Jason Stanley, Yale professor and author of the book “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them,” was asked about some of the things to look for to be able to accurately spot who he thought the fascists are. As one of his answers, he makes the statements that an authoritarian leader or party, which represents fascism, will work to try to alter reality to their purposes by presenting a warped view of reality, and that this scheme is part of their ultimate goal of seizing and maintaining power. He makes the connection that this type of behavior is something that leaders and politicians on the political right do, and since that behavior represents fascism, this means that the political right is the real fascist bunch.
When you look at the evidence, though, as you’re about to see, it’s actually the political left doing the warped reality thing, not the political right, who’s trying to protect the norms of reality (What do you think “traditionalism” really means?). Now think about this – if what I am saying is true, this means that Stanley’s connection of the political right working towards fascism is false, and that it’s actually the political left that should be connected to fascism in this regard.
Now, in this article, I’m going to go through a list of some norms of reality the political left are attempting to warp, but before I do, let’s ask some serious questions. How is it that someone can get away with convincing us of their warped visions? How can those people get away with presenting obvious falsities and making us think it’s the truth? What technique do they use to do this?
Answer: they do it by utilizing a technique known by the term gaslighting. So, what is this gaslighting? What does this term mean?
It’s one thing to take an idea, or a fact, and put some kind of political spin on it. It’s something entirely different, and insidious even, to present a completely false alternative to reality, and use that falsity to make people question how confident they are at perceiving reality – that’s the essence of gaslighting.
In order for someone to succeed at gaslighting, there are two things they need. First, when presenting the false reality, the person presenting it must present in absolute confidence, and must be audacious enough to continue presenting that non-reality, even when they’re faced with clear and obvious evidence that contradicts their false claims. They must have a serious and straightforward look on their face when presenting their misinformation. Secondly, the people or group that are targeted by the false claims, lies, and misinformation, must feel psychologically isolated and not get validation from the people around them – they need to be in a place where they question their sanity.
Here’s an example for you:
Imagine that you, and someone else, are standing outside, and it’s pouring down rain. You bring up the obvious fact that there’s a downpour going on at the moment.
But your acquaintance is good at gaslighting. He reacts to you, and with a confident and straightforward look on his face, says, “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.”
You see the obvious. You know it’s raining cats and dogs. But now you’re questioning whether you see things right. You’re questioning your own sanity and judgement. You might actually start to believe that it’s sunny and pleasant out, even though it’s obviously not.
What’s even worse is if you’re surrounded by a lot of people who act like they believe, en masse, that it’s sunny and pleasant out, and so, despite the fact that you see the rain pouring down, you think, “Everyone else thinks it’s sunny and pleasant out. Maybe they’re right. How come I don’t see what everyone else is seeing? There must be something wrong with me. If everyone else thinks it’s sunny and pleasant out, then it must be the truth, and I should just accept it.” In this case, we’re talking about something even worse – something that social scientists refer to by the term pluralistic ignorance.
Pluralistic ignorance in this case can be defined as:
“a situation in which a majority of group members privately reject as true something they’re falsely told is true, but publicly go along with it anyways because they assume, incorrectly, that most others accept that non-truth.“
Creating a strategy that utilizes gaslighting and pluralistic ignorance in combination, can be used very effectively in politics – people look around and see the obvious, but deny that obviousness because they’re told it’s not true, and when they look around, they think that everyone else around them is denying that obviousness, too. This combination is used very effectively by the progressive left today in a multitude of different facets of life.
When it comes to politics, we can honestly use the term gaslighting to describe how the political left increasingly attempts to push a false narrative, a false view of reality, and use those unrealities to convince many Americans that by holding common sense views, or being reasonable, or seeing what’s clearly in front of them, that they’re somehow being extremists, and that something must be wrong with them. Ever since Trump got elected as president, the left has been doing this gaslighting thing, in combination with rhetoric that causes pluralistic ignorance, to manipulate us more than ever.
And because the political left controls our nation’s dominant influencial cultural institutions of entertainment, education, and the news media, they are successfully able to convince large numbers of people that there must be something wrong with their perception of reality.
The reality they present in today’s pandemic will eventually be discovered to have been a powerful gaslighting event, used in connection with pluralistic ignorance. We’re already beginning to realize that’s the case with books like The Price of Panic: How the Tyranny of Experts Turned a Pandemic into a Catastrophe.
Now, with that understanding in place, let’s go through some of the false claims that are being presented to us using the technique of gaslighting.
1. “The traditional nuclear two-adult family structure is patriarchal, fascist, sexist, racist, a white social structure, and anti-gay, meaning it is terribly bad for society, and must be destroyed.”
The truth of the matter is that this normative social structure is responsible for allowing young black people to have a level of privilege and advantage over their counterparts who don’t come from this type of background, so obviously it’s not racist and only beneficial to white people. Women who live in this social structure are more enabled to accomplish their goals and achieve their personal versions of success than women who don’t come from it – so obviously it’s not sexist and anti-woman. Gay people who grow up in this kind of social structure fare better than gay people that don’t, and are emotionally and psychologically healthier. Everyone who lives in this social structure is better off because of its loving, nurturing, and supportive environment. Many people who believe the political left’s anti-family lie actually come from an intact family themselves, and know from first-hand experience just how beneficial it’s been to their well-being, and should intrinsically know just how good this social structure should be towards blacks, other minorities, women, and gays, and everyone else, but then they hear the political left’s mantra that it’s terrible for society, listen to the left’s self-appointed experts explain that non-reality to them, and then start to question their own perception of reality.
But there’s a hidden motive behind the political left’s attacking of this social structure, which explains why the political left just despises it, calling it “patriarchal” and “fascist,” and work to destroy it. If you take away the family structure, people will be forced to become more reliant on the state for those things they previously got from their families, thus allowing the state more control of their lives. It’s just another step closer to the left’s ultimate goal of having a government that has complete control over our lives – that in itself is the real definition of fascism.
You should notice, too, that when the left can’t destroy the family, they attempt to take the rights of families away from them, and give those rights to the state. In this case, it’s also about giving the state more power and control over people’s lives.
2. “Police are a threat to law and order, and they’re especially terrible for the black community.”
If you’re an African American living in an inner-city neighborhood, you know that your environment can be dangerous and terribly unsafe. You know that the only thing helping to make your neighborhood safer and less dangerous is getting the violent and dangerous people off the streets, and the ones that are doing that are the police, that is, law enforcement. But then you hear this rhetoric that police are bad for you, and are all out to get you, so you learn to hate them. You see the obvious, but then ignore the obvious, because of the successful combination of gaslighting and pluralistic ignorance being used by the political left on the black community.
Seriously, think about what would happen if you try getting rid of police and law enforcement in black neighborhoods. Criminals, and other violent members of the black community would become emboldened, and would be having a heyday. There would be rampant chaos, which is the opposite of order. There would be rampant violations of the law, and of our rights. The already sky-high violent crime and homicide rates in the black community would skyrocket, doubling, tripling, and even quadrupling – something that is already happening due to a movement I’ll talk about next. And who gets hurt the most when that happens? Members of the black community. So, wouldn’t that make such a scheme anti-black?
Actually, we do see this scheme happening in real time these days. The Black Lives Matter movement has caused the police to back off, emboldening the violent members of the black community, causing violent crimes and homicides to skyrocket out of control. The Black Lives Matter movement has literally caused tens of thousands of black lives to not matter.
3. “We need to have completely open borders and let anyone and everyone that wants to enter to come in. We shouldn’t even have a vetting process to make sure that the people entering our country are safe, hold a semblance of our values, and aren’t terrorists. If you do think our borders need controlled, and immigrants should be vetted, then you’re being xenophobic and anti-immigrant.”
First of all, having a vetting process, controlling the number of immigrants so we aren’t overwhelmed, and not having open borders, does not make someone xenophobic and anti-immigrant. That policy line was supported and upheld by President Obama, a Democrat. He knew that open border policies were bad for the American people. He knew it would hurt the black community the most. President Trump continued the same policies that the Obama administration had.
But what is the political left doing? They claim that if you support Trump’s immigration policies, the very same policies passed down to him from Obama, then there must be something seriously wrong with you. This is despite the fact, like I’ve said earlier, that only letting people into the country that went through the proper legal process, and no one else, still makes us the most immigrant-friendly nation in the world, not xenophobic and anti-immigrant like the left tries to portray you in their gaslighting attempts. You know that good immigration policies are good for the country, and work towards the benefits of long-time Americans, as well as newcomers.
There is another immigration policy problem that Trump has inherited from his predecessors, and that is all the loopholes that motivate people to come here without going through the proper immigration process – the most famous being the one where, if you come here, and give birth, that baby is automatically an American citizen, and the parents can use that baby to “game” our immigration system by being permitted to live here, and taking advantage of our social welfare programs, all at our expense. These loopholes have exacerbated our immigration problems at the border. Trump, during his presidency, was trying to work to end these loopholes that neither Democrats nor Republicans have been willing to try to fix, because doing so is such a political minefield, and the way Trump’s getting treated by trying to fix these problems no one else will touch is, to me, proof of that.
There’s another obvious thing you may have missed if you’re a victim of the left’s gaslighting on immigration – if you are an immigrant who went through the proper legal process to get here, like my dear wife did, you don’t think it’s fair to you that these other people can come right in without doing things properly. If you’re one of these immigrants, you say, “It’s like I’m being punished for doing things the right way, and they’re getting rewarded for doing things the wrong way.” Where’s the fairness and justice in that?”
So, many of you will listen to the political left’s rhetoric, and actually believe it, despite the fact that you are surrounded by massive amounts of obvious evidence that none of what they’re saying is true. Hence, another successful deadly combination of gaslighting and pluralistic ignorance coming from the left – if they have their way, it will lead to “system collapse,” and that’s not good for anyone.
4. “President Trump is Anti-immigrant.”
You see the obvious, which is that he’s married to an immigrant, which means our First Lady is an immigrant. If a person is truly anti-immigrant, then why would they marry one? That doesn’t even make any sense.
And that supposed “Muslim ban”? That was actually started during the Obama administration. You see, Obama banned people from nine countries, seven of which were Muslim-majority countries, because their governments were failed states that made it possible for its people to be properly vetted. Trump comes along, continues the ban on those same nine countries, and immediately the left-leaning media takes those seven Muslim-majority countries out of context and uses that as a false proof that Trump was bigoted, xenophobic and anti-immigrant – obviously another gaslighting attempt.
5. “There’s absolutely no difference whatsoever, and in any way, between men and women. If you think so, you’re just sexist, and there’s something seriously wrong with you for thinking that.”
This one should make the “gaslighting attempt warning buzzers” go off really loud inside your mind. Seriously, all you have to do is go to a nude beach and look around, and you’ll definitely be able to tell there’s a difference. Or go to a maternity ward of a hospital and realize that it’s the women, not men, giving birth. Look at the graphs and charts that show that men, on average, have more muscle mass than women on average. Other graphs and charts show that women are the ones with high emotional IQ, and men are not, which is why women are better at nurturing and connecting emotionally with people than men.
If there was no difference, then why do transgender people who identify as the other gender have to get hormone treatments and surgeries to be more like the gender they want to identify as? If men and women were exactly the same, and gender was just a “social construct,” no treatments or surgeries would be necessary; all they’d have to do is self-identify as the other gender, and that would be it – no additional steps would be necessary.
6. “It isn’t just women that can have babies and give birth – thinking so is just sexist and bigoted. Men can have babies, too!”
Really? We’re pushing this on people? People see and know that women are the ones with the uterus, filopian tubes, and womb to hold the baby; men aren’t equipped with those things. Biology didn’t give them that ability. People see the obvious, and still end up questioning their own perceptions. Boy are we in serious trouble as a society if most people start to believe this one.
And, for the ultimate gaslighting award:
7. “It’s the political right that is pushing and fighting for fascism. The political left are the ones trying to stop it.”
Ok, so let’s bring up a few things. Fascism is an ideology where the state holds complete control of everyone and everything, including individuals, households, communities, businesses and industries, over society and the economy in general. Those that seek fascist ends know they can’t just jump to becoming completely fascist overnight, but must work incrementally – they work to give the state power and control over one aspect of society, and when that’s completed, they then work to give the state control over another aspect of society. Fascists know that by working this way, in a step-by-step process, they can get ever closer to the ultimate fascist goal of complete state control of everyone and everything.
Historically, fascists hated capitalism, because that meant economic freedom, which they didn’t like because they wanted complete control of everything, including the economy. In the 1930’s, the fascists in Italy and Germany nationalized as many industries as they could, and directly controlled the businesses that they couldn’t nationalize. Who, these days is anti-capitalist in that way? Who is seeking nationalization of some of our largest economic sectors to bring them under complete government control? Who is working to create more laws and regulations to increasingly control our businesses, and then works to create more and more state agencies to make sure all these new laws and regulations are enforced? Who’s working to increase the size and scope of the state, and its level of control over our lives and our businesses? If your answer to all of these questions is the political left, you would be correct.
Fascists historically hated the set of freedoms we know as classical liberal values because they wanted to control everything. Who, these days, hates classical liberal values, like the fascists of the past? Once again, it’s the political left. Think about it – if you support classical liberal values, it apparently means you are a conservative, that is, lean politically to the right.
Fascists historically worked to silence and suppress all viewpoints that weren’t theirs. They would only allow their one viewpoint, and none other. They would not let anyone disagree with them. Think about what today’s political left does – they are working very hard these days to silence and suppress any viewpoint that isn’t their own, particularly those on the political right, those who are conservatives, just like the fascists of yesteryear did. If you don’t agree with them, you will be silenced. Left-leaning social media, like Facebook and YouTube, regularly bans or silences viewpoints that aren’t in line with their leftist thinking – you can’t get more fascist than that when it comes to media.
Now think about the obvious here. The political left is always working to try to increase the size and scope of government, and always trying to increase the amount of control it has over our lives and society. Almost every scheme that they have is about doing just that. It seems to me that they are the ones that are truly working towards the ultimate goal of fascism, which is to continue increasing the size and scope of the government, and the amount of control it has over our lives, until it’s reached its goal of complete state control of everyone and everything.
The political right, the conservatives, are the ones always working to decrease the size and scope of the government, and the amount of control it has over our lives, which means they’re working to move us farther and farther away from the fascist endgame.
Now think about this: the political left, who is truly working towards fascist ends, is constantly accusing the political right, who’s working to move us away from fascism, of being the real fascists.
Do you remember that old classic movie called Casablanca? There’s a scene in this old movie where some scheister comes up to a tourist, a visitor, who’s sitting at the restaurant with his wife, and says something to the effect of, “Some of the scum of the earth have gravitated to Casablanca. I beg of you sir, watch yourself. Be on guard! This place is full of vultures, vultures everywhere.” The visitor nods his head in agreement and gives thanks for the heads up. The only problem is that the scheister was picking the guy’s pocket and stealing his wallet all while he was giving him the warning!
Yeah, today’s political left is like that scheister. They’re supposedly warning us about fascism, even while moving us towards a fascist state. Think about the irony and “con” in that!
Oh, and here’s another little tidbit for you: fascism is another term for national socialism – in other words, fascism is a type of socialism. It’s roots are on the political left; it’s a word for a leftist form of big government, and the people who historically pushed for fascism came out of communism and other types of socialism, that is, came out of other movements and political ideologies of the political left that were almost identical in form to fascism. They didn’t come from the political right. How then could fascism represent the political right? It can’t. And it doesn’t.
The left talks about how fascism is about working to secure more power and control, while simultaneously working to secure more power and control, and vilifying those that oppose more power and control as the real fascists – there’s a mass of contradictions for you! My guess is that most people who lean politically to the left see the obviousness of it all, but ignore it because they question their own judgements – they’re truly victims of the left’s gaslighting, and end up practicing pluralistic ignorance. If you’re on the left, don’t you think it’s about time for you to wake up, open your eyes, and become “woke?”
Conclusion
After all, 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 political left can isolate, demoralize, and make people live in fear of opposing their agenda, then their gaslighting tactics have worked. Jason Stanley has become an expert in the psychology of language and in linguistics, which means he has two tools on his belt that give him a tremendous advantage when it comes to successfully gaslighting for the political left. Every year he gets a multitude of students who are taught by him that reality is a certain way; they look around and see things completely different than he claims, and start to question their own sanity and judgement, and their perception of reality – the epitome of gaslighting and pluralistic ignorance.
You don’t have to be a victim. You can train yourself to be good at discernment, and not be conned by the left’s gaslighting tactics. There is a brighter future for us as a nation, but only if we open our eyes, and not fall for trickery.
