GASLIGHTING
IT IS HAPPENING EVERYWHERE
GASLIGHTING people has become a matter of course in our society, not necessarily by other people but by the governments of the world. But I am getting ahead of myself. For all that do not know what gaslighting is I would like to briefly explain.
The term gaslighting was originally coined by the British film Gaslight from 1940, which is based on the stage play Gas Light from 1938. In the film a man convinces is wife into believing that she is losing her mind by manipulation and deceit. Essentially gaslighting is a slow but continuing form of brainwashing with the intention to make someone question everything they experience, and in the end not knowing what is real and what to believe anymore.
If you like you can watch the original film right here:
This film and the original definition is more about the gaslighting by a person. What I would like to write about today though is gaslighting on a global scale, which I believe is the most frightening form.
Typical gaslighting techniques include denying something when there’s proof, projecting onto others, and telling blatant lies to a point where these become the ultimate truth. You can probably guess where this is going…
The Blatant Lies
You know, when using your common sense and logic, that you are being lied to. Yet you are told these lies with a straight face and they come from people and institutions you think you can trust, believing that they have your best interests at heart. The reason why they are so blatant is quite simple. They are setting up a precedent. They keep telling you the same lies over and over again, there is no way you can evade the narrative and at a certain point you cannot recognise the difference between a lie and the truth. You are unsteady and unsettled, which is the goal and when the majority is convinced that the lies are the truth it becomes all the more difficult to resist. And exactly that is the goal.
The Audacity
They are even so audacious as to deny assertions that were considered the ultimate truth yesterday. A hundred and eighty degree turn is being sold as the new truth. It is not even relevant how much evidence is presented that it was already wrong in the first place or that exactly the opposite was claimed before. It is simply all a part of gaslighting. All of this can cause you to start questioning your reality—maybe you really got it all wrong. The perfidious thing is that it becomes a habit and the more often it happens, the more likely it is that even more people will accept as reality whatever they are told.
The Separation
They separate you from everyone that is close to you to increase the pressure. We are all (or most of us) social beings that enjoy being with family and friends. When this is taken away, the most important social contacts and joys, you become more inclined to follow the narrative, willing to give in to anything and everything without questioning it just to make it stop. They induce you with constant fear that you could loose absolutely everything that is important to you. This helps to wear you down in the long run. The insidious things about gaslighting is that it is done slowly but constantly – exactly what we have been experiencing for the past 20 months. An absurdity here and another one there, new hideous measures to keep us occupied and then they get serious. You may think that only the simple and uneducated people fall for gaslighting but this is a grave misconception. Even the smartest, well educated people can be affected because it is so very effective.
Walk The Talk
When they don’t walk the talk. Especially with what we are dealing today you should not listen to what is being said, you have to watch for what is being done. And if you are still unsure – just follow the money! It is actually quite simple. They throw you a little tidbit every now and then to give you the impression that everything is not so bad after all. If you’re good and compliant, you’re rewarded – supposedly. Fact is, those who don’t follow the narrative are just punished even more severely. It has something of the carrot and the stick. They cut you down to build you up and to just cut you down again. This is a calculated attempt to keep you off your game so you question your reality until you accept theirs.
Take Away Essentials
Take away a sense of stability and normality. When you do this confusion is inevitable and this is what weakens people. In this confusion you start to question your reality even more. What do you do when you are confused? You turn to the entity that you believe will help you, that you trust or that you think has your best interest at heart (for many believing anything else is incomprehensible). The sad thing is that most people actually turn to their abuser, their gaslighter.
The Accusations
Constantly being accused of being a danger is a distraction from the true intentions, the real agenda of the gaslighters. You start defending yourself and all your actions and don’t even notice the irregularities around you anymore – you simply can’t. That’s when you have lost your sense of reality and the gaslighting was successful. And if after all this you still have not given in they turn people against you. When enough people have been gaslightened it is so easy to manipulate them to use them against you and make your life even more miserable. You are isolated, belittled and ridiculed to give them more control over you. Since people have the urge and need to belong to a community this can be highly effective.
You Are Crazy
One of the most effective tools of gaslighting is telling you that you or others who are like minded, are crazy. Questioning your overall sanity, calling you a conspiracy theorist, a crack pot and worse will make others doubt your sanity as well and the gaslighters can be as abusive as they like and no one will believe you or help you. It is quite devious if you think about it. People will simply not believe that the gaslighters could possibly be so audacious and they must be telling the truth, so they turn to them really believing that they are in good hands.
How a slight change of the narrative changes your perception…
This is a beautiful example how easily we can be manipulated by the way words are used - in a positive way in this case. It is interesting that a positive narrative requires significantly less repetition than a negative one. This gives me hope that the good, the positive, will prevail in the long run - call me naive!
🎶My Song of the Week
📚My Poem of the Week
My choice of poem for this week is, I believe, a perfect fit to the theme of this week. It is a poem by the British-Canadian poet Robert William Service (1874-1958)
The Hinterland
You speak to me, but does your speech
With truest truth your thought convey?
I listen to your words and each
Is what I wait to hear you say.
The pattern that your lips reveal,
How does it measure with your mind?
What undertones do you conceal?
Your smile is sweet - but what's behind?
I speak to you, but do I tell
The secret working of my brain?
Frank honesty would make life hell,
And truth be tantamount to pain.
When deep into the mind one delves,
Appalling verities we view;
If we betrayed our inner selves,
Would you hate man and I hate you?
Are we not strangers each to each,
And all alone we live and die?
Deception is the stuff of speech,
And life a smug and glossy lie,
Where puppet-like our parts we play:
The first in public we rehearse,
The second when we shrink away
into our private universe.
The soul has its grim hinterland
'Twere better never to explore;
Dark jungles where obscenely planned
Prowl monsters of primaeval lore;
With primal fear our lives are fraught,
And cravenly we cower behind
The silences of secret thought,
The murky mazes of the Mind.
👀Impressions
I would like to leave you today with my all time favourite flowers and a photo I took on a bike ride a while ago!
In the end what always counts is still common sense and more than that – human kindness.
My hope is, and this is unwavering, that there are more people out there that have not given in yet and will keep resisting the gaslighting that is going on. I certainly intend to do so.
Wishing you a fabulous weekend with kindness and respect for all people around you.
Yours
Tanja
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