In 1956, a Hungarian journalist named Miklós Vásárhelyi did something so balls-to-the-wall insane that it makes today’s keyboard ‘rebel journalists’ look more like soggy sponges on the summer pavement.
Imagine Soviet tanks literally grinding through Budapest like the opening scene of Red Dawn, except nobody’s yelling “WOLVERINES!” because they’re all too busy getting dragged into windowless vans for surprise cavity searches in basements.
So what did Miklós do, being the Hungarian government press chief?
Did he grab an AK-47 and start cosplaying Rambo?
Did he build pipe bombs in his garage?
Did he stand his ground like the Tiananmen guy?
Nope. This absolute madman just walked into a press conference full of Soviet-backed puppet officials and started asking questions.
Imagine yourself right there, sitting across officials who’ve been practicing their bravado in the mirror for years, the room reeking of cheap cigars and the flop sweat of terrified aides.
Most journalists would be sitting there like well-trained lapdogs, taking dictation and trying not to make eye contact.
But Miklós? LOL, the guy couldn’t give more than zero forks.
You could see the ‘zero forks given’ was his actual resting face.
He leaned forward with the calm confidence of Hannibal Lecter sizing up his next meal and started dismantling their entire narrative, one polite question at a time.
He didn’t need to shout (well, maybe raise his voice a little) or throw chairs.
He was playing 4D chess while the Soviets were still trying to figure out which end of the checkers piece goes up.
One quiet question would force them to contradict something they’d said five minutes earlier.
Another would reveal they had no actual plan beyond “look scary and hope nobody notices we’re making this up as we go.”
A third question would make themselves silently question their own motives to be there.
The result? These stone-cold authoritarians started sweating like they were trapped in a sauna with their worst enemy.
Their carefully rehearsed propaganda went POOF.
And the public, already suspicious but too terrified to say anything, suddenly saw these supposedly invincible monsters stammering like teenagers caught lying about where they were last night.
Those few questions didn’t just embarrass them; it was a public autopsy on their credibility while they were still breathing.
People started openly questioning the regime’s legitimacy, and revolutionary spirit spread through Hungary like wildfire.
He got into a shitton of trouble because of all this, but Miklós showed everyone that even the biggest monsters can be deflated by weaponized curiosity.
The fact is that questions, when deployed correctly, are like psychological crowbars wrapped in velvet.
They slip past people’s defenses and start prying apart their mental infrastructure from the inside, like a ripe baby Xenomorph.
When you ask the right question at the right moment, with a slight head tilt that says “I already know you’re full of shit, but please, continue”, that’s when people’s brains start short-circuiting.
Most people think winning arguments means vomiting facts like a broken Wikipedia machine. How cute!
“You’re wrong, the facts are these!”
“Research says otherwise, read here!”
“Your Honor, with all due respect, I REALLY thought she was a woman all along!”
Meanwhile, actual operators are using questions to lead you exactly where they want you to go, making you think it was your brilliant idea all along.
It’s like inception, except instead of planting dreams, they’re planting the rope you’re about to hang yourself with.
This isn’t about being “Socratic” in whatever romantic BS your philosophy professor was peddling. This is surgical and covert interrogation. Discovering what people don’t even realize they’re hiding and making them volunteer it like they’re confessing to a priest.
The beautiful part? Questions can also soothe, disarm, and make people fall in love with you.
Ever meet someone who just “gets” you? Odds are they were simply asking killer questions, and you mistook their tactical empathy for genuine understanding.
By the way, remember those words: ‘Tactical Empathy’. Those will come in handy in the future.
I’ve said it many times: questions are some of the most powerful tools of your persuasive arsenal.
Miklós pulled this off while staring down the barrel of a totalitarian regime that could have made him disappear faster than a magician’s assistant. You can probably manage it at your next Zoom meeting without risking a one-way ticket to the gulag, right?
Or you can keep asking limp, deflated balloon questions and wonder why nobody ever tells you the truth… or why you always leave conversations feeling like you just got pickpocketed by a cheap RPG thief who also stole your dignity and left you a nice thank-you note.
And I KNOW for a fact that you don’t want that.
So, the best way to start is with my COMPLETE system to hijack people’s will under any circumstance: The Knesix Code.
The All-in-one program to understand your own weaknesses and biases, learn to spot the cracks in other people’s behavior and boost your influence while becoming manipulation-proof.
When was the last time you acted defensive and tried to fend off attacks using statements, instead of questions?
Let’s stop that once and for all, and enroll here:
https://knesix.com/masterclass
Much Love and Bliss,
Jesús.
The Body Language Guy
