Governments “gaslighting” the people

“Gaslight” is a 1944 movie by George Cukor starring Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotton, and Angela Lansbury. Bergman won the Academy Award for her role in this movie. It is a psychological thriller of a husband trying to drive his wife insane by creating a contrived scenario/environment which included dimming gaslights, to distract her from his criminal activities. So, gaslight, originally a noun, is also now a verb which means to manipulate someone using psychological methods, into questioning their own sanity or power of reasoning. A few years ago, it was chosen by Oxford Dictionary as “word the year”, meaning to gain power and control by distorting reality.

The advent of the internet, social media and IT advances and their use by governments, politicians, and other influencers for propaganda, disinformation, and fake news have popularized again the word gaslighting. The main and social media are using it as a verb as there are now electric lights and no more gaslights. The usage increased in the 2016 US elections as Trump’s propagandists have extensively manipulated/gaslighted the news media. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing Cold War between US/EU/NATO against Russia/China have also involved continuing gaslighting tactics.

Since time immemorial, governments have always manipulated/massaged the messages/news to their people. The emperors, kings, tyrants, despots, autocrats, and dictators made sure only the information good for them will be known by their people. So, they control the source of information by owning them, restricting/suppressing, or closing them. The advent of Democracy and the accompanying freedom of the press have made bullying tactics harder to implement in democratic societies or in the periphery of democratic societies, so disinformation, fake news, revisionism, and manipulating the news environment are the alternatives. This is gaslighting the people.

Reading/watching the news in social media and reading the same news in main media sometimes gives us a distorted sense of reality, making us wonder what is the real story. These are especially true of events/stories that have multiple competing proponents related to governance, the state the economy or the state of the country. It is hard to decipher what is really happening in China with their controlled press and the closure all of Hong Kong’s independent newspapers. More so, on what is happening and the sentiments of the people in Russia, or in countries like Myanmar, Vietnam, Venezuela, or Nicaragua, which even resorts to internet shutdowns to restrict the flow of information to their people and to the outside world.

In democratic countries like the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia, populist governments are also gaslighting their people, but on a limited capacity due to their democratic traditions and the pushback of their people. Governments always want to stifle dissent or at least not add fuel to dissent, and make people believe. The government narrative will keep the government in power. The rosy economic picture, the economic growth potential and the admirable peace and order conditions are good narratives if supported/validated by facts and figures, but will be ineffective if these do not correspond to reality. Still, some governments believe that perception is reality, so gaslighting continues.

Autocratic governments are more prone to gaslighting their people to perpetuate their hold on power as they have not been elected by the people. So, they are more repressive regimes and devoid of press freedom. Citizens of democratic countries should just have to be more aware of the gaslighting by their governments and react to them. They should object and correct fake news and disinformation. In the end reality should bite.