Whoa…I’m not hearing, “Coronavirus is like the flu, quit worrying.” as often as I did a few days ago.

According to Donald Trump’s news conference yesterday, COVID-19 now qualifies as a national emergency.

So…no. It’s not yet another attempt by the libs to tank the stock market because they’re all jealous and envious of Donald and his sons and son-in-law and Stephen Miller.

Speaking of the stock market, the stock market appears to be tanking itself just fine on its own and it doesn’t need help from the libs. And even though socialism and government handouts are bad, Wall Street got a huge infusion of taxpayer’s cash…and the market still tanked. 

This 2017 article, which talks about various traits of gaslighters, brings some serious truth. 

As this Wikipedia link states, gaslighting is, “a form of psychological manipulation in which a person or a group covertly sows seeds of doubt in a targeted individual, making them question their own memory, perception, or judgment, often evoking in them cognitive dissonance and other changes such as low self-esteem. Using denial, misdirection, contradiction, and misinformation, gaslighting involves attempts to destabilize the victim and delegitimize the victim’s beliefs.” 

Sounds like the Trump presidency…up until maybe a week ago…right? 

I encourage everyone to read up on psychological manipulation. It powers a workplace increasingly dependent on rentier capitalism. The American white male currently aspires to the Machiavellian archetype and psychological manipulation helps a bro build his “empire”.

(Quotes intentional, meant to convey, “Can we cool it with this regressiveness and just evolve already?”)

I love this news story. As worry about the coronavirus grew, a couple of fellas decided to buy up all the hand sanitizer that they could find. Now they have a garage full of it. Their idea to sell the items on Amazon at jacked-up prices got squashed. By Amazon. 

Yeah. Their idea was so Poor Man’s Gordon Gekko that even Amazon had an issue with the level of greed mongering. 

I am a child of the Reagan years. I am a white dude as well. The example of vulture capitalism shown in that news article is so Reagan Youth.

My formative years in the 1980s were shaped by white men who realized that whites’ days were numbered as America’s statistical majority. They didn’t feel full-on existential threat, like they do now. But those fellas began to panic beneath all that Drakkar and those layers of Polo shirts. Something metaphorically synergistic about two fellas profiteering from the spread of an illness. Reagan smiles down on their exceptionalism.

Back to Don’s press conference, where all the corporate CEOs and Mike Pence kissed his ass after he shook their hands: lots of gaslighting happened, right? 

Don even said, “I don’t take responsibility at all.”

Yeah…but his swagger is gone. 

That press conference was gaslight-lite—not the full-strength gaslighting of old.

He lied blatant lies, but he didn’t say those words while puffing up his chest and daring the listeners to call out his lies. 

Gaslighting involves more than the words one speaks. You gotta have the moves. Don didn’t have the moves yesterday. 

Gaslight-lite is not full-strength gaslighting. 

 

Other posts about similar topics:

If America is going Porky’s, Melania Trump makes an ideal First Lady.

Let’s talk about America’s closeted Communists.

In cyberspace, no one can hear you scream.

 

Check out my #scifi series story site.

And wash your hands.

And don’t touch your face.