Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups





















« Biden Campaign Manager: We Still Have Multiple Pathways to 270 Even if We Lose Florida, and Pennsylvania
Hillary Clinton: "Do Not Lose Heart."
| Main | Antifa Is Forward-Deploying Bricks Again for Tonight's Planned Riots »
November 03, 2020

Gaslighting through the Ages [TheJamesMadison]

Gaslighting means to lie to someone to the point that they question their own sanity. The term entered popular culture through the 1944 movie Gaslight starring Ingrid Bergman as the wife of a man played by Charles Boyer who wants to steal some precious jewels from her that had belonged to her aunt, convincing her that the footsteps she hears in the attic aren't happening though he knows full well that they're his own.

Gaslighting entered the cultural lexicon and is frequently applied to how the media treats the people it supposedly serves, in particular conservatives. In a concentrated effort to sow depression and division, the media lies about support of policies that it both backs and opposes, inflating the support of those things it wants and deflating support of things it doesn't want. This has been going on for decades, but it worked better when information flowed through a highly concentrated node called mass media, namely the three networks and, in addition, organizations like the Associated Press. The Internet made that significantly harder to do at the beginning, but the concentration into social media made it easier yet again.

At the same time, conservatives have been getting wise to the efforts and tactics of their political opponents, making the media's ability to influence the American public weaker. The overdrive adulation of Barack Obama's presidency followed by the overdrive attempted assassination of Donald Trump's presidency has made this gaslighting effort so incredibly obvious that even those not paying attention realize it.


Gaslighting in 2020

So, I'm going to tell you a story of gaslighting. There is a husband, Charles Noodles Nathan with two households. In one he has a wife, Candice Conservative, and in the other he has another wife, Pat Progressive. He's been leading this life with two separate wives in two separate households for decades, but things are getting weirdly different between them. It really became evident back in 2016.

In 2016, Charles told both Candice and Pat that in their attics was a Hillary Clinton victory. Both Candice and Pat believed it. Pat was exuberant, and Candice was dejected. Limping towards November of 2016, Candice's depression grew, convinced of Charles' story until the 8th when she finally found the keys to the attic, opened it up, and discovered a Trump victory instead. Pat was allowed the same thing. Suddenly, the two wives' moods flipped, but something devious happened.

Candice simply stopped believing Charles about anything. Pat, though, after a brief consolation that Charles was right until a week before and that next time he was going to get all the little corners he missed last time, goes right on believing everything Charles says.

Four years past with Charles lying left and right, but Candice never believes him. She just makes fun of him every time he tells her about a giant spider in the living room. She knows there's nothing. Pat, on the other hand, believes him even long after it's become obvious that there's no evidence of an 8 foot spider in the house. It's coming close to that certain day in November, and Charles really needs both Candice and Pat to believe him about what's in the attic again.

Candice just laughs at him every time he says there's a Biden win up there. She points to the boisterous music coming from the attic that sounds just so darn American and Trumpian as evidence, but Charles comes down with polls he claims come from the attic telling her that there's definitely a Biden victory up there. At the same time, Pat chooses to ignore the boisterous and Trumpian music from the attic and believes every poll Charles brings down like they were the word of God.

But, November 4th approaches, and the attic needs to open.

So, I ask you, who is the media actually gaslighting?

Candice Conservative who doesn't believe a single word that Charles Noodles Nathan is saying? Or Pat Progressive who believes every syllable?

digg this
posted by Open Blogger at 03:02 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
JTB: "Beautiful photos as always That 'Octobre' illustra ..."

Pat*: "From Boise area: Highs 66-88 F, lows 43-52. Still ..."

Duke Lowell: "Hot girls are waiting for you on -------------- ..."

Looks On: "Alternative to WordPress: Grav? ..."

JQ: "Thanks, SF! Great idea! ..."

San Franpsycho: "JQ I have to protect the seedlings because some in ..."

JQ: "I planted scarlet runners last year-- the seed pac ..."

San Franpsycho: "The late maturation is typical of scarlet runners ..."

Skinnedknuckles: "Ace made the point about "touch" charges moving ca ..."

Franklin Stein: "Biden to Netanyahu: Don't, Don't, Don't Attack Ira ..."

Helena Handbasket: ">>> 25 My beautiful 7+ ft okra was flattened by 70 ..."

Notsothoreau: "I saved this to show you. It's a Queen of the Nigh ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64