their own importance. They need and seek too much attention and want people to admire them. People with this disorder may lack the ability to understand or care about the feelings of others.

Maybe we're all a bit narcissistic? Who doesn't seek approval and admiration? Maybe Madonna is exempt, judging by her social media posts.

Generally though, the only people who can diagnose the condition of narcissistic personality disorder would be a person working in mental health care, and even then they might make a mistake.

The opinion article, headlined 2022 Is the Year We All Finally Got Tired of Narcissists, provoked a furious response on social media for comparing the Duchess of Sussex to a rogues’ gallery of alleged fraudsters, antisemites, and villains of the peace.

The piece broadly argued that certain celebrities’ egotistical overreach had finally turned the public off to their attention-seeking antics. She's an actress. She was in eight series of the TV show Suits. Of course she's got an ego. You can't perform as an actress at a high level without confidence and strong sense of self.

This is entirely different to, say I don't know, starting the Capitol riots which led the death of several people and rocked the very foundation of democracy in the US. Who would do such destructive and cult-like orders to his followers? A man named Donald Trump.

Now, I do think he deserves the title of 'narcissist' if only due to his incredible back-catalogue of moments of absolute absurd sense of importance. Yes, he was the President of the United States and his actions really did almost lead to nuclear war through his words to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

However, Meghan’s inclusion in the article was branded “demented” by senior Reuters correspondent Chris Taylor.

Author and political analyst Kirsten Powers tweeted: “What the hell Politico.”

“There is literally no planet where Meghan Markle belongs with this group of people. A Black woman standing up for herself does not equal ‘narcissist’. The unhinged hatred directed at her really does kind of prove her point doesn’t it.”

Then there's Elon Musk. A man on a mission to populate the world with miniature versions of himself. If that's not narcissism... He's also single-handedly destroying a very successful social media platform in the form of Twitter, despite the stakes being high after his $44 billion purchase.

Meghan has plenty of support online, as well as her detractors.

Podcaster Paul E Martin wrote: “How in God’s name did Meghan Markle get put in this group? She’s not perfect, but a Black woman standing up for herself and family doesn’t qualify as being a ‘narcissist.’ Seriously, @politico.”

Twitter user Lisa Glass wrote that 2022 “is the year we all finally got tired of Politico”, prompting Politico’s editorial director Ryan Heath to push back at the criticism.

“If you want to write-off an entire publication because one of our 600 journalists included Meghan Markle on a list, you are indeed tired of free debate,” Mr Heath wrote.

“If, instead, you actually just disagree with her being included on the list, you can say that instead.”

Quite.

But as we saw with Jeremy Clarkson's tirade of casual abuse in his opinion piece for The Sun, words do have consequences.

Labels are rarely helpful and often lead to more binary thinking. The open-minded views the world so desperately needs are in short supply, which is why we need to conserve it at all costs.