No Stupid Questions

1000% I feel whenever someone has a connection with me i'm manipulating them, I'm diagnosed bipolar so I overthink things a lot sometimes.

Well, if I am, I'm really bad at it.

I can't convince a mouse to eat cheese.

I choose to handle this by not interacting with people.

If that's the case I'm a lousy one.

Literally all the time

No. I don't do any of this stuff and it has never occurred to me to do it.

No. I have not thought that.

Maybe reflect on how the other person is feeling with your comments and adapt if possible. Sometimes you can't. My SO grandma says racist stuff to me all the time and I just laugh inside. I could debate her but what value is there for me. She's on deaths door anyway. Grandma also used to trash talk mom until my SO said stop it. Those are examples of Just go with the flow or end the behavior that is causing stress.

Everyone manipulates everyone around them unknowingly all the time. Even altruistic behavior exists partly because it makes other people think good things about you.

Only if you'd stop all human contact would you stop that. We're built to want things (mostly sex+resources) from other people, and we're equipped to get it.

We also all have "dark" ("psychopathic") thoughts & behaviors that we're hiding, not only from others but also ourselves. Some people embrace them more than others, some people resist them more than others.

I can suggest The Moral Animal for deeper understanding.

As people are saying, a true psychopath might not even question themselves. That said, it is probably a spectrum and we all may have such tendencies - and I mean like 100% of the population, as a shared human condition, to lie somewhere on that spectrum. It seems a good thing to me to examine myself in that manner and maybe dial down, or perhaps even dial up, those things. Especially when others misuse the words, twisting them to suit their own perspectives - e.g. calling someone "unstable" if they want to escape them, the abuser.

Also there are generational differences, and even generational (and other) traps - e.g. a lot of older MAGA parents in the midwestern USA have been abandoned by their children, who want to do things like "take the vaccine" (which I chose to highlight the discussion since it is a decision involving fully literal life-and-death consequences, plus also likelihood of permanent brain damage, which is what we now know long-covid to be), so in such cases is it truly the children who are being "unstable" and "aggressive" to leave, or rather the fault of the parents who attempt to force their christofacist belief structures onto their children, leaving no room in the latter to have their own thoughts or desires?

These are complex, weighty matters, and won't be resolved quickly, but are good to think about regardless.

My wife, a psychologist, says that you could be a psychopath, but its much more likely you have borderline personality disorder or are on the austism spectrum

i don't because i don't meet the diagnostic criteria for ASPD

No. That's a very weird thing to wonder about and almost makes me think you might actually be a psycho.

With a name like Thorny_Insight, I imagine you’ve already accepted and internalized the possibility that your internally critical mindset is equally external. This doesn’t make you evil, it doesn’t make you awful to be around, it just means that you have embraced the personality that you currently question, even if it isn’t who you truly are.

The world is becoming a very different place and the personality you have is one which is constantly questioned by people that think what is good is conformity and acceptance of anything and everything. There is no reason you need to conform or accept everything at face value.

https://www.amazon.com/Gaslighting-Recognize-Manipulative-Emotionally-People/dp/0738284661/

The fact that you're bothered by the question rules-out your being a ( intrinsic/brain ) psychopath,

but mentally/abuse/culturally induced sociopathy is a thing ( I've some ),

and even that is beside the point.

Please invest in that excellent book & earn becoming ore whole.

_ /\ _

No, because I knowingly manipulate the people around me. I'm firmly against violence, including emotional and verbal violence, so I make the effort to manipulate people with misdirection and incentives rather than threats or punishment.

Every manipulates others all the time, whether they know it or not, whether they admit it or not. The important thing is to do it ethically, and how can you do that if you're not aware of the effects you have on others?

It's good that you are engaging in self-examination in this way. I might suggest that there's a difference between being honest and being blunt. Just because you refuse to lie does not mean you always need to tell the truth, rather that you only tell the truth. You're allowed to keep silent, to leave a true-but-painful confrontation unspoken.

Troll.