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How to beat a manipulator

Updated Mar 28 2025

Conveniently, the strategies for dealing with sociopathic manipulators are the exact same, whether it’s a partner, a parent, a pastor, or a plutocrat. 🙃

  1. Get clear on your own will
  2. Watch where all the resources are going
  3. Watch actions, not their words
  4. Don’t try to out manipulate
  5. Apply the manipulator’s rules in reverse

Here’s the key: simply reverse the pronouns. When faced with a manipulator, everything he says about you, he is saying about himself, and everything he says about himself, is what he thinks of you. If he’s telling you you’re duplicitous and you’re a liar and you’re trying to take him for all he’s got, he’s actually saying he’s duplicitous and he’s a liar and he’s trying to take you for all you’ve got. If you have good grounds to believe you are being manipulated by someone, reverse the pronouns in your mind and let them tell you who they are. It works from personal relationships right up to the grand manipulators employed by the plutocrats. —Caitlin Johnstone, How To Beat A Manipulator

Read the whole thing, it’s a banger: How To Beat A Manipulator 🔥