Introduction: How Convenience Makes Society Vulnerable to Gaslighting

In this day and age where technology has made everything more convenient and snappy, people have become very accustomed to taking the most expedient way to complete a task. However, while the boosted convenience is a plus, it comes at a price. For instance, the modern smartphone is essentially an extremely portable computer that can access your email, make calls, message your friends, and shop. That said, using these smartphones extensively can lead to a lot of bad habits and cognition regression, including shorter attention spans.

This also applies when it comes to getting news. With many people having short attention spans, they tend to just read the headline or skim through the articles, if they even read at their entirety. Heck, rather than doing their own research, they rely on the so-called "fact checkers" that "do the job for them". That's because it is inconvenient to spend the time to check and verify, and if a third-party entity can do that for you, then that's time you can spend towards more enjoyable activities.

However, this is a massive mistake. I placed "fact checkers" in quotations for a good reason, and that's because they are extremely biased and more so than not, non-factual. Here's a video of Viva Frei criticizing Politifact as an example:

This bending of the facts is what some people refer to as gaslighting. To define the term for the unfamiliar, gaslighting is a psychological tactic where the manipulator(s) distort and/or selectively omit information in order to confuse people. You may already be familiar with the "Please disperse. Nothing to see here." meme (see thumbnail). Well, that's a satirical example of gaslighting:

It is particularly serious when both the media and government engage in gaslighting. The people end up getting fed incomplete information, false information, or a little bit of both. Even worse, they may act upon the hazy facts that they have acquired to detrimental results.

The reason why I bring up this topic is because I've been noticing quite a bit of gaslighting from both the Biden administration and the mainstream media lately.

The Cuban Protests

Take the ongoing protests from the Cuban people against their communist government. If you check out NPR, the organization notes that the Cubans are protesting the lack of food and medicine as well as the power outages. While NPR mentioned COVID being bad in the Caribbean country, it did not present it as the sole reason for the unrest.

Contrast that with Acting Assistant Secretary for U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Julie Chung, who made it seem like COVID was the main culprit behind the protests:

Archived version. Note how badly her Tweet got ratio'ed.

Yes, while COVID was definitely a contributing factor, Julie Chung omitted multiple factors that played a larger role: food and electricity. Several people pointed this out to her and her Tweet subsequently got ratio'ed pretty hard.

The Rise of Inflation

Or take the issue with inflation as another example. Back in May, I brought up inflation as a point of concern when the April jobs report fell way below expectations. Since then, that problem has not gone away and instead, has gotten worse. In June, inflation jumped by 5.4% which is the sharpest rise since 2008 when economists expected it to be lower. On top of that, this is the third month in a row where economists underestimated the inflation rate.

How has the mainstream media responded to this news? Well, CNBC for some odd reason thought it would be a good idea to publish an article titled "The upside to inflation: rising wages". This is a contradictory thesis as inflation makes the USD worth less. You can increase wages to compensate for the lower value of the USD, but unless the new adjusted income exceeds the value of the old income, then rising wages are not really a plus.

The Biden administration did not respond any better than CNBC. In anticipation of Independence Day, The White House Twitter account posted this online:

The accompanying GIF is very selective on the types of food that saw their prices decrease YOY. As pointed out by Shore News, strawberries saw a 22% YOY increase in price. In addition, the Biden administration's GIF leaves out a lot of context. American Farm Bureau Federation economist Veronica Nigh pointed out that beef and pork processing plants experienced disruptions in 2020 due to COVID which led to an increase in price per pound. Since those issues have been resolved this year, the prices of beef and pork are now lower, but they are still higher than they were in 2019.

The GIF also left out one of the most important things for a cookout: propane. Throughout the course of Biden's tenure, gas prices have gone up considerably with the national average hovering around $3.15 per gallon currently. The price of propane has risen from $1.72 per gallon to $2.89 per gallon according to Shore News. Such an increase would easily nullify the $0.16 "discount" that the White House claimed.

Closing Thoughts: Take the Time to Verify Yourself

These are just two examples where the media and the government try to gaslight the audience. Just two is already egregious, but there are plenty of other examples which would make this piece even more depressing if I were to cover them, like Jen Psaki accusing the Republicans for defunding the police.

It may be inconvenient. It may be a pain in the ass, but you cannot rely on taking what the media or the government tells you at face value. The so-called "fact checkers" are not any better. Gather as many sources as possible, preferably first-hand accounts; read perspectives from multiple sides; and piece all of the data together to form a conclusion. Yes, it will take time, but if you let the mainstream media and the government to dictate what's "reality", then that's when society crumbles.