Gaslighting

"Am I racist? Am I crazy?"

(Part I)

I first heard the term gaslighting some years back when some friends from academe insinuated that a number of former colleagues in the previous Congress were engaged in gaslighting when they vociferously defended questionable insertions in the General Appropriations Act. Insisting that those insertions were proper and responsive to the public welfare, they challenged the critics to show what was wrong and suggested that they did not really read the final budgetary provisions or were simply ignorant of the entire budget process. My academic friends said the congressmen were engaged in gaslighting.

I was reminded of the term all over again after media friends pointed to the series of articles (praise releases they called it) purporting to show "progress" in our telecoms services as the December 31 deadline set by President Duterte for Globe and Smart to deliver on their promised "improvements" in the delivery of such services. Said my media friends, these guys are engaged in gaslighting. Is it possible that the failed or failing service deliverers in government, say the DoH on our pandemic response measures or the DoTr and the tollway operators on the RFID issue, engaged in gaslighting as well? Is it also possible that this hyped issue of Red-tagging is also a gaslighting ploy? Is it possible as well that all the back and forth "debates"over alleged questionable insertions in the 2021 budget are part of a gaslighting operation? What about that ploy concocted by some senators to just give cash aid to rice farmers negatively impacted by the Rice Tariffication law: is that gaslighting too?

These and other concerns came to mind as I was re-reading articles on these issues which came out in the last two weeks – the days of reckoning as our media colleagues noted. To me these are legitimate concerns which need to be looked into as throughly as possible to avoid being "played around" by gaslighters. To my pleasant surprise, a US-based friend of mine shared an article written by Ted McCoy, a keen observer of the scene about a number of developments (phenomenon as he called it) which may serve as guide in our continuing efforts to make informed choices not only in our day-to-day life but in discerning the ebbs and flows of politics-as-we-see-it and even our economic and social norms. The article – a personal write-up and not published anywhere – is quite long so, with my editor's indulgence, I will have to carry it in this space in two parts. Here goes:

"Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person or a group covertly sows seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or group, making them question their own memory, perception, or judgment. It may evoke changes in them such as cognitive dissonance or low self-esteem, rendering the victim additionally dependent on the gaslighter for emotional support and validation. Using denial, misdirection, contradiction, and misinformation, gaslighting involves attempts to destabilize the victim and delegitimize the victim's beliefs. Of late, it has also been used as a political tool to denigrate or delegitimize political opponents, state institutions and even duly elected governments.

"Today we are living in a perpetual state of gaslighting. The reality that we are being told by the media is ast complete odds with what we are seeing with our own two eyes. And when we question the false reality that we are being presented, or we claim that what we see is that actual reality, we are vilified as racist or bigots or just plain crazy.

"You are not racist. You are not crazy, You're being gaslighted.

"New York State has twice as many deaths from Covid-19 than any other state, and New York has accounted for one-fifth of all COVID-19 deaths. But we are being told that Governor Andrew Cuomo has handled the pandemic better than any other governor. But if we support policies of governors whose states had only a fraction of the infections and deaths as New York, we're called anti-science and want people to die. So, we ask ourselves, am i crazy? No, you're being gaslighted.

"We see mobs of people looting stores, smashing windows, setting cars on fire and burning down buildings, but we are told that these demonstrations are peaceful protests. And when we call this destruction of our cities, riots, we are called racists. So, we ask ourselves, am I crazy? No, you're being gaslighted."

(To be continued)