Gaslighting Nations:
Reality vs. Rhetoric
Reading time: 5 minutes
punditman says…
By distorting the truth, gaslighting fosters a sense of confusion and ultimately, dependency. It’s not just a one-on-one thing.
In a recent post journalist Matt Taibbi takes a swipe at neo-liberal economist Paul Krugman.
Taibbi writes:
Paul Krugman of the New York Times on America’s “belief” problem when it comes to the economy:
Biden is not, in fact, presiding over a bad economy. On the contrary, the economic news has been remarkably good, and history helps explain why. Nonetheless, many Americans tell pollsters that the economy is bad. Why? I don’t think we really know… Many voters have demonstrably false views about the current economy — believing, in particular, that unemployment, which is near a 50-year low, is actually near a 50-year high.
The Guardian editorial Krugman linked to explains: Americans continue to believe the economy sucks, even though they’ve been told over and over it doesn’t! Why won’t they listen?
He then sharply criticizes the Guardian's polling approach:
Have these people considered that questions about the economy aren’t a political referendum on Joe Biden for the people answering them? That they may be just having a hard time paying bills and can’t give The Guardian or Paul Krugman the answers they want? This has been true for huge numbers of people in this country for decades. Maybe it’s time to ask more about that, instead of calling them stupid again?
What Taibbi reveals here is an elite-driven gaslighting exercise whereby an establishment media figure and traditional media are actually blaming the citizenry for forming “wrong opinions.”
Here in Canada, it feels like there's a similar disconnect between, say, what's actually going on in our cities and neighbourhoods compared to the sluggish response by all levels of government and the casual indifference and misplaced blame we so often hear from the chattering classes.
A couple of months back, I was playing tennis with an emergency room doctor and I asked him what it was like working in a system that, at the very least is “overstretched,” if not “broken.” He took it one step further, plainly stating that “society is broken.” This is a wonderful, compassionate guy who loves his job.
Let's take just one causal factor to the “brokenness"—the housing crisis—at the core of the affordability crisis and a major contributor to inequality. In response to the last April’s Canadian federal budget, Tim Richter, president and CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, said the Trudeau government “does not see the scale and urgency of these crises, and have offered no solutions.”
“For thousands of Canadians who will not be able to pay their rent this week, they will find no relief or meaningful support in this budget,” Richer said in the release. “Too many others will be projected unnecessarily into the life-threatening experience of homelessness.
Over at the Jacobin, Jeremy Appel pointed out the following:
The lack of urgency on the housing file makes sense when you realize that 38 percent of parliamentarians own real estate, meaning that they stand to profit from housing scarcity, according to disclosure records compiled by Davide Mastracci at Passage. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland co-owns two rental properties on Aquinas Street in London, UK, with her husband, New York Times reporter Graham Bowley, from which they draw income. She also owns a residential property in Kyiv and farmland in her hometown of Peace River, Alberta.
Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen owns a rental property in Ottawa, from which he draws income. It’s entirely unsurprising that those who benefit from the housing affordability crisis fail to appreciate its urgency.
Does this mean all landlords are mean, money grubbing robber barons like It’s a Wonderful Life’s Mr. Potter? No, but don’t expect many urgent measures on the housing file from these folks.
Indeed Trudeau faced further criticism back in August after stating that "housing isn't a primary federal responsibility." Although he later conceded that the federal government "can and must help with" housing, the prime minister rightfully faced accusations from housing advocates and commentators for downplaying the gravity of the problem.
Predictably, recent polls indicate that housing has become a crucial concern for Canadians, in fact it now rivals health care as one of the most pressing issues we face.
No kidding, eh?
Then again, the other day a cab driver complained to me about how ungrateful we are in Canada, that we have the nerve to whine about the fact that winter is coming. “We’ve got everything, food, water, technology. It’s not like we live in a war zone or something.”
I’m sure he’s an upstanding, hard-working fellow and he makes a valid point in a relativistic kind of stop-your-bellyaching kind of way. But to imply we’re a bunch of First World brats with no right to complain—because we have “everything”—struck me as Pollyannaish at best, if not full-on ostrich-like.
For some, there’s no need for manipulative narrative control.
In case you’re wondering about Canadian-style gaslighting, I think it goes something like this:
Forget about the huge upsurge of homeless people you notice, or that housing prices and rent are completely off the charts. Pay no attention to the 32% increase in food bank usage over last year—a 78% increase since 2019. Ignore the overdose sirens you hear that were once rare in your town. Never mind that the healthcare system is broken. Just go buy those rip-off groceries and be happy you don't live in a freaking war zone (by the way we're doing everything we can to keep those war zones aflame, so don't forget to stop for Orwell’s Two Minute Hate ritual. Last month it was Russia, this month it’s Palestine, oops, I mean Hamas). Now learn how to use that self-checkout you old geezer! Because who wants to work in a grocery store anyway—we sent those workers home to their parent's basements where everyone knows they're much happier gaming. Now stop complaining about the weather you ungrateful hoser!
If it feels like we’re being told we shouldn’t trust our own eyes, ears, minds and lived experiences, then maybe we are.
No wonder cynicism towards the political establishment and powerful elites is higher than ever.
If that sounds like bellyaching, well then maybe it’s time for a collective Purge.
Thank you so much for reading! If you enjoyed this article and want to encourage Punditman to keep going, you can buy me a coffee below. Every little bit helps!
Two points to add to your astute analysis:
The housing problem really isn't something the Trudeau government can do anything about. Not because of any territorial pissings about jurisdiction, but because no amount of tinkering around the edges - building more of it, introducing some kind of a throttle on rent gouging, EVEN A GUARANTEED BASIC INCOME - won't change a bloody thing if housing remains a commodity, and we, whether punters or renters or landlords, are at the mercy of Capital.
Which brings me to my second point. We are being gaslighted, but the reason clowns like Trudeau and Krugman seem so dim is because they're being gaslighted too. It's not - or not only - self-serving calculation, but an inability to see any other way to go about this. No matter how "progressive" they are, their frightened little minds can't conceive of a way of constructing a society in such a way that prices, which they think is the same thing as value, are determined by market forces. If the answer to "How much for this?" is always "How much you got?" then they really can't fix it, or even bloviate about it with any real insight.
And, uh, private property is theft.
Good Read, I enjoyed it