Many of you might have noticed that since the inauguration on January 20, the White House press staff has been busy trying to get the nation to believe “Alternative Facts.” Merriam-Webster, the dictionary peeps, decided to do a bit of trolling after Kellyanne Conway tried to say that Sean Spicer was offering “Alternative Facts:”
“*whispers into the void* In contemporary use, fact is understood to refer to something with actual existence.”
They’re not the only ones out there countering the mis-information parade coming out of the White House. Someone bought the domain AlternativeFacts.com and put it to use immediately with an information campaign to tell people exactly what the White House is up to with their “Alternative Facts.”
What is Gaslighting?
As defined by Psychology Today:
“Gaslighting is a tactic of behavior in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality.”
They also add:
“It is a common technique of abusers, dictators, narcissists, and cult leaders. It is done slowly, so the victim doesn’t realize how much they’ve been brainwashed.”
The article in Psychology Today breaks down 11 things that gaslighters do to further their agenda. See if any of these seem familiar to you:
- “They tell you blatant lies.
- They deny they ever said something, even though you have proof.
- They use what is near and dear to you as ammunition.
- They wear you down over time.
- Their actions do not match their words.
- They throw in positive reinforcement to confuse you.
- They know confusion weakens people.
- They project.
- They try to align people against you.
- They tell you or others that you are crazy.
- They tell you everyone else is a liar.”
We don’t have to go into a long explanation of the above list – you all see it happening right before your very eyes. In calling out main stream news outlets as “Fake News” and calling them liars and untrustworthy, the Trump administration is trying to create doubt – they want to be your only source for information.
So where do we go from here?
Resistance
First and foremost, we must resist the “ordered” requirement to ONLY listen to the “Alternative Facts” being pressed by the White House. Nothing they put out is true. None of it. They are spinning a tale of constant lies in an effort to gaslight the entire population.
Our first order of business should be rejecting that information. Stop listening to interviews of Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer. They are pawns who are only going to tell you what they want you to believe. Joseph Goebbels (yes, THAT Joseph Goebbels) once said:
“If you tell the same lie enough times, people will believe it; and the bigger the lie, the better.”
Some of the whoppers coming out of the White House are indeed YUGE. Trump actually started the fraudulent voter pitches during the campaign, stating that if Hillary won it would be because of fraudulent voters. After he won, he had to change that up some, so he made up the fake fact that Trump won the popular vote. When that didn’t grab hold, they changed it and said the reason he didn’t win the popular vote was because of 3 million fraudulent voters. That wasn’t getting a good foot-hold, so they came up with a man saying he has 3 million names of fraudulent voters.
Be Proactive
If Trump or any of his minions labels something as “Fake News” and tell you not to pay attention to it – do the opposite. It might be slanted right or left, but it is more true than anything you will get out of Trump’s “Alternative Fact” pushers. We have to proactively seek out the truth – and we can guarantee it is NOT coming from Trump and the White House press staff.
Stay away from supposed fake news check sites that don’t identify their ownership. For instance, The site Fake News Checker is hiding all of its ownership details. Sites are supposedly rated on user votes, but you have to sign in to vote, which means fewer people will actually sign in to rate or dispute a legitimate source. This site rates main stream news sources as fake news. Our guess is that Mr. Bannon has something to do with it. It is all part of their plan to discredit legitimate news outlets.
Do your own research and fact-checking. Read news from smaller, independent outlets (like Liberal America). They will present the news with a bias or slant, but most smaller outlets are very well-researched. They have standards for their reporters and require sourced information, which means you will see links to source material throughout an article. Most things they publish are also fact-checked and verified by an editorial staff before publication. Contrary to what Trump’s people will tell you, the little outlets care about what they produce.
Don’t dismiss an article because it has a flashy headline. In the current news scene, no one reads articles with “normal” headlines. Publishers do attempt to draw the reader with a clever headline. Their headlines may flash a bit, but usually deliver what it promises with most of the smaller outlets.
Never Stop Fighting
The minute we stop fighting is the minute they win. Trump may be in the highest office in the land, but we still have a governmental system of checks and balances – and we have our votes. When the mid-term elections come around in two years we MUST get out and vote. We must regain a more balanced Congress. That is what makes us a democracy. When one side or the other controls everything, nothing good ever happens.
Watch Press Secretary Sean Spicer spin the inaugural attendance numbers and try to convince the world that it was the most well-attended inauguration ever (it wasn’t):
Featured image from YouTube video.
