Proof? Perhaps the best circumstantial evidence of all: Thousands of hours of video footage of the Capitol breach exist but most of it was not made available by the Justice Department or Congress until Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s recent release.
American Thinker "The term “gaslighting” was just selected word of the year because of its overuse. But why would that usage increase have happened? Maybe because the practice itself has become more common as a political weapon.
"In practical parlance, “gaslighting” means trying to persuade others not to believe their “lying eyes,” or not to believe what they already had known as established fact. Recent examples of such disinformation themes include:
• The summer 2020 riots were not really riots but “mostly peaceful” demonstrations.
• The Hunter Biden laptop emails are not real but instead a Russian disinformation tactic.
• The U.S. southern border is closed.
• It was Republicans, not Democrats, who favored defunding the police.
• Voter ID requirements are actually voter suppression.
• Critical Race Theory is not really racist -- and is not being taught in schools anyway.
• The Afghanistan surrender/retreat was really a great achievement and success.
"Curiously, all these familiar ploys are authored by the same political camp. I wish I could balance with Republican cases, but sometimes reality is unbalanced.
"One gaslight theme has become so prevalent -- without adequate response -- that its contribution to rhetorical disequilibrium needs to be addressed before it does any more damage to the national cognition. You have seen and heard much about the U.S. Capitol “insurrection” of January 6, 2021, especially on the two-year anniversary. The trouble is, that event was not an insurrection.
"An insurrection is organized and armed uprising against authority or operations of government. The January 6 Capitol near-riot -- which is a fair descriptor -- did not involve organization or arms, and was hardly a “large” group relative to the scale of its opposition or historical comparison with real insurrections. (Even the hostile and politically weaponized FBI has admitted the absence of prior coordination.) This was one “mostly peaceful” protest that really was.
"So, what else was the January 6 event? It was trespassing. It involved some vandalism.
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. . ."Why? Because Mr. Biden is the worst American president in decades. He makes his former boss, President Barack Obama, look like a resounding success by comparison (he wasn’t). Not since the Jimmy Carter era have Americans been “led” by such a stunningly incompetent, utterly ineffectual and downright pitiful administration, and that may be harsh to Mr. Carter (it isn’t).
"Whether you support former President Donald Trump or not, good-faith Americans can agree: What we have on our hands now is a national travesty. The Biden administration is a comedy of errors that isn’t funny. Mr. Biden’s first term has not been measured by successes, but rather by record-breaking milestones that were once unimaginable.
"Let’s run through the numbers: Americans are most concerned about the U.S. inflation rate, and that rate is at its highest point since 1980. The border crisis is at its worst state in more than two decades. Violent crime is more rampant now than in years past, while record-low numbers of Americans are satisfied with government efforts to address it (24%, to be exact.) Then there’s Afghanistan, where American citizens still remain stranded after one of the most infamous foreign policy blunders in recent memory.
"And, on top of that, Mr. Biden has handled the COVID-19 pandemic worse than his predecessor, whose administration ramped up vaccine production and handed Democrats a silver platter. This, after Biden promised to stop the virus and not to mandate vaccines.
"Need I go on? On every single metric, the Biden administration is failing. . ."