THIS Is What People Say to Manipulate and Hurt YOU! Toss Them Out of YOUR Life!

Manipulators - whether female or male - have mastered the art of influencing other people to perfection. One could almost say that they let people in their environment dance on invisible strings like puppets in a puppet theater. Of course, there are better and worse ones here, too. Some of these strategists profit enormously from the weak self-esteem of their fellow men. Here often a single offhand compliment is sufficient to harness someone for their purposes. Still others are much more skillful in their intentions and spin a meticulously thought-out web of tall tales, positive reinforcement and emotional blackmail. These "advanced" manipulators are eventually able to deceive their entire environment and get away with any story, no matter how cinematic and audacious. The path from psychological and emotional manipulation to fraud and deliberate deception is sometimes a very short one. In this article, we'll show you 6 phrases and strategies that should put you on alert. Someone here doesn't mean well with you.

1. The cold shoulder

This strategy is called "Silent Treatment", which is not an accurate literal translation. Basically, manipulators here just leave their victims out in the cold. They don't answer calls or text messages and go into hiding for days or even weeks. In a relationship, stonewalling is done for all it's worth and passive aggressive silence is the order of the day. Refusing to talk to someone is a particularly nasty form of belittling. It essentially means they don’t find you worthy of an answer, in the truest sense of the word. The person on the receiving end of this silence is left to wild speculation. At some point, the one punished with silence is convinced that he has made a mistake. The strangest things then suddenly occur to him or her why the manipulator would have every reason to be angry. Silent treatment works in the same way. One creates artificial silence, so that the counterpart must torment himself with self-doubts and self-reproaches. At some point, the victims are convinced that they are the only ones to blame for the current state of affairs and would do anything, really anything, to be back in the other person's good graces. This is how cunning narcissists and Machiavellians always manage to get people to apologize to them for things they actually did. Sounds crazy, and it is. But above all, this tactic is for going crazy in the literal sense.

2. "You should do it because..."

This level of manipulation is still quite harmless and therefore very often not recognized as such. The string-pullers among us love detail. They could not otherwise maintain their facades and their fragile constructions of lies and tactical maneuvers. So they always provide elaborate justifications with why their counterpart should do this or that for them. At first, the arguments will still be plausible. After all, manipulators have a good eye and an even more sure hand for choosing people with weak self-confidence and little self-love for their little jokes. Manipulators are masters in talking themselves out of their heads rather than acting against their principles. These mainly provide for one thing, total control over their fellow man. Even such harmless errands as taking out the garbage or shopping are used as a playground for their sinister dodges. Winning each of these trifles for themselves is a victory on points for them. It's not really about shopping or other to-dos in any way. It's purely about scoring again. It's a game to them and it often takes us a very, very long time to see through that. Over time, however, their reasons become more and more specious, to the point of being threatening and aggressive. The ultimate "because I want it that way" is the precursor to the ultimatum.

3. "But you're so good at it".

Handing out compliments like candy to good children is stage 1 of the diabolical goings-on of manipulative contemporaries. Most people see through such superficial praise immediately, thank goodness. Nevertheless, everybody feels flattered. But since toxic personalities are always on the lookout for willing victims and thus easy prey, they always do well with this flimsy tactic, which in addition requires absolutely no creative genius.

4. "I'm afraid I can't. Can you please take over?"

Narcissists, manipulators, toxic fellow human beings and pathological liars are also excellent masters of the victim role. In this way, they appeal to our willingness to help and to the good nature of others. Also this tactic can be seen through with a little knowledge of human nature fast, above all for outsiders. This feigning of weakness and helplessness rules, freeing the utterer from making their contribution.

5. "What, you still haven't done that?"

Delivered in an appropriately dramatic tone, one might immediately panic as an unsuspecting victim in the face of this verbal message. Hardly anything sounds more alarming than an accusation made in this way. It immediately gives the impression that something important has been missed, a deadline overshot, damage done that cannot be repaired. Moreover, this wording communicates quite clearly that there was, is and will be only one person responsible for this to-do. Thus, the burden of responsibility, the burden of execution, and the risk over success and failure is sovereignly offloaded onto a single pair of shoulders. This verbiage is psychological torture of the worst kind.

6. "You'd be better off doing this"

Now here is where the ultimate threat and ultimatum come into play. When coercion and intimidation have become the means of choice, the highest level of alarm is indicated. At this point, the situation sometimes already escalates and the manipulator threatens consequences if we do not follow his dictates. A very popular weapon in this context is the threat to leave the partner; toxic contemporaries quite cleverly combine emotional blackmail with tangible coercion. Fear also plays a role, of course, and not infrequently aggression of a verbal and physical nature is a sad accompaniment to this level of escalation. Such harassment often begins very harmlessly. Nevertheless, any form of blackmail is a point that should not be tolerated in any interpersonal relationship, even in the workplace.

Today’s Conclusion: how to get off the fishing hook?

Skillful manipulation often ends up as tangible psychological terror. What begins with small favors and concessions not infrequently ends in a years-long regime of terror and violence. Of course, not every person who likes to let others go over the edge necessarily has a hand for violence in him. But it is always significant when someone lets his fellow human beings dance like puppets and manipulates them by every trick in the book. Relationships that lack respect and appreciation stand out here. Instrumentalizing employees, friends or partners like cheap slaves or serfs is in no context the basis for a healthy togetherness. As soon as the first signs of manipulation become apparent, clear boundaries should be set and, if possible, escape should be made. The only chance to win against toxic fellow human beings is not to play along. That's it for today.