Table of Contents
Who are shrewd people?
Shrewd people with a dark triad(a combination of three dark psychological traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) always want to take an authoritative position over anyone. Authorities are always respected, and they set the rule. These rules are to be accepted by others without question. For example, the constitution is an authority in a country that every citizen must obey without question.
So, shrewd people are power-hungry people, and vice versa. They want to prove that they are always right and that they are always on a high moral ground than others. One of the keys to power-mongering is guilt and shame tripping others. When shrewd people with dark psychology make you believe that you have committed a great sin and mistake, your thinking capacity gets impaired, you feel low, and you are not in a position to rationally analyze the situation if it is truly you who is at fault here.
They are also loaded with negative energy and are often extremely aggressive, literally running a road roller on your feelings. After that, you do not want to irk them. Hence you become ready to anything they say, and sorry is just the beginning.
Who are some of the common shrewd people around us?
1. Self-proclaimed police or moral authority.
2. Rank low-life bosses whose career ladder has grown by politics, bootlicking, and crushing other talents.
3. Agitators and Activists.
4. Rank low-life, low self-esteem, and ego-defended individuals(often the ones with poor academics and low intellectual abilities, with limited survival skills).
5. People with low accountability(they always talk about intentions and responsibilities, but not action, outcome, and accountability).
Such people always are the first to snatch the credit and last(mostly never) to accept their mistakes.
What common situations do shrewd people latch onto for demanding an apology?
1. Hurting their sentiment.
2. Saying things against their worldview.
3. to show you their power.
4. Lowering you in the frame to dominate you.
5. They may invent any situations or, with their politics and drama, create any situations to guilt-trip you.
When someone passive-aggressively and indirectly always try to act like a savior, or/and try to suggest how horrible your life would have been without them, and/or how you have started improving after you have come under them, and/or how they have not seen as talented or intelligent as you(means your intelligence now need their validation), you must become alert that you are dealing with a shrewd person.
Why must you never apologize to shrewd people?
Why do we apologize?
E.If you have self-esteem and awareness of your actions, you might have observed that soon when your actions hurt others, you always apologize for your own will. We are all humans, and we make mistakes. When we are aware, we accept our mistakes and try to improve our actions. Not accepting our mistakes and not being able to see that our actions may have damaging consequences for society at large may lead us to several dangerous situations in life. The key to a successful life is recognizing our bad actions and rectifying them. An apology is our way of telling ourselves and reminding ourselves that we have done something wrong.
Particularly apology is an important element of your character when you end up hurting people with lesser power than you, like children. They respect you more if you apologize for your undesirable action against them.
Why demanding an apology is a manipulation?
Just like any manipulation tool, apology pits you into a submissive frame. Manipulator doesn’t stop there, and the demand for apology increases.
Remember, people with high self-esteem do not demand an apology. Because they value differences of opinion and are empathetic to mistakes, they either will show you with actions that they are unhappy or will tell you.
Anything natural doesn’t have to be demanded and anything that is demanded is not natural
DON’T APOLOGISE
Next time when a low-life DEMANDS apology, say do not react. They will continue to press forward to get your apology but do not apologize. At most, you may say that I regret if my actions had unwanted consequences.
But, they say sorry all the time?
Often you will observe that shrewd people say sorry for anything and everything, which are mundane issues, such as being late 10 minutes or forgetting it is your birthday. However, they would never say sorry for their reactions and behaviors, such as when they rage, shout, scream or spy on you. They will always defend and justify their undesirable behaviors or divert the topics, often guilt-tripping you for questioning or doubting them.
What to do if someone keeps raging while demanding an apology?
Rage, or anger outbursts, are core-generated reactions that are hallmarks of people who internally hate themselves. They are insecure and vulnerable. Anything that they dislike irks them. Their rage existed even before you and would exist even after you. You are neither the reason for their rage nor are you responsible for such rage. This comes from harnessing negativity for over decades and living in frustration. Negative shrewd people always believe that they deserve more than what they have and that the world is playing a game with them when it is, in reality, another way around.
How can you be responsible for someone’s inner aggression, hate, insecurities, and rage? You are just an object on which the inner hate is being projected.
So, when they rage and aggressively demand an apology, observe, don't absorb. Look at them with dead eyes, without blinking, without any emotional expression on the face, with dead eyes. These dead eyes, and the feeling that you are observing them, not absorbing them, disturbs them, and they become calm soon.
The key to this technique is that authorities talk less, do not shout, and keep calm(like the judge in the courtroom). When you use to observe, don’t absorb technique, and don’t apologize to the manipulative demand of apology of dark triad people, you win, slowly, bit by bit, day by day.
Rate this article
Self-Assessment Test on Manipulation
Do you think you are being manipulated? Do you have doubts but are confused? Here is our clinically validated self-assessment tool for you, with which you can easily check if you are under a spell and manipulation or not.
Observe, Don’t Absorb Technique by Ross Rosenberg
This technique over here is adapted from the Observe but doesn’t absorb the framework developed by psychologist Ross Rosenberg. You can read more about this technique in the following post.
