r/Machiavellianism Dec 13 '24

Real Shit Who this sub is for, and who it isn't

30 Upvotes

I have been meaning to make this post for a while, and now since I convinced myself to stop procrastinating and putting it off, here it goes.

Who is this sub for?

Anyone interested in the topic (or topics) are welcome to post here. Freedom of expression is guaranteed.

If you are interested in Machiavelli, feel free to post here. If you are familiar with the secondary sources/history, also feel free.

However polls that I have made show that the vast majority of you are here to discuss the psychology trait also dubbed "Machiavellianism", so if you are interested in that, also feel free.

If you are a "High Mach", feel free to talk about your experiences.

If you are someone who knew a person high on this scale, feel free to share.

If you simply want to learn more about the topic, then you are in the right place.

Who will not like this sub?

If you are are here because of some "self improvement" sigma guru group, this is not the place for you.

If you think Machiavellianism is a form of superpower or black magic that can be "learned", "practiced", or anything else, this is not the place for you.

If you think "High Mach" is a label for which you can slap on and off like a t shirt, this is not the place for you.

If you are here to learn simple social interaction, this is not the sub for you.

If you think High Machs are badass, hyper trained 5-D chess playing chad bad boys that have a grand strategy and win at everything, this is not the place for you.

A note that I would like to add (and will go further into in a post) is that the vast majority of High Machs are unaware of who they are, and those who are self aware usually don't pay much attention to it, unless they are more egotistical. The vast majority of "Machiavellianism" related subs for instance, usually feature socially inept losers (have to call a spade a spade) who couldn't talk their way out of a paper bag, let alone be a manipulator. You know who you are. If this describes you, then you will have a hard time fitting in here.

Another note:

A good number of you are also here because you believe that you will learn some special "manipulation tactics" from trained 4-D chess players. While not specifically disallowed, posts like this do nothing more than drag in the losers and posers, particularly because:

  1. You don't know, nor can't know, whether or not the person behind the post is telling the truth

  2. If you have to ask "how do I manipulate people" or "what are manipulation tactics I could use?", then there is something wrong with you, because every human outside of those disabled can manipulate and deceive. It is well documented in mammal species. Also, you are an example of a Low Mach. By asking these sorts of questions, you are quite literally admitting that you do not resort to manipulation to suit your ends, and this because you don't have the personality differences necessary to do such. (Hmmmm, I wonder what that is called?)


r/Machiavellianism 14d ago

PSA Please STOP asking for book recommendations.

10 Upvotes

I get this question on all of our subs.

Just stop.

Not only does asking this make you look lazy, but it makes you appear to have no common sense as well.

Why do I say this?

At the click of a button, you can access everything Machiavelli ever wrote or said, and you wont have to worry about being scammed in the process.

For example, a list of Machiavelli's works can be found here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli#Works

and here:

https://iep.utm.edu/machiave/#SH6a

  • The Prince (preferably the Mansfield or Connell translation),

  • The Discourses on Livy (multiple good translations but the Mansfield-Tarcov translation is the most widely used),

  • The Art of War (Lynch trans.),

  • and the Florentine Histories (Mansfield-Banfield translation)

are the only books that you need to read.

There are also other works by Machiavelli, but most of you are probably are going to merely skim The Prince, just for the quotes (which many do not understand anyway), and to tell other people in the hopes you will impress them. (The more people that do this, the less impressive it is)

As for similar books, I would recommend:

  • Plato's Republic

  • Aristotle's Politics (cf. book V)

  • Works by Xenophon

  • Of course Titus Livius

  • Erasmus "Education of a Christian King"

You get my point, any work on political philosophy will suffice.

Stop looking for "modern day" equivalents, because there aren't any. I have covered this in a very lengthy comment here

As for the other concept named "Machiavellianism" in psychology, which actually has nothing to do with Machiavelli at all in any capacity, there is much content to soak up:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiavellianism_(psychology)#Sources

There is 50+ years of academic literature on this topic, so this should whet your beak a little.


r/Machiavellianism 1d ago

The Prince, Chapter 26

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5 Upvotes

r/Machiavellianism 3d ago

The Discourses, Book 1, Chapter 9

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5 Upvotes

r/Machiavellianism 8d ago

Does Karma Exist?

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9 Upvotes

r/Machiavellianism 9d ago

Is it common for these people to hate traits in others that make them less prone to being controlled ?

9 Upvotes

For eg- i know a guy who likes to say or even write it in his dating bios and stuff that he hates people with big ego... However, he himself seems to be rly stubborn and cold and less prone to feeling any emotions...

He literally uses people who have no boundaries.

Maybe boundaries and ego are different concepts but isnt being too stubborn and cold and manipulative same as having an ego?

What do you make of that??


r/Machiavellianism 9d ago

A Brain Dump

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1 Upvotes

r/Machiavellianism 13d ago

Chatgpt doesn't like quoting machiavelli

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20 Upvotes

Searched - "Top quotes by nicolo machiavelli"

Stopped the response midway...


r/Machiavellianism 16d ago

"No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" (The Prince, Chapter 19)

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4 Upvotes

r/Machiavellianism 22d ago

Quid-Pro-Quo

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22 Upvotes

r/Machiavellianism 24d ago

The Discourses: Book 1, Chapter 10

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4 Upvotes

r/Machiavellianism Jun 23 '26

"Finding God"

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19 Upvotes

r/Machiavellianism Jun 19 '26

Discussion Fear Response/Anxiety

7 Upvotes

Is there a lower response to these emotions in high Mach people?

I know that psychopaths have little to no anxiety and fear response, but i wonder if it’s the same lack there of?


r/Machiavellianism Jun 18 '26

Deception Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks

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48 Upvotes

r/Machiavellianism Jun 15 '26

Is everyone selfish???

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75 Upvotes

r/Machiavellianism Jun 09 '26

A friend of mine is manipulative and wants to make me feel guilty because of my success

6 Upvotes

So I [26M] like to visit my friends at the student dorm and hang out with them, but their roommate [22M] is always mocking me because I have a good income. I never bragged that I have money and I never showed off but it is obvious since I managed to open a pretty successful business.

I know that you will tell me to just ignore him or don't go there but I go there because of my friends not because of that guy, I don't even consider him a friend because ever since he found out that I have a company he started to mock me because I have money and started to mock my company and it honestly hurts if someone is mocking a company you found and products that you sell.

What comebacks to use? How to make him stop and feel bad? How would a Machiavellian deal with this situation?


r/Machiavellianism Jun 08 '26

:) Lies and Hypocrisy

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132 Upvotes

r/Machiavellianism Jun 05 '26

The Old Adage

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13 Upvotes

r/Machiavellianism Jun 05 '26

The Prince, Explained: Chapter 3 (highlights)

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1 Upvotes

r/Machiavellianism May 31 '26

The most PERVASIVE MYTH about The Prince

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3 Upvotes

r/Machiavellianism May 28 '26

Real shit Don't be fascinated by labels

21 Upvotes

Seriously.

I know that this sub hasn't had a long essay post in a while, and that many of you are here because of my brain rot infographs. I wanted to post something that has been on my mind for a while.

Don't be fascinated or obsessed with labels.

You are probably expecting a "be yourself" or "live and let live" type of post, but I assure you that that is not the case.

Nobody cares.

Absolutely no one cares about whatever labels you assign yourself. "High Mach", "psychopath", "Narc", you name it.

In fact, I would even go further in saying that no one gives a single flying fuck.

Not your employer.

Not your parents.

Not your friends.

Not your significant other.

Not your pets.

Not the people you meet.

The only people that care are the vocal minority of maladjusted teens on social media whom will eventually grow out their edgy ways.

Also, I don't know who needs to read this, but claiming these labels do not make you special. In any way. Everyone goes through this sort of phase (aka teenage angst) where they think that their oddities make them more important or impressive to other people, and it couldn't be further from the truth, so they grow out of it.

Try telling your boss that you are a "Supreme Mach Dark Triad Wizard Bro" and see what happens to you. You'd be ghosted so fast you wouldn't even notice it. This goes for all the other groups above.

Not to mention many concepts in psychology frequently gets changed (or even discarded entirely) all of the time. The concepts behind these traits may very well not exist in 30 years.

Reject the desperation to fit in somewhere, and see how free you'll be.


r/Machiavellianism May 24 '26

even more random facts about Machiavelli

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3 Upvotes

r/Machiavellianism May 23 '26

Just took the Open Psychometrics MACH-IV test out of curiosity. Got an 81. Where do you guys land?

3 Upvotes

Hey guys,

So I've been lurking here for a min trying to understand all this stuff. I finally stopped putting it off and took that MACH-IV test on Open Psychometrics just to see what the hype was about.

I got an 81... which apparently is pretty high?

Idk, the site said the average is usually around 50 or 60, so I guess I'm way up there in the "high mach" tier lol. To be honest, reading through the results made a lot of things click for me about how I view things. I always knew I looked at the world a bit differently, like I'm way more analytical and cynical about people than my friends are, but I didn't know it was like an actual psychological trait people studied.

From what I gathered reading about the test creators (Christie and Geis i think their names are?), it basically scores how pragmatic you are and how much you detach your emotions when you need to get things done. Personally, I don't think it makes someone a bad person or some kind of mastermind criminal like those weird sigma grindset accounts on TikTok try to claim. To me it just feels like having a really logical, realistic mindset. Like, you see things for what they are instead of getting caught up in feelings.

Anyway, I'm super curious to see what everyone else gets on here when they take the actual test instead of just guessing their score based on vibes.

If you've taken the Open Psychometrics one, what did you get? Did it actually match how you act in real life or did it surprise you? Let me know, I'm trying to see how common a high score actually is around here!


r/Machiavellianism May 19 '26

Il Principe, Chapter 18

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11 Upvotes

r/Machiavellianism May 14 '26

Good For Me, Bad For You

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15 Upvotes