This is not just corruption. Not just politics. Not even ordinary tyranny.
What we are living through is narcissistic abuse at a civilizational scale.
The playbook is not new. It comes straight out of the clinical handbook of psychological manipulation – the same tactics abusers use in private relationships, now deployed across nations. When seen in isolation, each move can be explained away. But when you string them together, a disturbing pattern emerges. This is psychological warfare disguised as governance.
The Three Stages of Control
Understanding the mechanics of manipulation on a large scale can be easier when we break it into stages:
Stage 1 – Brute Force:
This is the most obvious level of control. Power is asserted through direct means: physical force, harsh rules, or overt threats. At this stage, fear is immediate and unmistakable. People comply because resistance is dangerous. This is the stage most visible in history, in authoritarian regimes, or in personal relationships dominated by raw coercion.
Stage 2 – The Staged Enemy:
Once the brute force establishes authority, the manipulator begins to create external threats. This can take many forms: enemies, crises, or manufactured dangers. By positioning themselves as the rescuer, the controller makes people dependent on their guidance. Fear shifts from immediate punishment to a more subtle, strategic anxiety: “If I don’t follow, something terrible will happen.” Compliance becomes more psychological than physical.
Stage 3 – Subtle Manipulation:
At this point, the controller no longer needs visible enemies or brute force. Psychological techniques alone are enough to direct behaviour. People are convinced, persuaded, and conditioned to act according to the manipulator’s will – sometimes without even realizing it. Gaslighting, narrative control, moral licensing, and intermittent reinforcement dominate. Fear is no longer the only tool; desire, confusion, loyalty, and social conditioning do the work. The controlled act as though they choose freely, yet their actions still serve the orchestrator.
These stages show a disturbing evolution: from visible force to strategic fear, to near-invisible influence. Recognizing these phases helps individuals and societies identify manipulation before it becomes total control.
The Tactics of Narcissistic Manipulations
Gaslighting the Masses
The first weapon is gaslighting: the deliberate distortion of reality until you begin to doubt your own perception.
You say, they are taking our freedoms. They reply, you are safe for now.
You say, the economy is collapsing. They insist, it’s stronger than ever.
Even the news itself becomes theatre. Reports are filmed in studios, with staged sets standing in for battlefields. At first, they justify it – we couldn’t reach the hotspot, so we reconstructed it. But the next step is more sinister: inventing scenes that never existed. Movies presented as news blur the line between fiction and fact, until you no longer trust your own eyes.
The point is not to convince you. The point is to make you question your own sanity. A population that doubts its senses is easy to control.
Informational Isolation
Isolation is another key tactic. In a personal relationship, it means cutting you off from friends and family. At the civilizational level, it means controlling the flow of information.
Censorship, deplatforming, and narrative policing ensure you only hear their version of events. The walls are not physical, but informational. This is called informational isolation – and it is every bit as suffocating as a locked door.
Projection and Accusation Inversion
Next comes accusation inversion, a classic narcissistic move. The abuser accuses the victim of the very behavior they are guilty of.
When authorities strip away basic rights, they label you the extremist for wanting them back. When they undermine democracy, they accuse you of being anti-democratic. This is psychological projection at the scale of nations. In abuse psychology, it’s called DARVO: deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender.
Coercive Control of Resources
Control the resources, and you control survival.
Food supply, energy grids, money, digital assets – dependencies are created so that you cannot live without permission. It is like being kept on a leash where every step forward depends on the one holding the chain. The message is clear: you will eat, work, and move only if we allow it.
Intermittent Reinforcement
Perhaps the most insidious technique is intermittent reinforcement. Restrictions are tightened until people break, then loosened briefly, offering small wins. The victim feels relief, even gratitude, toward the very hand that caused the suffering.
Entertainment itself becomes part of this cycle. It feels like a continuation of the school system – where you are given only a short recess, a taste of freedom, before being locked back into silence, obedience, and topics chosen for you. Movement, voice, and expression are permitted only in small, controlled doses.
Behavioural psychology shows this is the most addictive form of control. It keeps people hooked, always hoping the next “reward” will last.
Character Assassination & Flying Monkeys
When you resist, your character is destroyed. You’re called unstable, dangerous, or mentally ill.
In abuse dynamics, this is DARVO again, amplified by “flying monkeys” – enablers who defend the abuser and attack the victim on their behalf. At the societal level, these are politicians, media figures, influencers, and even family members parroting the official line, shaming you for questioning it.
Benevolent Framing & Moral Licensing
Every abusive act is wrapped in benevolent framing: We do it for your safety. We do it for your health. We do it for the planet.
This is moral licensing – justifying unethical behaviour under the guise of noble intentions. The cruelty is cloaked in virtue, making resistance appear selfish or immoral.
The Endgame – Breaking the Will
The ultimate goal is not necessarily to kill, but to break the will. Most of the time the target is the spirit, the inner fire that makes people free.
In a personal relationship, you would call this abuse and leave. You could pack your things, walk out the door, and reclaim your life. In a societal relationship, the exits are far harder to find – because the abuser doesn’t just lock the doors, they build the entire house. They own the streets you travel, control the phone lines you speak through, and print the maps you follow. Even the signs, the paths you rely on are designed to keep you inside. Every route to freedom is monitored, every step constrained, and every voice filtered. Escape is not just difficult – it feels impossible, because the very framework of your world has been engineered to make you compliant.
The cage is not made of bars, but of perception.
Legal Immunity – The Untouchables
At the very top of the pyramid sits another layer of abuse: legal immunity. Those in power grant themselves the license to kill without ever answering to anyone. Cloaked in authority, they claim to “know what they are doing,” so whatever they do is deemed justifiable.
Even when their actions lead to the deaths of millions, no one questions them. Not the courts, not the press, not the institutions that claim to uphold law and ethics. What would bring a regular person before a judge is excused for the powerful as “necessary,” “strategic,” or “for the greater good.” In this way, accountability itself is inverted – and impunity becomes their final weapon.
The Way Out – Naming the Abuse
But here is the secret: the spell is only as strong as our silence.
The only way out is to start naming the abuse. Once you see the tactics, you can’t unsee them. And when enough people recognize the pattern, the illusion collapses. The relationship ends.
Today, the power of exposure is in our hands. Every phone, every dashcam, every camera becomes a witness. What might never reach the mainstream news can still appear on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and countless other platforms. By filming, sharing, and documenting what we see, we create a web of evidence that cannot be ignored. The more people who see, hear, and understand these abuses, the faster the spell of control weakens. Small acts of documentation and sharing build collective awareness, and when awareness spreads, the grip of the abuser begins to loosen.
Closing Quotes:
“When enough eyes see, enough voices speak, the illusion crumbles, and the people reclaim their sovereignty.”
“When the spell is named, the spell is broken. And when the spell is broken, the people are free.”
“Awareness is the spark; action fans it into a fire the abuser cannot extinguish.”
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