I am so tired of trying to explain to people how an intelligent, confident person could be coerced to agree to something entirely against their own interests.

All you have to do is isolate that person from anyone who’ll make the opposite case & if they’re at all motivated to be well thought of they’ll sign their rights & interests away. In hope that it will buy them freedom/gratitude/absolution or peace.

But it doesn’t & further demands are made. They are in a spiral they believe they’ll never get out of. They believe they will spend the rest of their lives, pouring their resources into a vacuum. It doesn’t take much to break them entirely.

You don’t have to raise a hand to someone to make them afraid of you. You simply have to get hold of something they need/treasure/love dearly/depend on & keep it gripped.