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(CNN) Is Donald Trump really a "big fan" of the intelligence community, as he claimed on Twitter, or did he disparage intelligence professionals when he repeatedly referred to them and their work in sneer quotes about "Intelligence" briefings and the "so-called 'Russian hacking'"?
Did Trump mock a disabled reporter, or did your eyes, and the Hollywood elite make you think he did?
Did he convince Ford not to move a car plant to Mexico, saving American jobs, or was it all a fabrication for publicity?
Did he win the election with a historically narrow victory, or did he score a "landslide"?
The questions are endless, and the answers, unless you're paying very close attention -- all the time -- can require significant effort to ascertain. Reality is becoming hazy in the era of Trump. And that's no accident.
The fact is Trump has become America's gaslighter in chief.
If you've never heard the term, prepare to learn it and live with it every day. Unless Trump starts behaving in a radically different way after he becomes President, gaslighting will become one of the words of 2017.
The term comes from the 1930s play "Gas Light" and the 1940s Hollywood movie version (Gaslight) in which a manipulative husband tries to unmoor his wife, played by Ingrid Bergman, by tampering with her perception of reality. He dims the gaslights and then pretends it's only she who thinks they are flickering as the rooms grow darker.
That's only the beginning. He uses a variety of truth-blurring techniques. His goal is to exert power and control by creating doubts about what is real and what isn't, distracting her as he attempts to steal precious jewels.
Mental health professionals have made much of the practice, said to be a favorite of narcissists and abusive spouses. But more recently the tactical tampering with the truth has become a preferred method of strongmen around the world. Gaslighting by other means was always a common feature of dictatorships, but it has found new vogue as a more subtle form of domestic political control even in countries with varying degrees of democracy.
Now Trump has brought it to the United States. The techniques include saying and doing things and then denying it, blaming others for misunderstanding, disparaging their concerns as oversensitivity, claiming outrageous statements were jokes or misunderstandings, and other forms of twilighting the truth.
Recall the presidential campaign. By early summer, Trump had already accumulated a long list of statements he made and then denied making; enough that fact-checkers could hardly keep up. He told his supporters to "knock the crap out" of protesters at his rallies, adding "I will pay your legal fees." When confronted with the statement, he responded: "I didn't say that."
After mimicking a disabled reporter and seeing the video used as evidence against him, he repeatedly denied it, claiming his opponents should be embarrassed to say he did. "I would NEVER mock disabled. Shame!" The denials continued after Meryl Streep brought up the subject this week at the Golden Globes. With the video easily available, Trump's argument boiled down to "Who do you trust, me or your lying eyes?"
Rest here: Donald Trump is 'gaslighting' all of us(Opinion) - CNN.com
GREAT article. I've been looking for a word to describe what Trump has been doing, and now I finally have it. It's like sleight of mouth, and he's a natural, and boy did he dupe a bunch of stupid rubes. I guess conservatives like the abuse, eh? Maybe he reminds them of their big mean daddy who emotionally abused them as children.
Did Trump mock a disabled reporter, or did your eyes, and the Hollywood elite make you think he did?
Did he convince Ford not to move a car plant to Mexico, saving American jobs, or was it all a fabrication for publicity?
Did he win the election with a historically narrow victory, or did he score a "landslide"?
The questions are endless, and the answers, unless you're paying very close attention -- all the time -- can require significant effort to ascertain. Reality is becoming hazy in the era of Trump. And that's no accident.
The fact is Trump has become America's gaslighter in chief.
If you've never heard the term, prepare to learn it and live with it every day. Unless Trump starts behaving in a radically different way after he becomes President, gaslighting will become one of the words of 2017.
The term comes from the 1930s play "Gas Light" and the 1940s Hollywood movie version (Gaslight) in which a manipulative husband tries to unmoor his wife, played by Ingrid Bergman, by tampering with her perception of reality. He dims the gaslights and then pretends it's only she who thinks they are flickering as the rooms grow darker.
That's only the beginning. He uses a variety of truth-blurring techniques. His goal is to exert power and control by creating doubts about what is real and what isn't, distracting her as he attempts to steal precious jewels.
Mental health professionals have made much of the practice, said to be a favorite of narcissists and abusive spouses. But more recently the tactical tampering with the truth has become a preferred method of strongmen around the world. Gaslighting by other means was always a common feature of dictatorships, but it has found new vogue as a more subtle form of domestic political control even in countries with varying degrees of democracy.
Now Trump has brought it to the United States. The techniques include saying and doing things and then denying it, blaming others for misunderstanding, disparaging their concerns as oversensitivity, claiming outrageous statements were jokes or misunderstandings, and other forms of twilighting the truth.
Recall the presidential campaign. By early summer, Trump had already accumulated a long list of statements he made and then denied making; enough that fact-checkers could hardly keep up. He told his supporters to "knock the crap out" of protesters at his rallies, adding "I will pay your legal fees." When confronted with the statement, he responded: "I didn't say that."
After mimicking a disabled reporter and seeing the video used as evidence against him, he repeatedly denied it, claiming his opponents should be embarrassed to say he did. "I would NEVER mock disabled. Shame!" The denials continued after Meryl Streep brought up the subject this week at the Golden Globes. With the video easily available, Trump's argument boiled down to "Who do you trust, me or your lying eyes?"
Rest here: Donald Trump is 'gaslighting' all of us(Opinion) - CNN.com
GREAT article. I've been looking for a word to describe what Trump has been doing, and now I finally have it. It's like sleight of mouth, and he's a natural, and boy did he dupe a bunch of stupid rubes. I guess conservatives like the abuse, eh? Maybe he reminds them of their big mean daddy who emotionally abused them as children.
