"We want what's best for you."
I recently stumbled across an old, screenshotted text from a narcissistic former friend group: "Even though things are different now, we want what's best for you." Sounds innocent, right? But they sent it right after saying, almost word for word, "We forgive you for breaking off the friendship. We want you to keep attending our church." (I'd been heavily questioning said church because they brought in an anti-vax pastor at the height of the pandemic.) Also, notice that they didn't say, "We just want you to be happy." Or, "We respect your choices." Or even, "We're sorry for hurting you." (The original issue leading to the breakoff was that they'd harassed me about my chronic illness and refused to believe my symptoms were really that bad. Then they denied harassing me when it had literally just occurred.) "We want what's best for you" is a narcissistic dogwhistle that basically translates to, "W...