[ffsm8]

Sorry that I've got to break it to you, but these people aren't particularly intelligent. They're just narcissistic and likely convince themselves to be a lot better at manipulation then they're.

More often then not, the "manipulated" person just went along with it because they just cba to deal with people that're convinced of their own superiority. They're tiresome to interact with and most people just don't care to bother. There was even a term for it a decade ago, they were called "madonnas" I believe. It was back when "brogrammers" thought of themselves as rockstars

As the old quote goes: You can't reason a person out of a perspective they haven't reasoned themselves into. And as such, most people just let them live in their fantasy world while moving on with their life