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Someone challenged me on what gaslighting is & how it applies to Johnson's tactics. Gaslighting is sometimes used inappropriately imo but means manipulating people by making them question their understanding of reality. Not their beliefs but reality. How does it apply here?>
> Primarily the way he is telling us what Cummings did was not a breach of lockdown. He wants to make us think it was within the rules and it is our understanding of the rules that is wrong - he described people as being "confused" about what has happened. There is a secondary>
> line of argument where he is suggesting that Cummings just did what any good parent would do, planting the idea that maybe people who are angry about this don't understand what good parenting is. Finally the whole thing is surrounded by obfuscation, a story that changes every>
> time it is told, which makes the essential facts appear uncertain & hard to grasp. This is textbook gaslighting & the PM doing it, on this of all issues, is so incredible that it's maybe the final element that leads us to wonder if we're the ones who have gone mad.
