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If you’re thinking, “I would never manipulate anyone,” I have some bad news. Ever praised a dinner you didn’t love, or flattered someone right before asking for a favor? So where’s the line? Drew and I start with a philosopher who said you shouldn’t lie even to a murderer at your door, and the simple test he landed on years later that still holds up. We also get into whether to tell a friend you think they’re marrying the wrong person, how one checkbox turned almost an entire country into organ donors, and why the partner who feels like the underdog is the one most likely to play games. And why manipulation is sometimes even a love language.
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This is just CHAPTER 2 of our episode on Manipulation. New chapters drop every week, but the FULL episode is available NOW: https://youtu.be/bQ6HVg_RbnE
CHAPTERS
00:00:00 Introduction: Kant's Biohacker Routine and the Formula of Humanity
00:01:37 CHAPTER 1: The Enlightenment's Moral Problem and Kant's Solution
00:04:29 The Formula of Humanity: Treating People as Ends, Not Means
00:10:55 The Murderer at the Door: When Kant's Ethics Break Down
00:12:59 Consciousness, Agency, and Why Lying Violates Human Dignity
00:16:43 The Publicity Test: When Manipulation Becomes Acceptable
00:18:41 Transactional Relationships and the Organ Donor Nudge
00:25:14 Cicero, Machiavelli, and the Fox vs the Lion
00:29:35 The Practical Reality of Power: What Machiavelli Got Right
00:31:41 The Two Poles: Kantian Idealism vs Machiavellian Pragmatism
00:35:36 Dirty Hands: When Good People Must Do Bad Things
00:38:15 Abraham Lincoln and the Burden of Necessary Evil
00:40:26 The Danger of Self-Justification: From Lincoln to Stalin
00:43:19 Everyday Dirty Hands: Friends, Family Secrets, and White Lies
00:47:39 Consent and the Missing Piece of Kant's Framework
00:54:05 Power Dependency Theory: The Missing Link Between Kant and Machiavelli
00:59:11 The Paradox of Powerlessness: When Both Partners Feel Disempowered
01:00:29 Parenting, Power, and the Only Way to Win a Status Game
01:09:07 Chapter 2 Recap: The Publicity Test and Power Dynamics
01:11:06 Preview: Chapter 3 and the Tactics of Persuasion at Scale
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