You’re afraid you’re going out of your mind. Well, I’m here to prove to you that you’re not.
—Brian Cameron, Joseph Cotten’s character in Gaslight, 1944—

Take a deep breath and listen to me. You are not crazy. Many possible unique circumstances in your life led you to choose this book and start reading, but ultimately they all amount to the same thing. It feels like an episode of the “Twilight Zone.” You woke up one day, and you feel as if you are the same. But everyone else is different.
—A. D. Robles, in the introduction to his book Social Justice Pharisees: Woke Church Tactics and How to Engage Them—

The lunatic is the man who lives in a small world but thinks it is a large one; he is the man who lives in a tenth of the truth, and thinks it is the whole. The madman cannot conceive any cosmos outside a certain tale or conspiracy or vision.
—G. K. Chesterton—

Key point: A first step in effectively opposing leftist ideals is keeping your head about you. Never be talked into letting go of common sense. Leftists have abandoned common sense, and they want like-minded company. They will try to make you think you are insane for believing as you do, but you are actually level-headed in a world-gone-crazy. Remember that the truth will prevail. It cannot be otherwise.

This article is part 2 of a 3-part series titled “Beware of Leftist Gaslighters.” Part 1 is available here, and part 3 here.

In part 1 we began to examine ways in which leftists, including leftist evangelicals, are gaslighting those who disagree with them. In this article we will discuss seven more examples, these in the form of fallacious ideas. Be aware at the outset that in this article we won’t be focusing as much on evangelical trends (even though the trends we will mention certainly have manifestations within evangelicalism).

Here are the points you need to remember in each case: 1) Be aware of the leftist position. 2) Be aware of the fallacies of the position, many of which are obvious. 3) Be confident about those fallacies and the perspective you hold, despite the prevailing narrative. Don’t allow individuals in the mainstream media and other members of the politically correct elite to gaslight you.

That said, here are seven prevailing narratives that need to be refuted by clear-thinking people like you.

Centennial Elementary School, Denver, Colorado

First, yesterday’s racism is today’s anti-racism. Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream that his “four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” has been thrown under the bus. Colorblindness is condemned as “racist”; yet, as Dennis Prager states,

The left’s insistence that color is important is one of the most racist and anti-human doctrines of our time. It was precisely when America was most racist that people’s color was deemed most important. Why would we want to return to that time?

Second, the left contends that homosexuality is fixed and that efforts to leave it are harmful (despite the absence of proof). At the same time, leftists insist gender is fluid. They even carry this last idea to the extreme of giving the green light to obliterating women’s sports. Therein lies another contradiction. How can those who scream the loudest against discrimination against women hold such a position? They are so bullheaded they won’t let facts distort their fantasy. Here’s the truth. They’re not nearly as concerned about opposing discrimination as they are about following the leftist narrative, no matter what the facts say.

Third, the left is doing everything it can to silence experts who are speaking out publicly against the media narrative on COVID-19, treatments, vaccines, and preventative measures. Just ask Dr. Robert Malone, one of the pioneers in MRNA (messenger RNA) technology. Meanwhile, reliance on masks to “slow the spread” of the virus has reached new extremes. Moreover, there is heavy reliance on vaccines without an emphasis on outpatient treatments, even as many doctors and research have found outpatient treatments to be effective.

Jean Leon Gerome Ferris / 1900 / Thomas Jefferson

Fourth, the left is working to erase from history and from Americans’ minds an awareness those who, though imperfect, actually contributed more to the abolitionist cause and to the civil rights movement than all others before or since their time. Consider one example: Thomas Jefferson, whose statue was removed from New York City Hall not long ago. Yes, Thomas Jefferson was a slaveowner who didn’t fully turn his back on the institution of slavery during his lifetime, but we are arrogant if we fail to understand slavery was a part of the fabric of life in Jefferson’s day. The actions Thomas Jefferson took, especially when he penned the Declaration of Independence, pointed America in the direction of abolishing slavery, despite what the leftists claim.

Fifth, the effort to defund the police (surprise, surprise!) has become fertile ground for increases in crime. This was predictable!

Sixth, apparently without batting an eye, the Illinois Holocaust Museum is imposing a vaccine requirement on its visitors, eerily reminiscent of the requirement the museum is trying to encourage visitors to remember so it isn’t repeated.

Seventh, the media narrative regarding what happened at the Capital on January 6, 2021, is an absolute lie. “There Was No Insurrection But There Was a Coup,” declares the headline of an article by Vince Coyner at American Thinker. Agreed! There’s nothing like accusing innocent people of misdeeds and distracting the public in an effort to conceal your own wrongdoings. President Joe Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris, and the media plan to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Trump rally and what they would call the “insurrection” that occurred in its wake. However, Ben Shapiro sees nefarious motives in both what the Democrats are doing and not doing.

Ben Shapiro

One need not downplay the events—the horrifying image of rioters bashing police officers with metal poles, storming through the halls of Congress shouting for then-Vice President Mike Pence—in order to recognize Jan. 6 for what it was: an ugly but not pivotal moment in American history.

The event resulted in one direct death—rioter Ashli Babbitt was shot by a Capitol Police officer—and some $1.5 million in property damage to the Capitol building.

The Capitol was cleared within hours of the riot, and Pence and then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promptly presided over the certification of the 2020 election. Those who broke into the Capitol or even trespassed have ended up in jail.

Meanwhile, by contrast, the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020 resulted in some $2 billion in insured property damage (and likely billions more in uninsured property damage), two dozen people died, and the resultant political movement against the police led to an unprecedented nationwide spike in homicides in major cities.

To date, there have been no commemorations from CNN, speeches from Biden or Harris, or a day honoring the police officers who held rioters in check.

Why? To Shapiro, the reasons are crystal clear, and I believe they make perfect sense to anyone who is halfway paying attention. The Democrats want to use their narrative on January 6 to push for “election reform” that will effectively protect Democrats in future elections and will greatly advance their leftist, socialist proposals. In other words, they want “reform” that will make it both easier and legal for them to cheat!

A new documentary film by Nick Searcy uncovers the lies being promoted by the Democrats, the media, and other leftists with regard to the events of January 6, 2021. The film is titled Capital Punishment and is available here. You can watch the trailer for the film here.

The title of Shapiro’s article is “Democrats’ Exploitation of Jan. 6 Gives Away Their Game.” If an individual has his or her antenna up, he or she can see through the leftist lies. Rewind from January 6, 2021 to the summer of 2020. Leftists elites apparently didn’t think twice about saying that protests against racism and police violence in the wake of George Floyd’s death were necessary, despite COVID, even as they had insisted on lockdowns and social distancing for months. This was when, according to journalist Glenn Greenwald, trust in the mainstream media completely unraveled.

This was a pivotal moment in the pandemic's history:

For 4 months, the message was clear and unrelenting: everyone must stay home. Those who leave – even to go to a deserted beach – are reckless sociopaths.

It flipped overnight to endorse a mass protest movement liberals liked: https://t.co/SJUIz0dbOw

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 28, 2021

At Word Foundations, we discussed the lunacy of it all in several posts, including

• • • one that emphasized that to those with platforms and megaphones, black lives really matter only when their deaths fit the media narrative; and
    • another that emphasized that “journalists” had been lying through their teeth to promote the favored narrative.

You Are Not Crazy

Friend, you are not crazy. Let these examples shore up your confidence. We’ll discuss this matter in greater depth next time, but until then, don’t be shaken. Remember this statement from Winston Churchill: “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.
—Winston Churchill—

Also remember that Abraham Lincoln said this: “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”

When the government is unreliable, reliable people have the task of bringing the facts to the people at large.

Resolve today to be one of those people.

Copyright © 2022 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.

top image credit: Joseph Cotten and Ingrid Bergman, Gaslight, 1944