Normalized Gaslighting
When gaslighters use manipulation frequently, they may believe it always works
Earlier, I wrote about how the U.S. president was gaslighting the populace about grocery prices as if he was a character in Orwell’s 1984 rather than the contemporary leader of the free world. Cut to right now and he’s at it again, but in reference to gas prices. And he’s not alone.
Republican leaders in the U.S. are in the news today, not because they’re gaslighting, but because it’s not working. When grossly misleading the populace becomes repetitive, you might expect it to always work, however today it’s fallen flat.
In an article by Steve Benen for CNN, he highlights the attempts of Republican leaders to hoodwink the populace into believing that gas prices are dropping, when in fact Americans can see they’re rising. On a number of media sites:
The president said the price of gas has dropped “very substantially.”
The House Majority Leader said gas was at a price far lower than the actual one.
A Republican Senator claimed gas prices “continue to come down.”
Benen concludes: “to tell consumers not to believe their own lying eyes about their own wallets is a recipe for failure.” Gaslighting is often successful so when it fails, we should celebrate.
We are no longer in a mere war on truth; we’ve entered into the “Gaslit Era.” We are not only dealing with lies; we’re dealing with lies that contradict reality as we experience it. Gaslighters use lies to divorce us from our own perceptions and memories, lies to fill us with self-doubt and confusion, lies to destabilize and disempower us.
It’s exciting when voters see through the manipulation, question the lies being peddled, and privilege the truth.