Issues & Insights

Gaslighting America: Democrats And Media Have Turned It Up To 11

I&I Editorial

The Democratic Party and its communications office have been telling the country for some time now that night is day and up is down. But, with the election two months away, the psychological manipulation of the American voter has accelerated.

As we’ve written the past two days, Joe Biden has condemned the riots that have been wrecking cities and killing people since the May 25 death of George Floyd. We’re glad he finally got around to it. Yet he and his party are acting as if they’ve opposed the violence all along and it’s President Donald Trump who has failed to come out against it. But Trump, of course, has been denouncing the riots since they began. Even when the media were determined to convince us they were “mostly peaceful.”

Pretending that the president not only refused to disapprove of, and in fact has incited, the black bloc brutality fits the narrative that white supremacists, not Antifa and Black Lives Matter, are the domestic terrorists we have to worry about. This is the unfounded, and quite frankly laughable, assertion of Washington Monthly that “White Supremacists Are Invading American Cities To Incite a Civil War.”

Anyone who buys this, which is indistinguishable from the irresponsible claims we’ve heard since the riots began, has to also believe the lie above – that Trump hasn’t been critical of the mobs. And that simply is not the case.

The kids at Vox have contributed to the effort by explaining to us through their “explainer” journalism that the looting, vandalism, and civil unrest are happening because we’re living in Trump’s America.

It took only a few words on Twitter to show that the tale carefully constructed by activists is an ugly lie:

“If the riots are really Trump’s fault do you think Democrats and the media would’ve spent the last three months calling them peaceful protests?”

We also wonder why, if the riots were Trump’s fault, Democrats bailed out protesters whose behavior was so vicious they had to be arrested?

Next up is Jennifer Rubin, the Washington Post’s resident “conservative” who has obviously been co-opted by the leftism of that paper. She wants the public to believe “a lot of suburban white women are concerned that their sons, a lot of whom support Black Lives Matter, will get hurt and shot at a protest not by liberals, by Trumpists, the people carrying the guns.” Those innocent “Black Lives Matter kids” are carrying nothing more than “skateboards and a bull horn” down to the demonstrations where they get the “fair share of abuse.” 

Yeah, take a look at what the “Black Lives Matter kids” are doing. Few are the harmless kids Rubin is describing. Any violence committed by “Trumpists” is in reaction to the mob scenes we see somewhere in the U.S. every night. We warned weeks ago that Americans would resort to street justice if Democrat officials failed to stop the rioting, and they have.

Rubin is being grossly disingenuous. To accuse “the people (on the right) carrying guns” of being ready-to-shoot instigators – as if the the rioters aren’t carrying, too – is the equivalent of telling us “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” Agree with their tactics or not, their objective is to protect lives and property, and preserve some semblance of domestic tranquility in the midst of mindless disorder. Their actions are a response to the violence, not an effort to start it.

Meanwhile, operatives are reportedly trying to suppress selected polling results so that voters will believe the Biden hype rather than their own eyes. Rasmussen Reports tweeted Monday that black voters are “pushing Trump to victory, with support for Biden 15 points down.” But the news is being kept quiet because the Democrat-Media Complex “wouldn’t want to upset The Narrative, right?”

Gaslighting, which drives people to “question their thoughts, memories, and the events occurring around them” because they’ve been fed a steady stream of lies and disinformation, is often used by abusers, cult leaders, and dictators to amplify their power over others. No wonder the Democrats and media have adopted it for the 2020 election.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board

We Could Use Your Help

Issues & Insights was founded by seasoned journalists of the IBD Editorials page. Our mission is to provide timely, fact-based reporting and deeply informed analysis on the news of the day -- without fear or favor.

We’re doing this on a voluntary basis because we believe in a free press, and because we aren't afraid to tell the truth, even if it means being targeted by the left. Revenue from ads on the site help, but your support will truly make a difference in keeping our mission going. If you like what you see, feel free to visit our Donations Page by clicking here. And be sure to tell your friends!

You can also subscribe to I&I: It's free!

Just enter your email address below to get started.

Share

I & I Editorial Board

The Issues and Insights Editorial Board has decades of experience in journalism, commentary and public policy.

3 comments

  • I was in Louisville recently. BLM was in the park in the center of the city, and they were all toting guns as well. The media conveniently ignores the left.

  • BLM and antifa killed 30 people over the last 3 months before one decent kid took out 3 of them in self defense and now the lying cheats are trying to tell everyone the people trying to save their businesses are are the ones causing the violence??
    It is harder to believe that democrats are such fools they believe this BS than to believe Revelations could prophesy this over 2000 years ago.

  • There are 300,000,000 or more guns in the USA, most in the hands of the “blood thirsty” right. And, someone claimed, 12 trillion rounds of ammunition. I think that figure might be a tad high, but, under any set of circumstances, if gun nut right wingers were the problem you’d know about it by now.

About Issues & Insights

Issues & Insights is run by the seasoned journalists behind the legendary IBD Editorials page. Our goal is to bring our decades of combined journalism experience to help readers understand the top issues of the day. We’re doing this on a voluntary basis, because we believe the nation needs the kind of cogent, rational, data-driven, fact-based commentary that we can provide. 

We Could Use Your Help

Help us fight for honesty in journalism and against the tyranny of the left. Issues & Insights is published by the editors of what once was Investor's Business Daily's award-winning opinion pages. If you like what you see, leave a donation by clicking on donate button above. You can also set up regular donations if you like. Ad revenue helps, but your support will truly make a difference. (Please note that we are not set up as a charitable organization, so donations aren't tax deductible.) Thank you!
Share
%d bloggers like this: