The Gaslighting of American Media

The basic definition of gaslighting is the practice of making people question their own perceptions by trying to convince them of things that are not real. False information is given to the victim in order to manipulate them into doubting their own perceptions and memories of events, such as denying that abuse exists- (which is common in cases of spousal abuse), but can range all the way up to staging bizarre events in order to disorient and confuse, which is typical behavior of sociopaths, who are adept at chameleon like behavior and are almost always flawless liars- like many of our leaders and politicians now a days. However, I want to talk about our American media and how they have been gaslighting society since the beginning, but especially now, when things are seemingly so chaotic.

Neil Postman, author of The Disappearance of Childhood among other titles, has detailed how our media has worked at forming society as it is today, by dumbing down the population and by making our children entertainment junkies. Boiling everything down to a sound bite, we are spoon fed garbage on which we base our perceptions of reality on, and our children are the most prone to this programing by our rich elite- like Rupert Murdoch, who own and control our media sources. Basically turning our society into a bunch of consumers, we have been manipulated into thinking that everyone else is living the good life while most of us starve and struggle to pay our bills. No wonder our children seem so angry- as they must figure that they are never going to have what our parents had while they watch hours of the Kardashians- who are probably the LEAST deserving of their wealth than most. Good at marketing but lacking in morals or common decency, it is no wonder that manners have gone out the window only to be replaced with baggy jeans and “juicy” written on our youngest of girls butts.

It is my contention that the reason why our society is crumbling at such a rate is because of our media, and our society’s obsession with a box of flashing pictures, which is helping to erase the very thing that our society’s top invention helped create- our educational system. The Gutenberg Press has been listed as mankind’s best and most innovative creation not only because it allowed information to get to the masses but because it was the foundation of our education system, which has brought mankind to the place it is now. The problem though, is that what it showed society is that children must learn in stages, as their mental and emotional development are not formed enough to fully comprehend the information they are given if they are overloaded. Yet today- they know MORE than their parents sometimes, watching hours of what I would call programming garbage. None of it is real- indicative of the fact that we never see overweight people selling soap on commercials, and getting into a television contract that involves a mansion and a group of extremely dysfunctional young people is anything but the “real world”. Excelling in more and more outrageous behavior- we have taught our children that they can be whatever they want whenever they want even though it is as true today as it has been in the past that “manners matter” and bad behavior is rarely tolerated for long. The fact is that we are disenfranchising our young people, preventing them in mass from being productive citizens in society- and our educational system- in competition with our media, is falling behind quickly.

Is this a coincidence? I personally don’t believe so- considering the whole “no child left behind” concept presented to our educational system by our past leaders. Referred to by a friend of mine as “No Teacher Left Standing”, it was a program that robbed our public school systems of money if they didn’t dumb down their standards and focus on the least of the students, while ignoring those who would excel. Controlling federal funds to ensure the policies where followed, its crowning achievement is that over ½ of our graduating seniors aren’t at a proficient reading level. Now it is true that Obama has done away with “No Child Left Behind”, but due to the fact that our nation has been programmed to have the attention span of children, unless our standards rise we are doomed to fail as a nation.

The truth is that our media lies to us every day and we, as a collection of American citizens, allow it. I have had it suggested more than once that I should write a fiction novel based on a true story or better yet a screen play because, I have been told, that the only way to get my story out is by making it more entertaining. Disgusted by the prospect, I personally feel that the allegations I have presented need to be investigated and not manipulated to be fodder for the mass’s amusement, although the plain truth of the matter is that those who have told me this are, in fact, correct. Which brings me back to my main point, in that our society is being lead into a corporate “phantasy” land which is anything but fantasy, and it is through these gaslighting practices of our media that is fueling this process and causing so much dissention as to what reality REALLY IS. Without reading skills, our young will be unable to think properly, which will make our society ripe for a quiet take over eventually.

Coincidence? I personally don’t believe it is- which is why we need to wake up to what is happening before it is too late.

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