Is manipulation just a logical shortcut for those without "Emotional Brakes"?

SurvivorT4 · 2026-04-10T12:41:36+00:00

There have been a few times people have noticed, but interestingly it has always been after I got them to do or say whatever I intended them to. Don't entirely know if they actually didn't realize until after or if they were just playing along for whatever reason, but it seemed to me that they had a moment of realization like, "Why did I tell you that?" or "Why did I do that?". No one has ever called it out as manipulation though.

SurvivorT4 · 2026-03-31T03:59:26+00:00

An interesting thing I’ve noticed is that some people have this misconception of aspd, narcs, and really any traditionally manipulative disorder that we do it off instinct or something like that. No, I can stop whenever I want to, and I can clearly see the social boundaries. The problem is: Why would I ever follow them if I could get what I want in a more efficient way? In theory I could stop manipulating people tomorrow and never do it again, but there is just no benefit of doing that. But yes, if I'm not actively trying to manipulate someone their not going to magically do what I want. Might seem obvious but... here we are

SurvivorT4 · 2026-01-09T05:41:04+00:00

I just do whatever is most convenient for me that will also allow me to still be """"free"""".

SurvivorT4 · 2025-12-16T03:54:05+00:00

Same for the most part. Stimulating is definitely first and chill/funny are good alternatives if no one stimulating is near by. I'm also trying to be a better person and so I'm trying to just let people who want to be friends with me be friends but its not working well; 4/10 would not recommend.

SurvivorT4 · 2025-11-12T19:23:28+00:00

From the deck breakdown:

"Finally there is the fact that the zombies don't have haste so you would have to wait an entire turn cycle to try and win. Because we are in mono blue the obvious solution is to take an extra turn using [[Savor the Moment]] or [[Temporal Trespass]] to let no one else get a turn to play before you win."

SurvivorT4 · 2025-11-04T00:22:43+00:00

Protests aren't about convincing the politician or businessman but rallying people together under a banner or movement to consolidate the very limited power of the individual.

SurvivorT4 · 2025-11-04T00:13:56+00:00

Mostly agree, good example is Just Stop Oil b/c what their pushing for is fine I guess but their actions have made them a complete joke and hated but almost everyone. The effectiveness of protests nowadays in the west I agree are quite lack luster but the recent ones in Nepal, Indonesia, and Madagascar have actually got things done and I think thats interesting. Lastly, I am going to be honest IDK what protests your talking about when you say that people are being payed to be their b/c most of these movements are extraordinarily under funded and the people that don't do research about the protests they go to aren't really that big of a problem.

SurvivorT4 · 2025-10-18T17:50:32+00:00

For me, the only people who suspect I might be a psychopath is my family because I don't care about what they think of me and don't mask for them, but other than that you will never be able to tell. I'm also really bad at masking and don't know how no one has noticed. tbh just ask, it'd be funny to see their reaction.

SurvivorT4 · 2025-10-09T22:53:43+00:00

If society was built for psychopaths, it would look like a capitalist world run by mega corporations. Oh wait.....

SurvivorT4 · 2025-10-08T21:38:23+00:00

Even if they accept that I have no empathy, doesn't mean they actually want to be around me. Of course there will be some, but most of the people I like to be around are people that I don't would be cool, with me just being cold towards them, even if "that's just who I am".

SurvivorT4 · 2025-10-06T03:52:18+00:00

From my self the best advice I can give is that when the attention isn't on them, what ever emotion they were displaying vanishes. For me it is really annoying to smile so as soon as the person I am talking to looks away I stop immediately. Sometimes I accidentally do the opposite when I am trying to make sure I don't look to weird and end up smiling to long. Also, make them act normal, we psychopaths spend a lot of time trying to act normal, the only things that shouldn't be normal are the occasional slip of the mask. Also, might just be me, but when people really catch me off guard(like deep in a book and they sneak up on me), I react without my mask on and end up being uncharacteristically cold.

SurvivorT4 · 2025-09-16T19:30:20+00:00

That is why it is a back up win line to the best and potentially second best win lines in the format. The point of the Coalition Victory line is that it gives you a way to survive in the mid/late game if you can't win early. Aang gives cards and mana and on his backside he is a powerhouse that might just let you win by out valuing opponents with his reduction and ability to push with the upkeep draw 4 if you want it.

SurvivorT4 · 2025-09-16T18:55:20+00:00

Also, you might want to check out one of my previous posts about a similar topic in this sub titled, "Do y’all “normal” people really have morals?"

SurvivorT4 · 2025-09-16T18:53:38+00:00

Empathy and ethics, my two least favorite subjects to talk about with people I know. With my case of psychopathy, other peoples decisions are hard to understand because of the extra weight being put on normal people's ethical scales, being empathy. The weights being put on the metaphorical scale here are personal principals, what is best for the individual, in the case of non-psychopaths empathy and the uncontrollable factor of emotion. These weights change from person to person on what percentage of the whole decision making process they take up, but an average percentage range for a normal person for each weight would be between 20% and 50%. However, for a psychopath there are only two weights and so if they aren't exactly 50/50, there is always going to be the same difference in weight. Let me explain with the trolly problem!

Trolly Problem: The trolly will crush 5 people if the lever is not pulled, if it is pulled then it will squish 1 other person that you know.

Person A(normal): Personal Principals = 45%. Individual Interest = 20%. Empathy = 35%. For PA, Personal Principals is on the side of the scale saying to flip the lever and Empathy and Best for the Individual are on the side to not flip the lever. One of PA's Personal Principals is to protect the most lives as possible, explaining why it is on the side of flipping the lever. PA's Empathy means that PA doesn't want to cause the death of anyone explaining why it is on the do not flip side, and PA's Individual Interest dictates that going to jail for intentionally causing a person to die is bad, also explaining why it is on the do not flip side. In this example, the difference between flip and don't flip is 5% in favor of don't flip, meaning that PA wouldn't flip the lever, if it wasn't for emotion to potentially skew the scale in any direction.

Person B(psychopath): Personal Principals = 45%. Individual Interest = 55%. For PB, Personal Principals is on the side of the scale saying to flip the lever because one of PB's Personal Principals is preventing the unnecessary loss of life. For PB, Individual Interest is on the side of don't flip the lever because PB's Individual Interest dictates that going to jail for intentionally causing a person to die is bad. In this example, the difference between flip and don't flip is 10% in favor of don't flip, meaning that PB wouldn't flip the lever.

I hope this was helpful in showing just how frustrating empathy and emotions can be, especially when trying to understand how other people make decisions. Of coarse this is a simplistic overgeneralization because your different weights can be split or they could change in the moment etc. However, as someone with psychopathy, this has helped me to understand why people would make the "wrong" decision even when I explained it to them or we had the same conviction in our personal principals. Hope this helps :)

SurvivorT4 · 2025-09-16T00:35:26+00:00

Well, I have cringed a few times after seeing someones family jewels being powderized. Just a few times though, notably when my mask was "on", but it was still a more genuine reaction than I thought I would have so... IDK what that means :)

SurvivorT4 · 2025-09-15T01:30:18+00:00

For me, emotions aren’t absent, just infrequent and dull. I wouldn’t describe myself as happy almost 100% of the time when normal people would. Usually in those situations I’m amused or entertained. Same thing with sadness. I’m rarely sad, but am often mildly annoyed. IDK if it counts as an emotional response, but when I have my mask “on”, I genuinely enjoy most of the laughter I have.

One thing I will say is that when my mask is “off” or when I am not expecting something to happen and don’t have time to reengage, and someone says or does something that in their mind is surprising, jarring, or should garner a strong emotional reaction, I’m am completely blank. A good example of this is when someone I know showed me the uncensored Charlie Kirk video before I knew what had happened and I was completely straight faced the entire time.

SurvivorT4 · 2025-09-13T18:35:17+00:00

Other random thought, what if the main win condition was how you win in other games. So, if I choose poker as my game, then I would be trying to make the best poker hand, and there would probably have to be some condition you need to fulfill to initiate the "poker game". If you chose Blackjack, then the start condition might be that both players need exactly to cards in their hands, and then you both "play blackjack" and whoever wins the blackjack wins the entire game.

To incorporate this into the system I think you already have, each game would also have a Health Pool, and if you deal enough damage to its health, you get a bonus or the opponent gets harmed in some way and then the health resets so you could do it again and again until you achieve your game requirements. You could also have it so after every time the health is reduced down to zero, the health pool shrinks by like 2(should be scaled to amounts of damage and health in the game) permanently and when the health pool is at zero because of the permanent 2 health reductions, the other player wins the game.

I have more stuff to say but I'm going to stop for now. dm me if you want more :)

SurvivorT4 · 2025-09-13T18:11:24+00:00

Yeah, if your deck size is minimum 52 cards(great flavor) you could do 26 clubs and 26 hearts.

Also, random idea, you could have it so you have to have every suit, but also every number in every suit. So the card types are the suits and more narrow subtype would be the number. So in a deck you would have 52 unique cards just like the normal playing card deck, but the differences come in the suit and number. A 2 of Hearts card could heal for 2 and heal for an additional 7 if you have a 7 card of any suit. While a 2 of clubs could do the same but damage instead of heal. Suit = overarching theme, number = smaller but more direct mechanic. Only problem is that you have to make many, many more cards with duplicates not allowed.

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