Why Do They Call It Malignant Narcissism

Why do they call it "Malignant Narcissism"?
Watch "The Crucible"
Read history.
Pay closer attention to how and why people listen to one person but not another, how they treat one person better than another.
Read about Hitler and his buddies.
Read about Genghis Khan.
Pay closer attention to the news.
Read about Charles Manson and Jim Jones.
Pay closer attention to the contradictions in what Politicians say, and what they do.
Watch "The Sopranos"
Watch "Survivor"

Read about Jesus Christ.

Read about Hypatia.
Make the connections, match the similarities, see the patterns.
Be careful about knee-jerk-defending everything you like and identify with, and look at it more objectively.
Read the actual lyrics of the songs that you've been listening to your whole life.
Look how easily people will turn on one another in order to follow someone they don't even know, like a politician, or a religious leader, or an anti-religious leader.
Look how easily people will turn on their friends and family or scapegoat one of them in order to feel superior, or to gain or keep something else for themselves, whether material or otherwise.
Look how easily people will turn on one another, period.
Pay closer attention to how so many just go along with negative implications, slander, and malicious rumors about others, but rarely stand up for others being targeted, nor seek any facts out for themselves.
Read or watch "Snow White" and "Cinderella".
Watch and hear what people do and say when someone brings up the subject.
Pay attention to how easily people will condemn others, and how often they will try to turn others completely against another person.

Pay closer attention, period. It can happen to anyone, at any time, for no reason at all except something gone sideways in a "Narcissist"'s head.

Awareness and genuine maturity are the only effective "weapons" against it; without those, we are sitting ducks. Most people don't take it seriously because they don't want to face the uncomfortable reality, so they make fun of it, or pretend it's not "really real", or that it happens "somewhere else", and that's exactly why it has repeated itself throughout history, and will keep repeating as long as humans keep hiding themselves from themselves.

Not One Of THOSE People: Projection And Deflection

Judgment and name-calling is usually really just deflection and projection. The person who's afraid to be judged as a "loser" is the one who goes around calling other people "losers", the person who's afraid he or she is going to be called a "slut" goes around calling other people "whore". The person who's always trying to get out of work, who wants to be rich so he or she can sit on the beach all day or play with his/her toys is the one going around calling other people "lazy" and "shiftless". The person who secretly wants to be included in the "popular" or "rich crowd" is the one going around calling everyone who seems well-off or confident "stuck-up". The person who wants to be known as an "Intellectual" and is worried they fall short is the one calling anyone who seems intelligent "crazy" or "stupid". The person who desires control and power is the one who accuses anyone who doesn't put up with their BULLYING of being a control freak. The person who wants to be seen as a Great Artist or a Great Musician but is worried that they don't really have what it takes is the one going around calling other artists and musicians "incompetent" or "lame". The one who is secretly worried that they're the one who's crazy is the one going around calling other people (or a target person) crazy. The person who's fixated on worrying that they're going to be seen as physically weak is the one who is always trying to prove that someone else is physically weaker than they are. The person who's trying to prove their own competence and intelligence because they're afraid of being out-shined is the one who parades their degrees and certificates as "proof" of their intelligence, and tries to diminish anyone who doesn't possess the same certification.
Etc.
Where this comes from is often the environment the person has been living in, or was raised in; either family members, or the community, or both. A child who is exposed all the time to adults who do this judging, deflecting and projecting is of course going to be affected in some way, usually involving self-doubt, and fear of being the one who's being "judged" and "shamed". The child learns that whoever is not on the "right side" of these adults is a walking target. And that can change at a moment's notice, all it takes is for one of them to feel slightly envious or intimidated, or even a slight ego-boost, and they're off to the Gossip Races.
So the child, in their seeking ways to survive, may pick up the same habit of DEFLECTION and PROJECTION. When they feel like they've done something that could make them a target of gossip, like being late for work habitually, for example, the shame they feel acts as a trigger for deflection, and so they look for someone else to POINT AT, so everyone looks at that other person and not them.
My personal favorite that I've heard many times here in New England, where we have 2 large casinos and a few smaller ones, is when a person will go on and on about how they don't gamble, how they're not "one of those gambler people", how they stay away from "those places", but then they follow it with: "But give me a (insert illegal drug here) any day!"
They KNOW, subconsciously, that they are pointing at other people and grouping them together as "bad" in order to deflect that judgment that they feel about THEMSELVES, otherwise they wouldn't have connected the two. That's how they are able to rationalize doing illegal drugs~ "Look at THOSE people, they're "bad", I'm not one of them... therefore whatever I do is innocent".
The other thing the same people will do is talk about how they do one drug but NOT this OTHER drug.. because only "bad" people do that other drug.
You can find examples of this deflection/projection habit all over the place in regions where people FEAR (consciously or unconsciously) that they're going to be the next one JUDGED and SHAMED, and therefore REJECTED, SLANDERED, and/or OSTRACIZED. (In some even more severely dysfunctional groups, even physically attacked or killed).
The effect is exponential; the more people there are who do it, the more people there are who learn to do it out of self-preservation, and then it becomes a behavioral habit just like the others. The effects of it on the community are very far-reaching and damaging. Entire societies have been decimated as a result of this behavior becoming "normalized".
The only way to stop the cycle is for individuals to simply stop doing it, and teach their children not to participate in this behavior, and why it's wrong. Unfortunately few are strong enough to endure the difficulty that comes with standing on one's own feet in a community that is constantly throwing stones; one must endure getting stones thrown at them and not throw any back, so the dysfunction just continues until the entire community dissolves in a cesspool of corruption, hostility, and crime.
There are many stories, parables, fables, films, and even Twilight Zone and Outer Limits episodes illustrating this very well, but very few seem to grasp the message.

Social Media Pros or Cons?

One of the positive things the Media and Social Media has accomplished is waking so many people up to the fact that they're not insignificant peasants without a voice and without personal power. One of the negative things the Media has accomplished is also waking people up to this fact, because it turns out that quite a lot of people were treating others with civility because they thought they "HAD TO" or some giant shame fist would pound them from the sky. Now that they feel "empowered", they have no "reason" to be respectful toward others, because they found out they have nothing to fear. Most only treat those with "respect" who they think might punch them out if they don't, or those who they want attention and approval from. So instead of adding goodness to the world, they're increasing the lowest common denominator. 

Hope it's a phase...