The word ‘gaslighting’ has been popularized in psychology to describe a form of mental and emotional abuse in which a domineering person denies and contradicts the memories and perceptions of an intended victim begins to doubt his or her perception of reality.
The word ‘gaslighting’ comes from the 1944 mystery film “Gaslight,” in which a woman’s husband tries to convince her that she is losing her mind and that the things she is experiencing – such as the gaslights in the house flickering and dimming – are not real. Only when an inspector from Scotland Yard also notices the gaslights flickering does she realize that she is not losing her mind and that her husband has a devious agenda.
In politics, the world “gaslighting” is increasingly used to describe the left’s efforts to push a false view of reality and to convince mainstream Americans that their common-sense views are somehow extreme. For example, on a recent edition of “Varney & Co.,” Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, said the Obama administration’s portrayal of Israel as our enemy and Iran as nothing to worry about could be described as “gaslighting.” Bill Whittle’s popular video “Gaslighting” exposed the left’s use of the gaslighting tactic to spread false information about issues such as Benghazi and Obamacare.
Note that gaslighting is a far more insidious tactic than political spin. Spin merely attempts to shift the interpretation of a real situation by presenting it in a different light. Gaslighting presents a completely false alternative to reality and is intended to erode the confidence of the target in his or her own perception.
For example: Imagine two people standing outside in a severe rainstorm.
Spin: “You say this is a downpour? It looks more like a heavy sprinkle to me.”
Gaslighting: “You say this is a downpour? What are you talking about? It’s sunny and pleasant. Are you feeling OK? You’re acting a little strange.”
The left’s dominance in the cultural institutions of education, news and entertainment has given them two elements: confidence and audacity in pushing their view of reality persevering boldly in the face of EVIDENCE that CONTRADICTS their claim. Secondly, the left’s ‘target’ must be psychologically isolated and denied validation by others who see the SAME REALITY.
(It’s mostly the millennials, upcoming leaders, who are being brainwashed by leftist college professors, Hollywood and media, which is their only means of what they believe is knowledge/wisdom – so that there is constant and increasing outbreaks of emotional and aggressive insanity over this new administration working to bring COMMON-SENCE back, and the left’s using them for organized hostility towards those who speak the truth in the face of lies and opposing the left’s agenda with their effect on the brainwashed younger generation.)
Another example: Seattle University students were asked if there’s a difference between men and women. Instead of answering, “You’re kidding me, right?” these students actually took the interviewer’s question seriously and, even worse, they struggled to answer it. Some went as far as to PARROT the far left’s narrative that the distinction between male and female is merely a social construct imposed on people by society and that it has no real significance otherwise.
Has news about who has the babies not reached Seattle?
In the left’s ALTERNATE REALITY, the police are threats to law and order and rioters are victims of the system. If you support Trump you are “anti-immigrant,” “homophobic,” and “Islamophobic.” Rejecting the belief that refugees should be carefully vetted these days in order to keep more terrorists from exploiting our generosity now makes those with COMMON-SENSE “xenophobics.”
In gaslighting, it is the EFFECT of WORDS on the intended ‘target’ that counts, and not the truthfulness or logical consistency of those words. If the target is isolated, demoralized and fearful of opposing the left’s agenda, the tactic has worked.
One of the reasons for Trump’s Electoral College landslide was that he VALIDATED what tens of millions of Americans had been long thinking in spite of the gaslighting efforts of the left. The LIGHT OF LIBERTY has indeed been “flickering.” We weren’t just imagining things! The political elite really did have an agenda other than promoting the interests of the American people. We weren’t crazy!
With their power threatened, the left’s gaslighting has passed audacious and become desperate. A man who has never held elective office trounced the Clinton machines and their echo chamber in the media. And what does the left tell us? The Russians did it. (The FBI did it. WikiLeaks did it. Facebook, Twitter, racism, misogyny, Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, voter suppression, The New York Times, Steve Bannon, Google, the media, fake news, sexism, etc., the list keeps growing!)
Article by Dr. Timothy Daughtry in the Whistleblower March magazine (text in parenthesis is mine)