So, narcissistic triangulation is when someone tries to make sure all information flows through them, and you can't speak directly to the other party who you are communicating with. There are several professions built on this, like real estate agencies and job head hunters. In the church we are kinda/sorta taught to incorporate triangulation in our marriage by coming closer to each other by both approaching God (the church).Wikipedia wrote:In the context of narcissism, triangulation is when the narcissist attempts to control the flow, intepretation, and nuances of communication between two separate actors or groups of actors.
The most blatant and obvious (after taking the red pill) triangulation was performed by Joseph Smith, and is now perpetuated by church leadership. People wanted to have a close relationship with God, and Joseph Smith claimed to speak directly with Him as His prophet. Joseph claimed to speak for God for all men. In today's church we pay lip service to personal revelation, but if that every disagrees with what the church directs us to do then we are taught to defer to the church. So the church today continues to be the middle man in our relationship with God.
People will do anything for God, as we have seen throughout history and in our own lives. People have regularly killed for God throughout history, from sacrifices to wars to murders. I use killing as my example because most people wouldn't kill for almost any other reason, though people do many other things for God like deny basic desires, give money, reject family members, etc... all in the name of their god. So by co-opting people's relationship to God, Joseph Smith and now church leadership have taken one of the most powerful motivators in all of humanity and are in control of it. Joseph Smith used his control to get people to abandon their current lives and join his people. He got people to give him money, he got women and girls to marry him, and lots of other things. The church today uses it's control to keep the coffers full and push the social agenda's of the most vocal leaders, like women and men are separate but equal, the evils of confirmed homosexuality, etc, but mostly they promote the church as the only way to come to God which keeps their control mechanism in place.
None of these ideas are new, but putting them in the context of Narcissistic Triangulation helped me label and humanize what Joseph Smith and the church have been doing.
