his writing style was very "neggy" to the reader so it attracted people with a self flaggelating streak. Couple that with how broad, vague and mystifying his illustration of narcissism was and the fact that everyone is narcissistic to some degree or another and you have a recipe for melancholic disenfranchised young men to grasp onto to it "oh thats my problem, thank god. Youre so smart alone".

thing is when he criticises the reader that was only meant to be rhetoric flair/obviously projecting (the big other?). He is writing in the second person. whenever he levels a criticism at someone who isnt the specific focus of the post then he defaults to aiming it at the reader. He criticises the reader for tons of stuff. In the maintenance of certification as fetish alone writes

"Are you prepared to look inside yourself? When a nurse practitioner asks you what about your board exam is difficult, what will you say?" "you can bet your career it won't be on the test."

you can tell from context clues that he wasnt talking about you. But

"This isn't a criticism of her, it's a criticism of you: what do you expect to gain from all the haste, the energy, the "finding ways to be creative?" Unlocking creativity is the third biggest swindle perpetrated by managment consultants, after open floor plans and managment consulting."

blurs the lines a tiny bit. Dont be fooled, he isnt talking about you unless he is.

The irony is that neurotic, self aware, self critical people are much less likely to be narcissistic (as he defined it).

It also didnt help that he called stuff narcissism that was right on the cusp of being something else, so people with the something else could happily misconstrue their "symptoms" as narcissism. If you read carefully enough you wont fall for this, alone did make it somewhat clear: If you experience shame you are not a narcissist.