For example, when someone accuses you of manipulation, you can try the strategy of wild generalization “everything in this universe is manipulation; even when a photon hits an electron, it is manipulating it”, or you can focus on details and insist that each detail taken separately is okay “dude, I just pressed a few keys on my keyboard and clicked a mouse button; either tell me which of those keys was the ‘manipulation’ you are talking about, or quit accusing me of that epiphenomenal bullshit”, or go meta “you know what is manipulation? accusing other people of manipulation!”, etc.
All deliberate human interaction is manipulation, in something the same way that everything you touch is made of atoms. The issue there isn’t wild generalization, it’s that “manipulation”, as a specific reference for a specific class of human behaviors, is fuzzy to the point of uselessness. It doesn’t carve the world at any useful joints.
All deliberate human interaction is manipulation, in something the same way that everything you touch is made of atoms. The issue there isn’t wild generalization, it’s that “manipulation”, as a specific reference for a specific class of human behaviors, is fuzzy to the point of uselessness. It doesn’t carve the world at any useful joints.