Insecurity and seeking external validation destroys relationships and leads to the dark side.
Personal independent realistic confidence with oneself helps with having better relationships.
Manipulate yourself only, by this I mean exercising emotional control when expressing certain things.
Don’t manipulate others.
Don’t let yourself be manipulated by others.
If you gotta manipulate people your doing it wrong.
But people manipulate people all the time.
So your best defense against manipulation is internal self belief.
Your best tool for determining authenticity is by being authentic yourself. That is how you filter.