Today, Merriam Webster, the dictionary folks, unveiled their word of the year, it is Gaslighting. I wish I had finished writing this article earlier because I cited the term in my draft. In that effort, I had already said:
“Increasingly, the rhetoric of liberal progressives is becoming entirely detached from reality and reason. It’s ‘gaslighting’ but liberal progressive lies have become so omnipresent that the term no longer holds the same power.”
I was going a different direction than Merriam Webster. In my estimation, the word has already been used to the point that it’s hardly even relevant anymore. It’s an idea in search of a stronger word. Of course, I could be wrong there. Maybe enough people are really hearing it for the first time.
I found two things curious about the write-up Merriam Webster provided. First, they applied it across the political spectrum, an equal opportunity deception. Funny though, while I hear it used occasionally from leftist sources, I mostly hear it from conservatives. Based on this, I make a bold declaration: Merriam Webster put their ear to the ground and heard conservatives. They felt constrained to generalize it and obscure who’s really using it, but I trust my gut on this one.
Second, not only did they generalize those who use it, they, even in the article, were actively watering down the meaning, expanding it to mean most deceptions most of the time. They do this over the course of the whole article and yet did come close in their traditional dated description:
‘: psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one’s emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator’
This is important to understand because gaslighting is nothing if not an attempt at psychological abuse. While the Merriam Webster definition is contextualized as personal, this is the true meaning in the political as well. Last year Senator Joe Woke said that Republicans should die. This year, Senator Joe Woke said that Republicans said that Democrats should die, last year. Senator Joe Woke says this with a straight face as if he really believes it. He further castigates Republicans for ‘their hate’, and that they should be abolished for what are his words, projected onto his opponents. This has become a daily occurrence in politics today. For Democrats and leftist activist everywhere, it’s their primary modus operandi.
Gaslighting, the practice, is potent because it works, and conservatives are still offering underwhelming responses. A word loses power once usage reaches its peak, but don’t confuse that with the practice. Too many conservatives still try to reason with and understand progressive leftist. Instead, they should be met with maximum rhetorical force calculated to highlight the moral shame of gaslighting and all the other crimes driving their agenda.