A 3rd take on the "better" apology: My assumption had been that he's one of those hapless conspiracy theorists who, as with his giving up a ton of money because of his vaccine wackiness, wouldn't fold due to the Nets going hard-ass. I don't believe for a second that apology is real. But, how to put it, I almost respect him less (I mean, that's not possible, given I have zero respect) in the sense that he clearly sold out his idiotic/hateful ideas once the punishment became rea, so came up with this superficially somewhat more convincing apology. I guess, short story: if you're gonna be an scumbag, at least stick to it rather than fake folding.
This is a fundamental misunderstanding of pathological narcissism. Narcissists as defined clinically are not doormats who seek love. They crave attention and validation, but not "love" as we understand it. They will not tolerate any disagreement. They cast people off not because they're "blowing with the wind" but because they are incredibly thin-skinned and reactive to any perceived humiliation, and they see humiliation everywhere. Most people will not give them the unconditional validation they seek in the face of how cruel and selfish a narcissist truly is, so they turn on them and even abuse them.
Narcissists do not bend to others, they manipulate and coerce others into behaving how they want them to. Classic grandiose narcissists are famous for being antagonistic and intolerant of any questioning of their authority. A person can be narcissistic in one part of their life and normal in others, of course, as well. We start talking about pathology when that person begin to destroy their own life or the lives of others.
I guess the question is whether he knows deep down that he's not as smart as he thinks or that he's a pretender.
I mean, there are all sorts of people who are deep down insecure and will do pretty much anything to avoid being discovered, even if it means having to double down on hate. And even if they've already been discovered. It wouldn't surprise me if that's the case with Kyrie.
Narcissist vs pretender or...both? I definitely agree that a lot of this is an expression of deep insecurity. Some of which I can get -- the African-American search for roots is ultimately a tragic one and this "we are the real Jews -- the Jews stole our identity from us" is totally bizarre, but also one of those weird ideas that flows out of being part of an unrooted diaspora and desperate for some sense of identity (not an excuse, btw, obviously 99+% of African Americans are perfectly able to have that historic injustice co-exist with an ability to not fall prey to idiocy). You add in the deep insecurity of the pretender and you have the makings of someone suspect to fringe conspiracy theories and apt to reject "mainstream" knowledge, per pathetic Q Anon losers.
The sad thing is that this along with Kanye is undoubtedly going to give fire to this sub-set of weirdness.