A flying monkey can be anyone who believes the fake persona of the narcissist. They act on behalf of the narcissist, usually for an abusive purpose. They can also be enablers, as they enable the abuse to take place, by keeping a code of silence. Normal emotionally healthy people do not abuse or manipulate. They do not get involved in someone else's business. Flying monkeys do and they take it personally even though it has nothing to do with them. Smear campaigns are a psychological phenomenon where flying monkeys strive for a common agreement within the group. In many smear campaigns, people will set aside their own personal beliefs and adopt the opinions of the rest of the group. People who are opposed to the opinions or decisions of the group will remain quiet. They prefer to keep the peace, rather than disrupt the conformity of the flying monkeys. They engage in smear campaigns because they fear that if they were to express a feeling of disapproval or opposition to the opinions or decisions of the group, they would experience something less favourable for them. They fear that their personal opinions or beliefs might cause the flying monkeys to reject them from the group.
There are certain conditions which could exist for smear campaigns to develop. There must be an environment where the flying monkeys are able to stick together and remain united in the pursuit of a common goal. There might be situational factors that might cause or arrange for something to take place at a later time than what was originally planned. This could be due to external threats, moral problems or difficult decisions. There are likely to be issues in the way that the group is structured or arranged, which prevents a more favourable or beneficial result from taking place. The group will be isolated from anyone who has more authority or influence or any official or established procedures. There are symptoms that flying monkeys are likely to experience. They will have an illusion of invulnerability. They will feel as though it is impossible for them to experience any form of harm or damage. They will believe that they are untouchable. This may lead them to be overly optimistic and cause them to engage in taking risks. They will have unquestioned beliefs about you or the situation. They will ignore possible moral problems, or what is considered to be right or wrong, and ignore the consequences of individual and group actions. They will attempt to explain or justify their behaviour or attitude with logical reasons, even if these reasons are not appropriate. Rationalising their behaviour or attitude prevents them from reconsidering their opinions or decisions and causes them to ignore any signs of danger. They will ignore or even demonise anyone who may oppose or challenge their opinions or decisions. This causes other members of the group to exercise control of what they say or do, to avoid criticism.
Mind-guards will be present within the group. These are people who serve as informational filters. They will provide limited information to the group which will be unfavourable to the target, consciously make use of a variety of strategies to control opinions and beliefs and direct the decision-making process to a specific, limited range of possibilities. They will create an illusion of unanimity to lead members of the group into believing that everyone is in agreement and shares the same opinions or beliefs. They will feel pressured to conform to the group's way of thinking. Those who question the group are seen as disloyal. Group thinking leads to poor decision making and inefficient problem solving, which can be seen in any smear campaign. The flying monkeys are more concerned with maintaining unity, rather than objectively evaluating their situation and find more favourable alternatives or options. Smear campaigns often occur when the flying monkeys are very similar to each other. They are more likely to take place when a powerful or charismatic leader commands the group. Smear campaigns are more likely to occur when the flying monkeys are under stress or feel compelled to make a decision regarding a situation or problem. The narcissist who is leading the flying monkeys should avoid stating their opinions or beliefs and give people time to come up with their own ideas.
Naturally, narcissists do not want people to have their own opinions or beliefs. They want everyone to conform to their way of thinking so that they can maintain control or dominance over the situation. Then they can direct the decision-making process to an outcome that is more favourable to them, even if it is problematic to everyone around them. Narcissists are self-absorbed and lack empathy, they only care about themselves. They do not care about their flying monkeys and even the flying monkeys do not care about each other. The game is to make you believe that they like each other, yet they are united in hating you. The reality is they don't really like each other at all, they have developed a bond over abusing you. In a healthy environment, there should be at least one person of the flying monkeys who is also opposed to their groupthink mentality. In a healthy environment, a smear campaign wouldn't even exist because the flying monkey's opinions, beliefs or ideas would be discussed with people outside of the group, to get opinions that are unbiased or unprejudiced. The flying monkeys should be encouraged to remain critical of the group's opinions or decisions. Where there is a smear campaign, it is not a healthy environment. Flying monkeys are stalkers. Stalkers have mental disorders. Many of them are narcissistic, psychopathic or have some other cluster B disorder. They are targeting you and only you, due to their envy and jealousy. It could be something about your character or personality. Qualities, talents or traits. Your physical appearance. Money, material things, career, relationships, social circle or connections. You may not believe it at first, especially if you are a modest or humble person.
The flying monkeys have likely devalued and degraded you. Targeted your self-worth and self-esteem. Made you believe that you are worthless and insignificant. Well, why would they go out of their way to make you believe that? If this was something they really believed to be true, they wouldn't even need to convince you. The truth is, that's exactly how they feel about themselves. They have low self-worth and low self-esteem. They feel worthless and insignificant. They are just projecting their emotions on to you. It takes the focus off them and gives them the power to control you and the environment. They will target you for years, sometimes even an entire lifetime. They do not self reflect or look within. So they cannot resolve these painful emotions. Instead, they choose to project them on to you. But these emotions have to be reflected on, for them to be resolved. Which is how the flying monkeys are able to hold grudges and resentment for such a long period of time. Normal, functional, healthy people do not hold grudges and resentment. They want to resolve conflict because it makes them uncomfortable. But flying monkeys are different. As I said earlier, flying monkeys harass and stalk you, therefore they must have a mental disorder. Many of them are narcissistic. Narcissists enjoy drama, they enjoy dysfunctional, chaotic environments. It's what they have experienced since childhood, it's familiar to them. So they will go out of their way to recreate the same environment and even push and provoke people until they get their desired result. Any long-term harassment or stalking is not going to be related to anything you have done wrong. It's based on their out of control emotions. They are envious and jealous of you. If this was not the truth, they would be focused on other people who have done the same things or far worse. They act like you are the only one. Like it doesn't matter what anyone else does. Because they are not envious or jealous of other people. And these are the very emotions which override any rationality. Any reason or logic. Before becoming aware of you as a target of the smear campaign, the flying monkey may have had a stressful life. They may have had intense feelings of hatred towards themselves. They may have felt hatred, anger, envy or jealousy towards you or someone else. If the flying monkey was a healthy individual and didn't have these negative emotions or feelings of worthlessness and insignificance, they would never agree to be a flying monkey and start stalking and harassing you.
People who do these types of things will be deeply dissatisfied or unfulfilled with their lives. Stalking and harassing you is their way of escaping from reality. It's a form of escapism. And when the flying monkey first started stalking you, it gave them a high, a rush of adrenaline. For a moment they forgot about all the problems in their lives because they were too busy focusing on your life. It gave them an opportunity to unleash all their frustrations on to you. This created a new neural pathway within their brains which then associated relieving their negative emotions or feelings of worthless and insignificance with stalking and harassing you. You became their drug, their addiction. If you left this abusive situation. They would have severe withdrawal symptoms. They would experience stress, anxiety and depression. Flying monkeys will not self reflect or look within themselves. They do not accept responsibility or accountability for anything that they do. They believe that other people are responsible for how they feel. So there is no way that they could just move on with their lives and never abuse anyone else again. They would have to find another target or victim. Someone else to unleash their frustration on to. Someone to project all of their intense negative emotions on. So the cycle continues.
There are times where the flying monkeys may not have access to you. You are not around for them to stalk and harass. During these times they will abuse whoever else is around them, most often the people closest to them. People in their family. They created a new neural pathway in their brains upon abusing you to relieve their intense negative emotions. This has created an addiction. So when you are not around, these cravings don't just go away. Flying monkeys will become angry very quickly around their family members when you are not around. They might create arguments out of nothing, just so they can have an opportunity to get their rocks off. So this little hobby of stalking and harassing you soon begins to affect every aspect of their lives. It makes them more frustrated and resentful than ever before. It trains their brains into associating relief of their intense negative emotions with abusing or manipulating someone. And whether you are around or not, their cravings to do this are still going to be there. I guess this is their karma.