After learning so much about how Hitler came to power and used propaganda to convince people it was OK to execute Jews, I was curious why professing Christians weren’t standing up for human rights. Even if you accept the idea that some genetic formula for a super race might be desirable, mass killing still seems objectionable.
Historians would describe Hitler’s tactic as gaslighting. You keep pushing a message until it overcomes rational arguments against it, eventually wearing people down in what is essentially a form of brainwashing. While this may be a good historical summary of what he did, I frankly still didn’t understand it.
The term has reappeared in our news coverage to describe the messaging on both sides of the political spectrum. News media are feverishly trying to control the talking points of our political parties and those in power. So, I decided to devote this blog to understanding the term a bit better and on a deeper level.
According to Wikipedia, the origin of the term is the 1938 British thriller play Gas Light by Patrick Hamilton, which became the 1940 British film, Gaslight. The film was then remade in 1944 in America – also as Gaslight – and it is this film which has since become the primary reference point for the term.
The movie is set among London’s elite during the Victorian era, and portrays a seemingly genteel husband using lies and manipulation to isolate his heiress wife and persuade her that she is mentally unwell so that he can steal from her. The term “gaslighting” itself is neither in the screenplay nor mentioned in either the films or the play in any context. In the story, the husband secretly dims and brightens the indoor gas-powered lighting but insists his wife is imagining it, making her think she is going insane.
Well, there you go. Now I see why the term was used to describe Hitlers relentless media blitz on antisemitism. Now I see why the term is being used in recent political positioning on the readiness of individuals to assume command of our country.
Our media is not reporting news, it is pushing their talking points and driving us to think we are insane. I can now see how our perceptions of just about everything are being manipulated even though most of us believe differently. We are being brainwashed to accept party lines.
Sadly, I can now see that this has also been prevalent even from the pulpit of our churches and certainly is still alive in the Muslim hate speech declaring “death to Israel.” Evidence of this brainwashing is everywhere including some recent public displays of the wish that the assassination attempt was successful. Can you believe that?
I don’t hear dialogue about our nation’s underlying problems. We seem stuck in a rut of trying to pass rules rather than educate people about benefits and disbenefits. Ban internal combustion engines, ban natural gas stoves, and in fact ban natural gas in new home construction. Scare people that we are in an existential threat with climate change. Terrorize everyone that hurricanes are now worse than ever and that life as we know it is about to end. Ban abortions, guns, and whites from high level positions in leadership.
Perhaps the recent emphasis on “toning down” the rhetoric will take hold. I would like to believe that. Maybe we can now begin to learn to hear each other rather than always stay in the echo chambers of our lives. The Old and New Testaments declare we are to love our neighbor and to turn the other cheek. We are commanded to forgive … over and over again, without conditions like reciprocity.
Can we do this? I believe we can, but only if we strive for it now and continually. Denmark did not get to the place they were when then rescued the Jews overnight. It took decades for everyone there in leadership positions to emphasize all citizens had rights and responsibilities. An attack on any citizen was an attack on all. Amen to that.
The coverage of the recent assassination by the major news media in the US shows the level of gaslighting now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGBSc5YLTxw To follow the British film analogy: don’t believe what you saw … it wasn’t an assassin. Remember the scene from the Wizard of Oz when Toto pulls back the curtain exposing the fraud? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyCCJ6B2WE
A thoughtful summary of where we may be going was given by Tucker Carlson’s after Trump’s acceptance speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHcpTtYeU2w
Gaslighting must go. Turn it off. We can all see behind the curtain now.