GOP Gaslighting
Nothing New Here
The Republicans may think they are on to something but their latest outrageous gaslighting about everything from the COVID-19 pandemic to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, are right out of the playbooks of Mao, Stalin, Hitler and American leaders throughout history.
Psychology Today defines gaslighting as “ an insidious form of manipulation and psychological control. Victims of gaslighting are deliberately and systematically fed false information that leads them to question what they know to be true, often about themselves. They may end up doubting their memory, their perception, and even their sanity. Over time, a gaslighter’s manipulations can grow more complex and potent, making it increasingly difficult for the victim to see the truth.”
Some historical examples of gaslighting includes:
- Mao was successful in his program to eradicate birds that were eating the crops and threatening his Great Leap Forward but Mao won, the birds lost and the rest is history. Speaking of the Great Leap Forward, it was a gargantuan success.
(Truth: In 1958 Mao Zedong ordered all the sparrows to be killed because they ate too much grain. This caused an environmental disasters because the birds were the natural predator for locusts and other pests and once the birds were gone, the pests were free to eat and destroy the crops, which they did, adding to the widespread famines and deaths of millions of Chinese. The Great Leap Forward was a colossal failure.)
- Few people died in Josef Stalin’s collectivization program of the 1930s in the Ukraine and the effort resulted in overflowing warehouses in the cities where the food was most needed. Those who died, perished of natural causes and the collective effort was hugely successful, urgently needed grain was shifted to the cities and the surplus was sold, bringing in huge amounts of cash to further modernize the Soviet Union.
(Truth: In Ukraine, “Holodomor” means “death by hunger,” the term applied to the period of 1932 to 1933 when as many as 25,000 people in the Ukraine, the bread basket of the Soviet Union, died every day during the famine, homes, farms, livestock and all of the basic supplies needed for life were confiscated while millions of people were shot or deported for violating the program.)
- The Tulsa, Okla., riot of 1921 was just a big misunderstanding that a few people took too seriously but overall there was little damage and people were able to forgive and forget. The extent of the damages has been largely exaggerated and the reported blot on relations between white and Black Tulsans has been greatly overstated.
(Truth: In the 1920s, the Greenwood District of Tulsa, also known as Black Wall Street, was one of the most prosperous African American communities in the United States. But on the evening of May 31, 1921, white mobs, rampaged, destroying more than 35 city blocks and killing hundreds of Black residents.)
- The Nazi holocaust of World War II was of course unfortunate but the number of people killed in the concentration camps is wildly exaggerated because of the influential Jewish lobby in Washington.
(Truth: Contrary to unfounded claims of the holocaust deniers, an estimated 6 million Jews were exterminated by the Nazis during World War II along with unknown numbers of Roma, Germans with disabilities, Poles, Russians, Communists, Socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses and homosexuals.)
- The Japanese invaded China in 1937 and killed only those who opposed the Japanese and there were no crimes against humanity, including the so-called rape of Nanking, which has been completely blown out of proportion in numbers and severity.
(Truth: For the city of Nanking, from December 1937 to March 1938, an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 people died, including many women and children while victims were often beaten, and raped.)
- The Trail of Tears is a made up fairy tale but it was really a voluntary decision by the Indians to relocate to areas where the grazing would be better for their horses while it opened up new land for the white settlers to spread modernity and democracy.
(Truth: The Trail of Tears was part of a series of forced displacements of about 60,000 Native Americans between 1830 and 1850 by the U.S. government. Members of the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations, including thousands of their black slaves, were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to areas to the west of the Mississippi River that had been designated “Indian Territory.” The relocated peoples suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation on the way to their new reserves.)
- The American Civil War was all about states’ rights and freedom from the tyranny of the north, slavery was a minor issue and certainly not the defining cause of the war.
(Truth: It is generally understood that slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War. Many schools in the Deep South still teach students that the Civil War was about states’ rights and constitutional law.)
- Operation Warp Speed to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 was incredibly successful and ex-President Trump deserves credit while loyal Americans like Charlie Kirk and his Turning Point USA group are right to warn Americans not to allow the government tyranny to expand and force people to get vaccinations against COVID-19.
(Truth: Operation War Speed was put into gear under President Trump but his inaction and spread of misinformation did much more to damage the efforts to control the pandemic. The Biden administration has no plans to force anyone to be vaccinated.)
- The Jan. 6 incident at the Capitol was wildly exaggerated and in fact, it was nothing more than American patriots expressing their support for President Trump and their rights of free speech and in addition, it would never have occurred if Speaker Nancy Pelosi had fulfilled her constitutional duties and had the capitol better prepared. Those who were arrested are political prisoners being detained solely because of their opposition to President Biden. As far as the extent of the disruption, the Antifa and Black Lives Matter movement protests were far more disruptive and far more destructive.
(Truth: The scenes of the attempted insurrection with Trump banners waving proudly alongside banners of white supremacy and anti-Semitism, have been widely shown on televisions throughout the world, adequate proof that the violence was widespread and that the federal government, under Trump, fails to exercise its authority to quell the disturbance, not Pelosi. Five people died, hundreds of Capitol police were injured and hundreds of protesters have been arrested.)
- The Delta variant is hardly a grave danger and instead it is part of a great hoax and at least Greg Locke, pastor of Global Vision Bible Church outside of Nashville is willing to tell the truth about the pandemic hoax and said parishioners will be told to leave if they wear masks.
(Truth: The latest scientific evidence shows that the Delta variant can be fatal and that those who are vaccinated can still spread the virus as the numbers of people infected have continued to escalate throughout the country and particularly in areas with low vaccination rates.)