Riffing off of Covid-19 appears to kill gaslighting.

A gaslighting refresher from Wikipedia: “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.” 

I felt the need to post the above because the average, not-rich Trump voter—heck, much of the American Right wing, wealthier folks included—seems to have undergone a mutation. Their attempts at psychological manipulation now come across as both less psychological and not very manipulative. Those cruel “jokes” don’t land like they used to.

My two cents: the gaslight juice might have putrified, turned into gaslight-lite.

MAGA sounds dumber and dumber as they defend trickle-down economics and the Epstein class. We can see them sweat as they try to laugh off the Iran War debacle and the tariff war catastrophe. When they want to look dismissively-nonchalant as they type “u HaVE TdS, LiBtArD!!!”, it is obvious they are trying very, very hard to sound like they are not trying a bit.

They lie, like always. But the bluster is gone.

“Gaslight-lite.® It’s just like grandpa’s gaslighting, only wayyyyyy more desperate.™”

I’m white. So I kind of understand this mindset’s need to rationalize, what makes them soil their white hoods and sheets. Kind of.

I know them well enough to know they did this to themselves and should be treated as such. Let’s cut the b.s. Those who voted for Jeffrey Epstein’s buddy and Peter Thiel’s boy to be our nation’s Prez and Veep did not vote for cheaper eggs. These people voted to enslave the masses without realizing they were part of the masses.

My country is a red-white-and-blue shithole and the GOP only has itself to blame for the long-term damage they inflicted on their children’s futures.

The thing is…

These aren’t folks who look inward. They pride themselves on their inability to see that person in the mirror.

So, instead of fixing their shit, they lash out. Only now, it is 2026, less than two months from the mid-term election. Let them continue to lash out. They’re losing steam. They so want to sic ICE and the cops on us, so hold your tempers. Let them stew in their own impotent rage instead.

#VoteBlue then it is time to #TaxTheRich.

Earlier posts:
• Sith Rebirth, my Star Wars fanfiction story.
• Are you in your twenties and wondering what’s up with your parents?
• A gigantic thank you, from me to Rush Limbaugh.
• World events since I released my first book.
• Open letter to a selfie of my drunk-ass self, taken on August 11th, 2001.

I write fiction and have a dark comedy series available, Fearkiller (Volume 1) and Notes from Trillionaire Island: Fearkiller (Volume 2), as well as Revolutionizer Alpha, the first book in a sci-fi series. I also wrote a story about God. It was weird, but then I decided to make the story and its sequel free. And all of the sudden, it didn’t seem as weird. Writing about God is much less weird when you write about God without charging money for it. Here’s my professional site, my trade. Follow me on Medium.