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Monday, September 7. 2020Media GaslightingRobin Stern wrote a semi-crazy book in the past about The Gaslighting Effect, which could make anybody in any intimate or close relationship feel like a victim if they want to. Still, this recent post is acceptable: "Have you ever asked yourself, “am I going crazy?” If you have ever asked yourself that, you’re not crazy. You’re most likely being gaslighted. Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse aimed at controlling a person by altering reality to the point where the person will doubt their own sanity. The term “gaslighting” comes from a 1930s play called Gas Light. The main character in the play literally tries to drive his wife crazy by gradually dimming the gas-powered lights in their home. When she notices the lights dimming, her husband not only denies that the lights are dimming, he convinces her that she is imagining it — to the point where she questions her own sanity. We are living in a perpetual state of gaslighting. The reality that we are being told by the media is at complete odds with what we are seeing with our own two eyes. And when we question the false reality that we are being presented, or we claim that what we see is that actual reality, we are vilified as racist or bigots or just plain crazy. You’re not racist. You’re not crazy. You’re being gaslighted. New York State has twice as many deaths from COVID-19 than any other state, and New York has accounted for one fifth of all COVID-19 deaths, but we are told that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has handled the pandemic better than any other governor. But if we support policies of Governors whose states had only a fraction of the infections and deaths as New York, we’re called anti-science and want people to die. So, we ask ourselves, am I crazy? No, you’re being gaslighted. We see mobs of people looting stores, smashing windows, setting cars on fire and burning down buildings, but we are told that these demonstrations are peaceful protests. And when we call this destruction of our cities, “Riots,” we are called racists. So, we ask ourselves, am I crazy? No, you’re being gaslighted. We see the major problem destroying many inner-cities is crime; murder, gang violence, drug dealing, drive-by shootings, armed robbery, but we are told that it is not crime, but the police that are the problem in the inner-cities. We are told we must defund the police and remove law enforcement from crime-riddled cities to make them safer. But if we advocate for more policing in cities overrun by crime, we are accused of being white supremacists and racists. So, we ask ourselves, am I crazy? No, you’re being gaslighted. The United States of America accepts more immigrants than any other country in the world. The vast majority of the immigrants are “people of color”, and these immigrants are enjoying freedom and economic opportunity not available to them in their country of origin, but we are told that the United States is the most racist and oppressive country on the planet, and if we disagree, we are called racist and xenophobic. So, we ask ourselves, am I crazy? No, you’re being gaslighted. Capitalist countries are the most prosperous countries in the world. The standard of living is the highest in capitalist countries. We see more poor people move up the economic ladder to the middle and even the wealthy class through their effort and ability in capitalist countries than any other economic system in the world, but we are told capitalism is an oppressive system designed to keep people down. So, we ask ourselves, am I crazy? No, you’re being gaslighted. Communist countries killed over 100 million people in the 20th century. Communist countries strip their citizens of basic human rights, dictate every aspect of their lives, treat their citizens like slaves, and drive their economies into the ground, but we are told that Communism is the fairest, most equitable, most free, and most prosperous economic system in the world. So, we ask ourselves, am I crazy? No, you’re being gaslighted. The most egregious example of gaslighting is the concept of “white fragility”. You spend your life trying to be a good person, trying to treat people fairly and with respect. You disavow racism and bigotry in all its forms. You judge people solely on the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. You don’t discriminate based on race or ethnicity. But you are told you are a racist, not because of something you did or said, but solely because of the color of your skin. You know instinctively that charging someone with racism because of their skin color is itself racist. You know that you are not racist, so you defend yourself and your character, but you are told that your defense of yourself is proof of your racism. So, we ask ourselves, am I crazy? No, you’re being gaslighted. Gaslighting has become one of the most pervasive and destructive tactics in American politics. It is the exact opposite of what our political system was meant to be. It deals in lies and psychological coercion, and not the truth and intellectual discourse. If you ever ask yourself if you’re crazy, you are not. Crazy people aren’t sane enough to ask themselves if they’re crazy. So, trust yourself, believe what’s in your heart. Trust our eyes over what we are told. Never listen to the people who tell you that you are crazy, because you are not, you’re being gaslighted." Robin Stern, PhD, is the associate director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence where she works every day to make the world a more equitable and compassionate place for all. Robin is also a psychoanalyst with three decades of experience treating individuals and couples. My initial comment: OK, but we're all a little bit insane if willing to see it. TS Eliot: "Humankind can not bear too much reality." Comments
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Yes, it's true. But what can we do? I'd like to do something to challenge the craziness and help move things back in the direction of "normal". But I don't know what that would be.
I just spent Labor Day weekend at a family campground in Maine (Thomas Point Beach- it's great) and it seemed like most everyone there was a common sense traditionalist. Really gave me hope. Thank you for posting this. I have copied it, and will be sharing it whenever I can. It is . . . wise.
Highly recommend everyone check out the 1944 movie of Gaslight with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. Bergman won an Oscar for it! Great film.
I remember bumper stickers that read, "Kill Your Television Set".
But now the TV is in everyone's hand everywhere they go. A huge chunk of America spends every waking moment with their well masked face shoved into the device. Their entire world is gaslit, and they get very nasty when someone brings it to their attention. JWM "Gaslight" was the movie. the play was "Angel Street."
Yes to all of the things listed in the writings above where you doubt your sanity as you see what they are doing to us. But, I'm sure I must be going insane when every night while watching the news the screaming commercial that the Number One show on TV is The Masked Singer or some other brainless productions. No wonder so many of the younger people are acting out in this crazy life we have allowed them to inflict on us. Since I don't watch standard TV, do people actually watch such nonsense?
Basically, 90% of what you read in the media is gas-lighting. The gas-lighting the past several days has been Trump's supposed insults towards the military. NO sources to back it up; it has been denied by numerous people who were there at the time. Some of it can be empirically disproven. The reason he didn't go at the time first scheduled was because of an aviation weather alert that grounded his helicopter; it wasn't because "he didn't want to get his hair wet."
But the slander gets republished over and over again like it is true. It was still going on nonstop on the media this morning. Today's coordinated gas-lighting as headlined on Drudge: TRUMP IN SURPRISE CASH CRUNCH FINANCIAL SUPREMACY EVAPORATES So in the past several days you've seen Trump rallies and boat parades with thousands and thousands of people showing up. This was Biden's latest rally: Did Joe Biden Put His Camera to Sleep at His Pennsylvania 'Rally?'. Four people present. And yet Trump supposedly has no campaign money now? If you believe that, you're crazy. I found this lie about the vets to be particularly odd. It won't go away. The odd thing is that it's been reported as an unsubstantiated accusation, but still continues to be presented in a way that people will remember it as a legitimate accusation. I don't think anyone in the news biz thinks it's actually true. Usually, these things go away after one or two news cycles. Even this morning a radio news update played a sample of Biden using his dead son combined with the accusation to try to keep it going.
This has been sent out as a trial balloon for the general public (the sheeple) in order to plant the seed that Trump secretly despises the military. It won’t matter whether it’s true or not. Much of the top brass hate the President because he rightly sees that these endless actions are nothing more than an attempt to weaken the country militarily and make it easier for China to take over. Additionally, if/when there is some sort of military action post-election, it will look as if it’s justified, giving the Generals license to remove Trump from office. Yes, it’s BS, but we all know that this fall’s election and aftermath are going to be rocky.
Brings to mind the cartoon with the little fat boy with a finger up his nose saying, "I hate Trump because my TV told me to."
It's straight up Marxism: The Proletariat must be educated by the Party to free them from their false consciousness.
Two techniques to combat gaslighting and avoid getting sucked in: (1) confront liars with their lies openly and consistently, and (2) do not believe people once they've demonstrated themselves to be liars. It's sometimes helpful to let them know they're wasting their time using language on you at all until they clean up their acts, which is sort of a combination of (1) and (2).
AGW has been on a gaslighting spree since Rachel Carson. The authoritarian marxists have embraced AGW and russia, russia,russia as an alternate reality to this very day. The snowflakes can not deal with the real world. Look what it has done to Biden and Hillary.
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Tracked: Sep 08, 13:00