I Just LLLOOOVVVEEE Manipulative People!

Don't you? I know I just blew up your sarcasm detector but they make everyone's life worse by lying and manipulating the situation, basically doing anything to gain their advantage. I see it all the time. I try not to be manipulative because I have learned that honesty and patience works just as well for me. We all have to be this way from time to time, you know, little lies to not hurt a friends feelings, but there are some where it seems to be a calling.

I just finished the Patricia Cornwell book “Red Mist.” I like some of her writing, especially anything about forensics. But, there is a definite formula with her books and with this one there is about 1/6th of the book where Dr. Kay Scarpetta is musing that she does not like to be manipulated. Yeah, me neither, but you do not need to say it over and over. It was atrocious book padding but it certainly got me thinking about manipulative people. A few examples are: the overzealous and bureaucratic HOA manager, the neighbor who looks like a nice old lady but..., and a certain person who will not let the matter go when you tell them no, and then wants to analyze the previous conversation. That is just the tip of the iceberg.

I had an ex-boyfriend who said he drove better high than most people drove sober and would not wear a seat belt because it would wrinkle his clothes. Yeah, I should have kicked him to the curb long before I did, and I always wore my seatbelt with him and did not let him drive high, but I was in love. Love is a great emotion, when you are in love with someone reasonable. When they are selfish and manipulative, love is hell. When you break up with them, man, they will try any guilt-inducing thing in their play book. More hell.

I also have seen it in science. A great read about manipulation of data in science is “Intuition” by Allegra Goodman. Everyone wants a positive result to be real, and that is how the manipulators gain their advantage. They fake the result which makes the result not repeatable and holds science back.

Oh yeah, and in sports there are people like Lance Armstrong... Need I say more?

So, why would I put in that rather disgusting quote in the top of the blog? The image is from imgace.com. Because Hitler was just saying what a lot of people (especially in Washington) are doing. To quote a much better yet fictional person, Lisa Simpson said:

“The city of Washington was built on a stagnant swamp some 200 years ago,

and very little has changed.  It stank then, and it stinks now.”

That episode did end with a happy ending where the politicians actually did their jobs, but I feel that this statement is the most honest thing I have heard about D.C. It is both Democrat's and Republican's lying seems that is standard operating procedure. This is not exactly news. I say this because this Hitler meme was shared on Facebook recently. I am assuming it was shared to complain about our current President Obama. The funny thing is, I think the biggest lie said to the American people and the world in recent history was during the Bush Administration. You know what I am talking about: the billion dollar Iraq lie. So, the Hitler quote is gold for any and all politicians and manipulators. Any truthful person would go insane in D.C. Everyone does it, blames the other party and then acts all innocent when being called manipulative. Here is a prime example:

I am sorry but I think the Republicans are also (if not more) hysterical. Every one of these could be applied to the Conservative tactics or “faith,” whatever you want to call it. In fact this looks to me like a manipulation handbook for politics. The only pillar that is missing is Gerrymandering. Only this cartoonist is also trying to have a go at the Muslim faith. Creepy.

Political cartoons and satire can be used extremely well to make a point or they can do what that person did above. This is an opinion of mine, that the line can be very easily crossed from satire to manipulation. Please keep in mind that writing fiction is a “safe” form of lying. Still, like science, you have to be very careful in your work. I certainly try to be, perhaps that is why my next book is going to take five years to write. Well, that and the fact that I am lazy. At least I am being honest.