Learn What Is Gaslighting And How To Recognize It
First you must understand the concept of gaslighting. Then learn to spot it. Then you realize it’s all around you. Maybe you’ve heard the word being used, but wonder what is gaslighting? I believe that it’s so important to know and recognize these days, because…
We Are Living In A Perpetual State Of Gaslighting
I read that headline and said to myself, isn’t that the truth! It’s so obvious to me, since I know what gaslighting is, and recognize the extent at which it’s being used. However maybe others don’t know what the term means, where it came from, and that it’s being applied as a sort of mass psychosis today. I found a good explanation of gaslighting and would like to share it with you.
What Is Gaslighting?
The term originates in the systematic manipulation of a victim by her husband in Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 stage play Gas Light, and the film adaptations released in 1940 and 1944. In the story, the husband attempts to convince his wife and others that she is insane by manipulating small elements of their environment and insisting that she is mistaken, remembering things incorrectly, or delusional when she points out these changes. The play’s title alludes to how the abusive husband slowly dims the gas lights in their home, while pretending nothing has changed, in an effort to make his wife doubt her own perceptions. The wife repeatedly asks her husband to confirm her perceptions about the dimming lights, but in defiance of reality, he keeps insisting that the lights are the same, and instead it is she who is going insane!
~ unknown original source
Why It’s Important To Know What Gaslighting Is
Because we are living in a perpetual state of gaslighting. It’s being used to brainwash the people. And most do not recognize it. Unfortunately that group is quite large, and the technique is quite successful. It is an extremely powerful psychological tool being used to influence one’s perception of reality.
As someone who recognizes gaslighting, I see it predominantly used by the political left, their mainstream media, and their many influencers.
Someone recently put it his way… “The reality that we are being told by the mainstream media is often 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 [and ridiculed, silenced, de-platformed, shunned, called racists, conspiracy theorist, or just plain nuts].” The thing is, you’re not any of those. Rather, you’re being gaslighted.
“Being called a conspiracy theorist is perhaps one of the greatest tools in their arsenal for gaslighting the public. Any skepticism that goes against the establishment is deemed conspiracy theory, and they use their corporate media empires to label all dissent against them.”
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 ‘nuts’, you are not. Those people aren’t sane enough to ask themselves if they’re nuts. So, trust yourself, believe what’s in your heart. Trust your eyes over what you are told. Never listen to the people who tell you that you are nuts, because you are not, you’re being gaslighted.
~ commenter
Sophocles said: “What people believe prevails over the truth.” And that’s what the media are trying to exploit.
I’ve also heard it said to be a method of “manufacturing consent.” And yes, that’s exactly what it’s being used for.
Hopefully you are smart enough to understand what is being done to you on a daily basis from many directions. Just think through what you are being told. Don’t listen with a deaf ear, or see with a blind eye. Question everything — even things from people who you think you can trust. Question why you are being told whatever, by whoever. Question their motives. Question who benefits. Question if there is a hidden agenda behind the propaganda. Question, Question, Question. Then do your own research, and use some of your own critical thinking skills to get to the truth. Listen with your heart and with your mind. Sadly, 95% of the masses don’t even know that they are being gaslighted.
~ Abigail
It is so very important. That is, to recognize gaslighting when you see it or hear it. Critical thinking. Questioning. Using your head, so to speak, instead of blindly accepting what you’re being told by ‘officials’, politicians, the media. Become an independent thinker. Listen to your gut. Recognize propaganda for what it is. All of this will make for a better YOU.
Yes, and the RINOs are perpetuating their agenda…taking our freedoms away.
It’s worse than gaslighting. TPTB have gaslit all of us for decades, they moved on to the final step, elimination. I worked my ass off yesterday, on my day off. From a ladder I watched half a dozen police spend a total of 5 hours trying to get a squatter in a repo’ed house to leave. This is three doors down from me. The cops couldn’t enter the house, couldn’t touch him; they could only try to coax the rat outside but this rat is a seasoned pro who wasn’t having it. Astonishing, brazen acts of criminality are ignored. My anxiety peaks when leaving the home for fear of who might come calling while I’m out.
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After cleaning my work area I came inside and made some food that I paid for without EBT/SNAP. I tucked into a German Pinkus pilsner and started scrolling the news. There, right before my eyes on a Saturday night I watched numerous critical elections magically flip to demoRat. … So I escalated to Belgian Duvel. By 9p the deeds were done and nary a peep from anyone. No one cares. Why should I waste mental energy on it? I almost didn’t vote this time. My conscience got the better of me a few hours before the polls closed. Never again. There is no old saying for ‘fool me six times’, that’s when you are the fool.
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This is a long game of attrition, I don’t see a big ELE coming, just a slow death by a thousand cuts. I don’t think even the best equipped prepper stash will do much good at this point. I also don’t see much sense in moving out to the boonies. Strategically, I think TPTB will focus on the rural ‘insurgents’ first because they know they can count on city folk to kill each other in bad times.
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Why am I doing laundry at 3 in the morning?
Tmac,
Once corruption is running the show, voting doesn’t “count”. Local elections are important to the extent they’re not already corrupt, and the people are willing to do whatever it takes to keep them from becoming so. Look up “The Battle of Athens, GA” for an example of what it would take to recover election integrity once a system’s gone south.
Regarding shots from masked men (attempt at humor there!): I, too, have developed an aversion to having anyone stick a needle in me. Too many stories of people not getting what they asked for, including getting a jab for the C when a flu shot was supposed to be given. Solution? Know your healthcare person, trust but verify maybe. I’d be wanting to see them actually load the needle from the vial they showed me. Crazy level of mistrust, huh?
I mentioned this here to someone else, but for staving off or drawing out infection, I’ve found epsom salt soak/compress to be very effective. Real life experience with both four-legged and two-legged critters. It will sting a bit at first, but it has worked for me. It would be very good to have a trusted med look at it thought; close to the bone is nothing to mess around with.
Sorry, Ken. Just noticed this was under a specific article thread, and I should have posted in open comments. Caffeine hasn’t kicked in yet, apparently.
Hi Farmgirl –
I’ll see your trepidation and raise you my paranoia. My biggest concern is who made the contents of the vial and filled it. Chances are it will be Pf/Mo/JJ, et al. There’s just no effing way I’m going to trust that. Now nearly two days later the expected bacterial infection has not developed, hopefully due to immediate and aggressive cleaning plus the two home remedies. The dull ache is now localized around the wound and area where I suspect the bone was touched; yesterday my whole arm ached. I have no fever and only the wound site is warm to the touch; again yesterday the entire forearm was a bit warm. I find it helps to stay very active and don’t favor the affected arm too much, good blood flow aids in healing, I think.
For clarification, I’m *not* promoting not voting. I continue to do so, at all levels, if only to send a message to the counters that there are an awful lot of us who disagree with their agenda. Keep them on edge. Those not doing so might want to consider that angle, at least.
Its going to end like Hunger Games where those left are for not much more than amusing the elites and those they favor.
The quality of life is slowly degrading for most people no matter how much they make. I see it every day, i feel it every day, the constant squeeze, it feels a lot like being dragged along to a fate we don’t want nor choose no matter weather it is good for us or not, and there is no solution, and definitely no resolution. But most are blind to it, just going along, blind, don’t or wont see it and wont acknowledge it. Quite disheartening really, and is a big part of why I’m just over it and wishing it to just accelerate and get it over with, and consequences be damned as i know those ignoring it are going to feel like they got false cracked, they deserve it. They deserve worse really, but who am i to judge.
We know, at least some of us do, its on both sides ya know, some get it.
So may the odds be ever in your favor comrade
Tmac, When was the last time you were 100 miles from a major population center? Even 50 miles? Gaslighting is most effective when we have a limited basis for objective judgement and when our perspective has become narrowed over time. It is a persistent evil perpetrated by malevolent actors, and by the unthinking crabs in the bucket. It causes us to doubt what we previously knew and to feel as though our foundation is softening. . . .
I’ve spent more than half my adult life in large and capital cities. Living rural these days has blown out the cobwebs. We are too few now, I believe, for TPTB to bother with. Yes, in a regional, national, or global crisis, resources will be concentrated in the cities. That’s partly why we prep. Chin up dear friend. Take a drive. The Willamette Valley is only a day away, and one of the loveliest places in the west. Get some space in your soul is my Rx for the urban/suburban blues.
A casualty of government propaganda, lies, gaslighting is the loss of trust. When a society goes from high trust to low trust, societal breakdown cannot be far behind. Our government is increasingly showing itself to be untrustworthy.
Ok so JB apparently announced they are switching our dollar to a digital currency 7/2023. Ive hear not a peep from the masses! I work in a liquor store so maybe its the cross secrion of people I see. Then again we are rural and conservative… but nothing. People are so conditioned, targeted with propaganda and wore out that this going un noticed?? Then we have these globalist marxists purposely trying to provoke WWIII. Suicidal insanity!! Nothing but
crickets. The masses truly are brain dead from decades of conditioning. God help us defeat this evil !!
Greg J.B. Not sure what that is. Is this a country and are they changing due to hyper-inflation? People walk around like they have been drugged. No one stops to think that if wealthy countries Venezuela, and Argentina can have currency that flipped several times to the point of being worthless, it can happen here. Watching the border and wondering why the wealthiest country in the world is allowing people to just walk in. Where else can you do this? Let me answer that one for you …nowhere….Nowhere worth living and most places that aren’t. We know first hand, what people go through to live in another country. So maybe people want to walk around mindless, because they can not face what is coming. Maybe they are the smart ones. Watch BRICS, countries continue to join. While we are very concerned, we don’t discuss it at the liquor store. You might be surprised how many people are coming in to buy a bottle because they are knowledgeable and feel helpless.
JB=Joe Biden.
I remember my parents telling me how the police and army in Malaysia swept the jungles regularly to keep the “others” out. When Trump was elected, there was a young man (I believe it was here) who said that he was trying to get residency in Canada and they would not allow him in unless he had a job and a way to support himself.
Every country in the world has boundaries, just like every person has boundaries. Those who want those boundaries dissolved are most often the abusers, the psychopaths, the narcissists. They want the boundaries dissolved primarily so that they can abuse with impunity.
First thought that came to mind for me is the whole ‘global warming/climate change’ thing; when in reality we have entered a Grand Solar Minimum with cooling global temperatures. GW is nothing but redistribution of wealth (IMO). However, I am stunned that people still believe in it. How do we think that reducing or eliminating CO2 will help this planet when all life needs it? Oh, yeah………population control maybe?
D.J. They could just watch the local weather eat night and see the record highs and lows posted, going back, like 80 years. Ever been in an old cave that has water markings going back over 100 years?
Don’t people thing about what it cost us to get our fuel shipped in the the dirtiest, counties in the world, with scum of the earth human rights? The math is so simple. It’s not even eighth grade. Gas Lighting at its finest.
When about 100 million are receiving some form of payment from government, it is impossible to motivate them into changing the system.
Not even looking into next week, the trip to the liquor store, the fast food outlet, and then home to watch the game is what keeps many on the couch.
Only hunger and cold will move them but it is already too late. As was said on a opinion show, the socialists won because the economy and conditions were not bad enough.
Terrible actions by countries have have not stopped the masses from attending the “Forum”.
World Cup Boycott Fails To Attract The Masses
Is this a result of “Gaslighting” or is this just the loss of morality that was once supported by religion, law and order, the family unit, a responsible education system teaching history, ….. ?
I once would get really angry at people for crying out “the end is coming” = “the sky is falling” until I looked up once and saw they were correct. Gas lighting only works on people until they get hit on the head by reality. Then people get really angry and take action. This is where we are today but will our whole system of economics, government, etc. have to collapse, will there be a civil war before we put an end to all the bull sh#t? Either way prepare.
We know where chicken little ended up too.
People who post click-bait videos and posts on social media, whether pro-leftist or, even worse when it happens, people who pretend to be conservatives, do more gaslighting and harm than anything.
The uninformed might get exposed to ideas not found on the MSM by visiting sites like this one. Then they search social media looking for more information and stumble into people who pretend to be right-wing conservatives (redundant? Perhaps; perhaps not) that are posting stupid click bait like one guy I subscribed to because he used to have good gardening tips. For the last couple years it’s all fear mongering click bait like the one he posted 2 months ago (over 60 days) that we only had 49 days left before the end of the world.
When the newly awake search for the truth and find such clickbait, such supposedly-right-wing gaslighting, they either fall for the gaslighting and we lose them, or they recognize the gaslighting and decide all conservatives are just as ignorant and decide to go back to sleep. Makes me wonder if these guys are all in league with Ray Epps.
So many conservatives and their accompanying channels on Rumble & YouTube predicted a “red wave”, thus turning the senate and the house in our favor. You would think by now that people would understand what we’re up against. A party that has absolute control of the MSM and a party with unlimited finances at their disposal and knows how to GASLIGHT THE MASSES. You see, if you can’t control what’s happening in your own state, how the ‘F’ do you expect to control what’s happening on a national level? The Left is organized. The Left pulls together. The Left is loyal to one another. The Left moves and votes as ONE and they are the masters of manipulation. Meanwhile the Right is divided into factions. Christians, constitutionalist, libertarians, independents, Pro-Trump, Pro-DeSantis, etc etc etc. And they don’t vote as one. Look what happened in Oregon with Measure 114. Created by of all people, the Christian forces. Oddly enough a group that has been historically (and currently) persecuted by the Left. And people still don’t know about GASLIGHTING. Sad indeed.
Yes, very well said. We, the whole world, are heading for modern Bolshevikism. This was predicted in 1924 by a philosopher I read.
There are so many faceless bureaucrats that scrutinize every aspect of our lives, then feed the information to both the corrupt politicians, the corporations, and the media. Any resistance or trends that they do not favor are met with half truths or lies which when repeated many times are believed by the uninformed citizens. Gaslighting yes, but now becoming openly aggressive and in our faces without fear that the population would rise up – yet.
Similar to the ‘Wrap Up Smear’ political tactic that pelosi so proudly explains on C-Span. Works like this, demonize and make up lies. Then you merchandise it. Then you write it and it’s printed in the press which validates the Wrap Up Smear lies. If you have not seen it just do a search, pelosi wrap up smear c span. She is so proud as she smiles and explains it. This is politics as usual for all sides.
Many have a dimmed consciousness which allows the entry of evil. You can see it in their eyes. Nothing there.
H.L. Mencken, one of the last true journalists, opined: “…no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American People.” When the great unwashed is more mesmerized by DWTS, the NFL, and their electronic pacifiers, it does not take much to warp their thought processes. Edward Bernays, the father of propaganda, figured it out over 100 years ago.
What you must do to survive at this point, is to step back and divorce yourself from it all. It will be painful, especially if you have loved ones who have been zombified by events. The “Red Wave” which was in reality a “Red Ripple” should demonstrate to every independent thinker America is lost. You cannot and will not stop the masses of sheeple, normies, cucks, and brain-dead millennials from walking off the edge of the cliff. Plan, prepare, and protect yourselves. Bleib ubrig.
A pithy question/joke I like…..
“What’s the difference between a Conspiracy Theory and the Truth ?”
“About six months…”
<bb
Thanks to all of the folks above. I am continuing to question everything and don’t think we have much time left to prep. The powers that control everything are blind leading the blind. They will all be culled and won’t see it coming. At least we know whats a foot. This life is a train wreck in slow motion. We need to do our best to be for away from the tracks when it crashes.
Awesome column and GREAT movie! Worth seeing, highly recommended! It comes-on (is being played) on TCM in the next few days. In 5 days actually, from right now, on starring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman. We are being gaslighted daily in this country … learn-to recognize-it and fight back.
Let me see if i understand this …….. when I see thousands of people, crossing the border illegally, and i say to someone (like a coworker). This needs to stop, …. they tell me I’m a racist.
That is a form of gaslighting ?
Nope, thats just stupidity
I plan to retire in 2023 and am already beginning to drop out of ‘society’. I work in a very liberal organization which calls illegal drug use ‘substance use’. I used to think substances were household cleaners, cooking spices, etc. And they wonder why there is an opioid epidemic. What about the people who get assaulted, get their homes and vehicles broken into, have drug dealers in school yards, etc.? It is always about the poor addict, not ordinary citizens who do not want these problems in their neighborhood. I boycott the United Way and focus on faith based organizations that do community work. Many clients need faith based hope not lowering the bar to enable their often addiction-based problems. I have already shredded my university degree and academic transcripts as I will move into retirement in 6 months. I don’t want to leave a paper trail for a regime hostile towards older folk. I am downsizing my life. Last year I had minor surgery and the hospital asked me ‘what gender do I identify as?’ Huh? I am over age 60. I told them I am a biological woman, post-menopausal. Next time I will make up something they have never heard of and call myself a Royal Boomer Princess and my pronouns are ‘your royal highness’. Leave the older folk out of this social engineering.