Are people like that born, or made? Not an original question but it comes to mind almost everyday, because I marvel at the manipulative skills these people possess. I lack both the desire and the necessary skills to control other people, so it fascinates me. Why? How?
Are people like that born, or made? Not an original question but it comes to mind almost everyday, because I marvel at the manipulative skills these people possess. I lack both the desire and the necessary skills to control other people, so it fascinates me. Why? How?
Normally made. Someone I once knew very well (or so I thought) turned out to be a pathological liar. It appears to have been nurtured as a survival skill from a youth of shitty parenting. This clearly applies to Trump.
I read Mary TrumpтАЩs book about her uncle. It did seem like a cold, aloof family. IтАЩm often fascinated by people who emerge from those unfortunate upbringings with a reasonably healthy personality. That clearly doesnтАЩt apply to Trump.
I guess IтАЩm surprised how widespread the evil power of manipulation is practiced with skill; all the Trump sycophants have it, itтАЩs not just him. Scott Atlas, the radiologist who commandeered the Covid strategy is but one example. ThereтАЩs another irritating figure whose name I canтАЩt recall; lied all the time with great aggression. So many!
So, there's actually a few different types here. The pathological liars have to be smart enough to keep their stories straight. Trump isn't, so he's a pathological bullshitter, which makes him trickier to deal with.
The bullshitters are the carnival barkers. They make great talk radio hosts as long as they have a good call screener. These people are usually having one-way conversations with friendly crowds, and limit their one-on-one dialogs to sympathetic ears. They say whatever they want because they can expect not to be called out on it. Once in a while Trump gets the itch to prove himself in front of real journalists (without an audience) and it never goes well. He can't handle the confrontation and generally looks like a fool.
People like Atlas are different. They're the contrarians. The people so convinced they're right when everyone else in their knowledge field disagrees with them тАУ in fact, even moreso *because* everyone disagrees with them. They have a chip on their shoulder and think they're the Albert Einstein of their field тАУ because they think other physicists thought Einstein was crazy (they didn't). They believe what they're saying, though.
As far as the manipulation goes, I hate to say this, but I think most of us would probably be better at it than we'd like to believe, if we really felt we needed to. Just think about all of the thoughts and impulses we suppress, the little white lies we tell in order to maintain a general aura of civility. And it all requires people skills: the ability to read a room, to understand what motivates people, what triggers them, what they respond well to, etc. Which is fine.
But if you abandon honestly as a general virtue, you lose a sense of guilt and shame about being deceptive, and you can use those skills for outright manipulation. That's why people say Trump's superpower is his shamelessness тАУ that's the difference between persuading and manipulating. Any politician could do what he does if they lacked a conscience. Most of us could, I imagine.
It helps if you view yourself as smart and everyone else as a sucker. Because if you are willing to lie, cheat and steal to get what you want, you can always find people who will believe you. Just like some of the right wing nut cases who make money telling gullible people it's okay to be racist and anti feminist and ant gay. There are folks eager for someone to give them permission to hate and they will swallow any lie and will also give the huckster their hard earned money.
Are people like that born, or made? Not an original question but it comes to mind almost everyday, because I marvel at the manipulative skills these people possess. I lack both the desire and the necessary skills to control other people, so it fascinates me. Why? How?
Normally made. Someone I once knew very well (or so I thought) turned out to be a pathological liar. It appears to have been nurtured as a survival skill from a youth of shitty parenting. This clearly applies to Trump.
I read Mary TrumpтАЩs book about her uncle. It did seem like a cold, aloof family. IтАЩm often fascinated by people who emerge from those unfortunate upbringings with a reasonably healthy personality. That clearly doesnтАЩt apply to Trump.
I guess IтАЩm surprised how widespread the evil power of manipulation is practiced with skill; all the Trump sycophants have it, itтАЩs not just him. Scott Atlas, the radiologist who commandeered the Covid strategy is but one example. ThereтАЩs another irritating figure whose name I canтАЩt recall; lied all the time with great aggression. So many!
So, there's actually a few different types here. The pathological liars have to be smart enough to keep their stories straight. Trump isn't, so he's a pathological bullshitter, which makes him trickier to deal with.
The bullshitters are the carnival barkers. They make great talk radio hosts as long as they have a good call screener. These people are usually having one-way conversations with friendly crowds, and limit their one-on-one dialogs to sympathetic ears. They say whatever they want because they can expect not to be called out on it. Once in a while Trump gets the itch to prove himself in front of real journalists (without an audience) and it never goes well. He can't handle the confrontation and generally looks like a fool.
People like Atlas are different. They're the contrarians. The people so convinced they're right when everyone else in their knowledge field disagrees with them тАУ in fact, even moreso *because* everyone disagrees with them. They have a chip on their shoulder and think they're the Albert Einstein of their field тАУ because they think other physicists thought Einstein was crazy (they didn't). They believe what they're saying, though.
As far as the manipulation goes, I hate to say this, but I think most of us would probably be better at it than we'd like to believe, if we really felt we needed to. Just think about all of the thoughts and impulses we suppress, the little white lies we tell in order to maintain a general aura of civility. And it all requires people skills: the ability to read a room, to understand what motivates people, what triggers them, what they respond well to, etc. Which is fine.
But if you abandon honestly as a general virtue, you lose a sense of guilt and shame about being deceptive, and you can use those skills for outright manipulation. That's why people say Trump's superpower is his shamelessness тАУ that's the difference between persuading and manipulating. Any politician could do what he does if they lacked a conscience. Most of us could, I imagine.
It helps if you view yourself as smart and everyone else as a sucker. Because if you are willing to lie, cheat and steal to get what you want, you can always find people who will believe you. Just like some of the right wing nut cases who make money telling gullible people it's okay to be racist and anti feminist and ant gay. There are folks eager for someone to give them permission to hate and they will swallow any lie and will also give the huckster their hard earned money.
Nature or Nurture? In Trump s case?
Glib answer: In Trump's case, Nature and Nurture.
In TrumpтАЩs case IтАЩd say nature and nurture have been inextricably fused in the matter transporter from the Fly.
Long live David Cronenberg!