alt Hacker NewsManipulation vs influence is about intent and degree of peoples ability to reject it.
If someone is influencing (actually) other folks can take it or leave it, and someone is willing to own it - because it’s something they actually believe.
Manipulation is non optional, and if rejected causes attacks of various forms because people are doing it not because they believe it/it will help the ‘target’, but because they are trying to extract something or control the target.
It’s the difference between ‘follow me if you’d like’ and ‘do what I want you to do or else’.
The goal of influence is often manipulation... we see it all the time with "influencers" trying to illegally advertise to people by not disclosing sponsorships
People influencing others are trying to manipulate their emotions or thoughts into feeling a certain way about something...
We can look to the definitions themselves...
influence: the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.
manipulation: control or influence (a person or situation) cleverly, unfairly, or unscrupulously.
influence is literally there in the definition of manipulation