Background: longtime narc boss/owner (over 25 years). Me: respected subject matter expert/master Him: sells the things I am an expert at and that is the extent of his "expertise". He generally doesn't even know what he doesn't know. Has *always* felt threatened by and antagonistic towards anyone with any kind of expertise. A true coward. Almost compulsive/pathological desire to constantly gaslight as well as triangulate people and things. I could write a book.
Years of silly, self-defeating narc tactics from this guy. I'm well beyond caring anymore and stick around to watch things burn for my own entertainment at this point. Daily schaudenfraude. I'm lucky in that he'd be crazy to fire me (plus he knows that I don't even need the job) so I am able to stick around and watch the daily fails; pretty glorious/hilarious. He's constantly trying to undermine me but is so inept in this field that he is unable to do so.
This one specific silly tactic (of many) is to "ask for my opinion" on something. Often these things are agreed upon facts, not "opinions". Usually a piece of equipment or industry-wide matters. He'll try to frame it like he's being humble or showing respect, but he'll nearly always wind up using my response to somehow try to devalue me/my expertise.
Example: Him: "What is your expert opinion on this piece of equipment?" Me: "The measurements of this piece of equipment show that it needs adjustment here, here and here etc." But then, and it's comical to see him doing this and think that I can't tell what he's doing, he'll strike up a conversation with a person (whose layman "opinion" is not valid) in my vicinity asking the same question about the same equipment and use leading questions to get them to say something counter to my "opinion" (which again, are usually just simple facts). He actually premeditates to set up these scenarios and plans them around my schedule; crazy that someone would do that and let someone else live in their head like this, but I'm 100% certain this is what he is doing as he's done it for literally years.
So, I recognize that this is just another of his triangulation tactics and I generally get his motives for doing it, but how can I turn this back around on him? If not that, then what is my best tactic for simply not offering my "opinion"? I could offer an opposite opinion and get him to to a 180 on best practices (and I have a few times), but that seems too easy. Feel free to weigh in and let's have some fun with this. I'm in a rare position to turn the screws on a real-life narc in their habitat and make them pay. What are your thoughts?