Gaslighting Revisited
Tune to any channel and you will hear the exact same headlines and phraseology. They parrot each other.
This year the term “Gaslighting” is a super popular topic of discussion. News anchors, journalists, and podcasters are all asking “what does gaslighting mean?”
Good, it is about time people grasp how vulnerable we all are to dangerous psychological manipulation.
I started warning about gaslighting back in 2018, when it became obvious to me that mass media was using it to destroy the public image of then President Trump and to tarnish and rewrite the history of his administration.
The Democrat Party today constantly repeats how important it is that America does not return to the “horrible days of Trump’s term” as though a booming economy, energy emancipation, low interest rates, low inflation and stock market highs were terrible times! Do they really think we don’t remember or do they think they can manipulate our collective memory?
Gaslighting is based on convincing the victim they aren’t really seeing what they think they are seeing. The news repeats the same mantra: Interest and inflation rates are coming down! High prices are the result of corporate greed. Crime can be controlled if we defund the police!
Using some excerpts from a column I wrote in August 2020 for the Escondido Times-Advocate newspaper I want to revisit the topic:
“In my recent book, The Illusion of Knowledge, I proposed a theory that our schools and most modern media have been collectively subjecting all of us to unrelenting Gaslighting. That this ubiquitous grooming has created millions of citizens accustomed to being controlled and manipulated. Gaslighting is most often associated with abusive relationships. The insidious part is how victims caught in abusive relationships reorder their values. How at some point they will embrace notions that would normally be antithetical to their more traditional values. Social scientists call this process of subjugation “Gaslighting.”
The term came from a 1938 play “Gas Light” that told the story of a married couple undergoing a series of events that appeared to drive the wife crazy. The husband, who had his eye on her inheritance, would sneak into the attic and turn down the gas making the interior gas lamps dim. But when the wife asked, “did you see the lights dim?” he would scold her, suggesting she must be “seeing things!” He then would isolate her, demean her intelligence and repeatedly suggest she was “losing her mind”.
His objective was to make her crazy and eventually have her committed to a mental institution so he could control her massive family inheritance.
Over the decades this kind of mental manipulation has been identified as a powerful form of control where the victim is slowly reprogrammed to reject their own value system and to submit to those defined by their partner.
Sound like another conspiracy theory?
“Just ask the millions of women who are victimized by abusive partners. Ask them how they were lured into a sense of endearment and security only to later realize they had been effectively imprisoned. They will tell you they allowed their emotions to overcome their reason.”
Why is this so pertinent to today’s political scene? Listen to the way most mass media present the news. Tune to any channel and you will hear the exact same headlines and phraseology. They parrot each other. They suggest anyone who doubts their reporting or conclusions must be “right wing conspiracy theorists”.
When Trump narrowly avoided an assassins bullet, Mainstream Media headlines avoided any language that described an assassination attempt.
CNN: “Secret Service Rushes Trump Off Stage After He Falls at Rally”
Associated Press: “Donald Trump Escorted Off The Stage After Loud Noises Ring Out ”
The New York Times: “Trump Hurt, But Safe, After A Shooting”
Can you see how such minor omissions of pertinent facts can affect the way the message is received? These are just a few examples of hundreds of news stories that are designed to manipulate what message the public gets about important events. Interviews are edited, scenes are created by AI, and emphasis is directed to support the narrative that George Orwell’s Animal Farm predicted “Four legs good! Two legs bad!”
“I can only hope most Americans see this manipulation for what it is. Since we are all shopping in the meat-market of electronic messaging, we must remain diligent against not-so-subtle attempts to use gaslighting to win our affections.”