It's pretty likely they'll understand exactly what you mean, emotional manipulation tactics are timeless so they'll prolly be like "oh yeah there was this asshole my sister met who was like that, never liked him, pompous arsehole"
Back then it was called torch lighting because each day you’d light 1 fewer torches.
Yah I don't get this post at all.
Explain things that have been around as long as we've had language and probably since before?
Explaining cars might be a little more difficult, but still people have had gears and metal and basic mechanical devices for thousands of years, so both OP and the OP of the text are not firing on all cylinders if they think you wouldn't be able to relate these concepts to someone from any point in the history of society.
Furthermore, it sounds like OP of the image is snarky and pissed that someone might have accused him of narcissism, and he's trying to devalue the words used to accuse him of using these tactics and wave it all off as silly or worthless. A classic narcissist response btw.
And I read it that this was transparently the joke
Imagine the intensity of narcissistic behavior during the Middle Ages, when some people were superior due to divine birthright. Imagine breeding only with your own extended family to keep the bloodline pure, and thinking that was a natural stroke of brilliant strategizing.
You think the priests and nobles didn't gaslight each other all the time with this framework in place? Now imagine the rest of the population, because being accused of things like heresy and witchcraft seem like the ultimate level of gaslighting.
Thankfully, the invention of the printing press was right around the corner. Then it was only a matter of time before the ideas of men like Newton, Franklin, Voltaire and Rousseau spread like wildfire among the population, and this medieval religious tyranny lost its' monopoly on power.
Thankfully, now we have a system where owners of intangible assets are deemed superior by their inheritance (birthright) and economists gaslight the people who actually work for their money, calling them lazy and not productive enough instead. Its a TOTALLY different thing, we promise.
Humanity found out about gods tragic accident in 1882. So, instead of God, they now worship work and the rich.
Take that God! That'll teach them to be dead on us.
Then it was only a matter of time before the ideas of men like Newton, Franklin, Voltaire and Rousseau spread like wildfire among the population
Ah yes, the famous Newtonian peasant revolt
like wildfire
More like a geriatric snail tbh
Umm, lovebombing?
Often used by cults, to indoctrinate new people. The act of showering someone with positive attention in order to get them to be more receptive to whatever you want them to do.
Works especially well on people who are starved for this kind of love and attention, like for example, runaways, or victims of abuse.
Essentially nuanced manipulation tactics.
To expand on what the others mentioned, it can be used to lure a victim of abuse back to their abuser or soften them up for the next blow.
I won't talk about the specifics of how I know this phenomenon, but the rough pattern usually looks something like this. I'll use the "narrative I" for the position of the abuser, because that feels more comfortable to write.
Imagine I'm some person of authority or admiration, be that a parent, a cult leader, a partner, a friend, or even a boss at work. You care about my approval and support, whether out of dependency, affection or convictions. The exact motivations may differ: You may be dependent on a parent's support even as an adult or hold the conviction that you have to love your parents no matter what. Your cult may (and usually will) have isolated you from other social contacts. Your boss used to be really nice or even a friend and maybe still is, outside of work. Whatever the reason, you want me to like you.
If I treat you like shit, make demands, then punish your disobedience by withdrawing affection, support and approval, that hurts in one way or another. You're used to my affection, perhaps relying on something I'm giving you or some promise I made, and suddenly that has been taken away.
Once it starts to relent and you get used to the new "normal"¹, I suddenly start "loving" you again, maybe giving you nice things, saying nice things, promising nice things. If I'm an estranged parent, a partner or a friend, I might suggest doing something nice together, meet you for coffee, a lunch or drinks - my treat - to chat, ask how things are going, sympathise with your struggles, offer to help, promise you to cover that expensive repair of your car. I reassure you that things will work out, I praise you for things you're doing well, validate where you're insecure, hit all the right buttons to make you feel better. A boss might praise your performance, make a point of talking you up while you're in earshot, promise a raise etc. A cult leader might restore whatever grace you have fallen from, promise salvation, pray for you or whatever else passes for approval and support in the cult.
Most people are suckers for nice things, and even if you tell yourself you'll just take the nice things and not trust me any further, you're still receptive to what I say...
...until the next punch (whether emotional or physical) comes. I express disapproval with something you're doing that I want you to stop, request your help, disparage your partner of many years, make decisions on your behalf, ask you to work overtime "just this once", expect you to follow along with some cult activity, whatever may fit the given dynamic.
You might (reluctantly) obey at first - that's the price you pay for the nice things, but so far, it's still worth it - until the demands start tallying up and the rewards diminish¹.
I totally forgot to send you the money for that repair, I'll do it later, but right now I need you to help me with this thing. The raise is being held up on formalities, but I'm sorting it out and it should be coming by the next quarter. In the meantime, could you look into this? I just don't have the time or energy to do this right now, but I promise, I'll do it when I have the time.
You get the picture.You start reevaluating pain vs. gain. Is it still worth it? Eventually, you're fed up. You start making excuses why you're not doing some thing, your work ethic declines, you become dispassionate, withhold whatever validation I'm expecting of you. I get angry with how ungrateful you are. you can pay the damn repair yourself if you can't even do this "little" thing for me, I'm not giving you that money while you're with that partner or hang out with that friwnd who I'm convinced is only out to take your (my)² money. The raise is off the table. You'll go to hell.
I won't entirely cut you out, of course, while you're still useful to me (or I expect you will be at some point). You don't entirely cut me off because of the reasons mentioned earlier, because you hope I'll turn around again some day. And so the cycle repeats.
From the outside, it's easy to say "just leave". It's often the reasonable solution in the long term. But emotions are complex, change is scary and sometimes, it's easier to stay with the devil you know.
[1]: If I'm particularly canny, I'll push that line in such small increments that you barely even notice it's creeping and you're getting less and less. Just one more poisonous comment you have to endure, one more loaded question, one slight annoyance at not having read my after-hours email yet (I won't say that I'd expect you to, but my face says enough). You dismiss it, but it leaves you slightly more drained every time.
[2]: Particularly with abusive parents or partners, there's a phenomenon where they'll consider you their property, and by extent, everything they give you is actually still theirs to take back at any time.
explain cars?
"so basically we had the technology to make electric carriages that make basically no noise and are about as safe as one drawn by a horse, but instead we made them billow smoke so all the kids get asthma and then to put the kids out of their misery we made them go 70 km/h down residential streets. This is considered perfectly fine and not anything to worry about, since it means people get to work 50 seconds faster and thus they get to spend more time staring at a device that sucks away their will to live."
basically no noise
Cars generate most of their noise from rolling when at road speed.
Given roads are stationary they have no speed and therefore road speed generates no noise
I think the reason electric cars didn't become popular was because they didn't make any noise. If you buy a brand new luxury item like a motorcar you want people to know you have it, so a spluttering engine was more popular than a quiet electric one.
Batteries were pretty rough at the time I'd imagine. I know that certain niches did use electric cars historically. Milk trucks in Britain for example were known to be electric.
So the peasant ended up in hell for stealing a spoonful of buckwheat?
I'll take hell, then.
I’ll take heaven for the weather, but hell for the buckwheat
Oh, that pos is the worst, are you forced to talk to him?
Aw don't be mean to Geoff! Dude can't help being a bit backwards. His entire family died of plague and rooting for the 7th Crusade was maybe not great but it was a product of his time!
Just meet him on his terms you know? He likes board games. Challenge him to a game of Nine Men's Morris and he'll stop being such a downer.
(lol)
You may have a point.
But Im yanking that spoon right out of his peasant mouth if he'll keep spewing those dry ass buckweed seeds all over the board game.And don't tell me it's not a bit suspicious how all of his family, even the rats and the fleas from his house, are in heaven, but not Geoff. He's here. Explaining to be how we should make v Jerusalem great again. And that literally eating a non-Christian child or two is an acceptable means to that end.
You are right tho, we should be kind and make the best of the situation. It could be worse, in fact Bill has it worse, he really got screwed last week when he spun the penance wheel & got the task to teach Geoff how C++ works and make him solo dev a modern furry rpg game.
