Manipulative people are all around us. By mastering the art of deception, we aren’t even able to spot them in a crowd, nor are we able to actually shield ourself from their mind games and the facade they put on their face for us to never know their true colors.
Their manipulative, selfish nature always ends up going unnoticed. We realize too late that we have been nothing but a puppet for the manipulator in our life to control us and do whatever they want.
To help you out and to make sure that everyone understands how important it is to run away from these kinds of people, I’m giving you a few extremely common traits of manipulative people:
1. They show passive-aggressive behavior
More often than not, manipulative people are passive-aggressive. You won’t even know what went wrong and what happened and why they aren’t talking to you, they are just trying to get things their way.
Being passive-aggressive only has two possible outcomes: the first one is that you get mad at them for their behavior or, secondly, their behavior will turn them into a victim where you will run around and do whatever is needed to make the situation right again.
In both of those scenarios, the manipulator is actually getting what they wanted from you.
2. They will pressure you
A manipulative person will pressure you into thinking or doing things that you are not ready for. The things they are pressuring you into doing probably don’t have any benefits for them rather than a good time.
It has come to be more and more often that men pressure women into having sex or having a certain mindset that appeals to them.
This also applies to your group of friends; if your ‘friend’ tries to pressure you into doing something you’re not a huge fan of, then you have a manipulator right in front of you.
3. They insult you and others
It’s not the same as when you’re in a group of friends and you’re all joking around and making fun of each other in a joking way but a manipulative person takes it all to another level where you won’t even know what’s happening.
They’re rude and aggressive by nature and it doesn’t matter how emotional and fragile you might be, they won’t stop because of it.
A manipulator apparently thinks that it’s very cool to bring others down and make them feel miserable.
4. They never take the blame
Something very special in the land of manipulators is the way they project their own faults on to someone else without even feeling a bit guilty about it.
It’s just like all those times you did a project together with someone and if something failed they put the blame on you, even though you didn’t have anything to do with it.
They simply don’t know how to take the blame and deal with the consequences, they would rather fight all day and put the blame on someone else, even if the problem is really small.
5. They have never heard about boundaries
Manipulative people have the urge to constantly cross the boundaries of other people in order to make themself feel superior. Success and satisfaction are much more important in their eyes than the well-being of other people.
That’s why they simply don’t care if they are going to hurt someone while getting to their goal, as all they can see is the goal itself.
6. They induce guilt
Something that happens very often in relationships with manipulators is that they make the other person feel guilty for taking some alone time or simply walking away for a while, because it does get exhausting.
If your boyfriend is a manipulator, he will make you feel guilty for going out with your girlfriends and he’ll tell you that you love them more than him or that you don’t care about him at all or maybe even that you are never even there for him.
7. They mold the truth to their advantage
Well, a manipulator will tell you the truth, but… is it all the complete truth? No. Manipulators tend to tell you a half-truth that benefits them better for whatever reason.
The weirdest thing about it is that they don’t even think of their behavior as bad so they continue.
In their world, it’s better to mold the truth than to tell a straight-up lie—but let’s be honest, it’s kind of the same thing in the end.