I’ll start with a joke.

A stranger approached a beautiful woman and asked her:

— Would you sleep with me for 100 dollars?

— Oh, you filthy creep, get lost! What do you take me for, a prostitute?! the woman replied angrily.

The man was not fazed and asked another question:

— All right then, would you spend one night with me if I gave you a villa in Beverly Hills?

— Well… (the woman sighed), for a villa in Beverly Hills, which woman wouldn’t?

— Good then, the man continued, and would you do it for a fur coat?

— Filthy bastard! the woman shouted angrily again. Do you take me for a prostitute?!

— That part we’ve already established, the man replied with a smile. Now we’re just negotiating the price…

The joke is funny, but also very telling about human nature. People are not always as principled as they believe themselves to be. The film Indecent Proposal (1993), starring Demi Moore and Robert Redford, explores the same issue. This is also well known to specialists who study human consciousness and, in particular, the ways it can be influenced.

A war is being waged on the internet. This war is not confined solely to the web, nor does it take place only in forums and blogs. It is real enough that it can leave traces in people’s real lives—at least in the lives of some, those who are of interest or who pose an obstacle to certain others. And so, if aggressive and threatening methods do not work on someone, the tactic of psychological corruption may be deployed.

The target of influence may be given hints that they will receive something if, in return, they do something—most often something that contradicts their own values and principles. What is offered to the individual depends both on their psychological profile and life situation, and on the manipulator’s strategy. It is crucial that the individual wants what the manipulator is offering. Nothing else. But what is offered is not always real. Often, the individual is simply being tested—at what price would they sell themselves?

If the individual, like the woman in the joke, becomes angry at offers to sell themselves for trivial sums or minor benefits, but later responds positively to more tempting “offers” from the manipulator, or at least shows signs of being willing to sell themselves for something significant and valuable in their eyes, then the manipulator begins to play a game of “haggling.” If an “agreement” is reached, the manipulator, in an attempt to psychologically break the target, may emphasize that the person is not actually defending their principles, but merely bargaining to sell themselves at a better price.

From that moment on, the individual is internally shaken and their resistance is weakened—especially if their position was tied to moral convictions. The manipulator “proves” that everything is not a matter of principles, but of bargaining, and then begins to lower the price. Thus, the victim falls into the trap and can gradually be “slid” toward the position desired by the manipulator. Eventually, they may be bought at some price and transformed from a free person into a subordinate, internally broken subject, susceptible to all kinds of influence.

When manipulators attempt to subjugate someone, they work hard to instill the idea that everything comes down to money and benefits—even when it comes to enduring human values such as morality, freedom, dignity, and principles. They try to reduce everything to a transaction. The defense of these human qualities by the individual is portrayed by manipulators as nothing more than a strategy within this bargaining process. Besides being an expression of blatant cynicism, arrogance, and shamelessness, this is also part of a corporate strategy to force human values into the framework of market relations and reduce them to an exchange of value.

We must always remember that everything happening on the internet—especially social processes and interactions—can be (and often are) an illusion, a game, a theater, saturated with all kinds of provocations and traps. A person is not always a “saint,” not everyone is perfect and impeccable at every moment. What matters is the choice we ultimately make: whether we remain true to ourselves and to who we are, or whether we become merely a function of circumstances—plasticine in the hands of cunning and cold-blooded manipulators pursuing their own goals and plans, without scruples or morality.