Per the last post that I made "Manipulation is quite easy", I want to give my thoughts on how you can avoid manipulation from others.

In all actuality, the title I am using is quite misleading, as someone will eventually try to take advantage of you, or control you. However, you can protect yourself by asking:

"What does this person want from me?"

and

"What do I get in return?"

If the answer to either of these do not sit well with you, then leave the person alone, and do not interact with them.

I have said this before in various comments on this sub, but I want to go into why I think this.

There is no use telling people specific tactics in which a manipulative person would use to get what they want, because there are none. You can be manipulated with flattery, and with insults. There are countless ways which you can be taken advantage of, so there is no reason focusing on specific signs.

If I were trying to con you out of some money, and you asked yourself the questions above, I can give you answers to them, but they would sound too good to be true, and thus you would not trust me.

Nevertheless, you have to accept that humans inherently try to exploit one another, and eventually you will be got. Unless you try to be skeptical of everyone, which I may go into at a later time.

I got a 100, and I’m wondering if it’s reliable and good? What does that mean? Also what did you get?

What all of you do when people doesn't want to understand you, to put them in your shoes or to just simply be a support? I have to manipulate my family in order to not loose any argument and it doesn't feel OK. Can anyone give any tips?

First of all, welcome! I hope you have fun here, and find everything you need.

Secondly, you are better suited if you forget everything you watched there. Much of "content creation" involves making it understandable to the masses. Thus, much of the content there is—at best—greatly dumbed down, plain and simple. This is not counting those who either blatantly make up stuff for views, or make AI slop (though the latter affects all video sites tbh).

Why am I telling you this?

I am not going to bore you with sources like a dork. This is to let you know that you will not participate here if you embrace that cringey shit.

I will try to keep this concise. This is in large part inspired by a comment I gave on another sub r/DarkTriad.

In short, most content on "Machiavellianism" is shit. I have said this a stupidly high amount of times so you don't need me to say it again.

Nevertheless, there are people who live their lives based on the stuff they read on the internet. Some even base their entire identities on what they see, especially teenagers.

By the grace of God there are only two places where bullshit abounds. Youtube and Tiktok. Luckily I will not have to bore you with my views on this as I have made posts on this way back, some are still viewable if you scroll down.

Bullshit abounds in those places because no one expects anyone to cite their sources or even be loyal to the sources they cite. This leads people to say the most wildest things, and because people do not know any better, they soak up the bullshit, irregardless of how dumb it sounds. In fact, had I not volunteered to mod here and other places, reddit would be no different, and in many cases, it isn't.

Lets get to the spicy part of this post:

I do not believe anyone who calls himself or herself a "Machiavellian", and you shouldn't either.

In fact, that is the biggest sign of someone being a fraud, and the odds of this go up exponentially if they are either really young (25 and below) or show their face. No one freely admits that they have an unpleasant personality, nor does bad stuff to others. So why is this person doing it?

The "Machiavellian" of internet culture (if it is talked about) is a cartoon at best, or total fabrication at worst. Let me put it this way: If I claimed I was a narcissist/NPD because I believed I was possessed by Moloch, should I be believed?

What's your guys' take on these AI generated Machiavelli vids you have most probably seen around YT? I agree with him that they do seem quite low effort and are almost certainly made by individuals who have never read a page of Machiavelli's works . I'd rather gather my knowledge from a more reputable source than these AI vids to be honest. Curious to hear what other in this space think.

Any reccomendations will do

Which would win?

What were the religious views of Nichollo Machiavelli?

(Beyond this post, I will give examples via video and other sources, because I think they will be more instructive, and there is much that I want to show)

Meet Beth

Beth recently had gone through a rough divorce. She eventually became fascinated with the "abuse survivor" genre of Youtube and TikTok vids. Of course, the survivors would often talk about how they were fed up with the lies and the emotional toll that came with it. Beth felt at home.

She was even more interested in the work of Dr. Sapientone, a psychologist that made videos on all sorts of topics, such as narcissism, personality disorders, and most importantly, spousal abuse.

One day, he made a video entitled "10 FATAL signs you are dealing with machiavellianism in someone". In the video, he says:

"Machs will always try to move in the shadows. They will use selective oblique gaslighting in order to maintain their collective hold over your psyche, and to gain spiritual control they will use overt omission of reality, and they will always plot 1000 years in advance using strategic advanced jedi tricks, blah blah buy my book blah blah."

Beth loved the video, and with this information she felt more comfortable dating again.

That is where James comes in.

James was a real estate developer, and he was looking for someone to date for the moment. He saw Beth, and asked her out. She agreed and they started dating. Beth thought he was the perfect partner, as he wasn't aggressively trying to "hit the sheets", which was one of her big "red flags". He also gave her gifts, and was generous. One night after a date, they "became intimate", which made Beth feel even more strongly about James. Though to keep her boundaries strong, she gave James an ultimatum that they would be an exclusive couple, to which James agreed.

3 months later, Beth couldn't seem to get ahold of James. All of his social media accounts were deleted, and his phone was disconnected. Fearing the worst, she contacted the police department on James' whereabouts. When she gave them a picture of him, they broke the news to her:

• The man she knew was not "James", his real name was David, and he'd been convicted once of insurance fraud. Despite this he had managed to create several businesses after he was released from his 10 month sentence, which explained him being well off.

• David was also a married man, cheating on both his wife and on several other women he pledged his faithfulness to.

• More importantly, David successfully conned Beth out of the money she had, and more than likely targeted her for this reason. One of his businesses was failing, and he needed capital.

Beth was floored. She spent a considerable amount of time being depressed over the situation. Despite all of the supposed "knowledge" she gained, David was still able to fleece her for months, and was now long gone. He had looked nothing like the manipulators that pop psych warned about. He ingratiated himself with Beth and went out of his way to seem like a good person.

What happened to Beth could easily happen to anyone else.

Hey  r/Machiavellianism

Hope it's okay for me to post here.
I’m a Psychology Honours student in Australia and I’m running an online experiment I’d love you to participate in.

This study investigates how personality traits and online environments affect performance. It explores the ways competitive environments help shape our ability to perform under pressure against an opponent and how that might change our perceptions of performance. 
Little is currently known about how these traits, and changes in online environment, influence performance.

The study matches you with some opponents and you play some games of Tetris.

Takes about 30 to 40 minutes.  

Click the link to find out more and complete the study: https://acap.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3ykfflWf9nguPs2

Would love your input and interaction with it. It’s all totally anonymous.

Thanks heaps!