The Watch Dark Fantasies (2010)phrase "alternative facts" has lit up the internet since Kellyanne Conway infamously used it to describe the White House's version of Trump's sad inauguration crowd numbers.
While most people have read the phrase as synonymous with basic lies, it also has another meaning -- and a brilliant redirect to a Psychology Todaypage perfectly explains it.
If you visit alternativefacts.com, you'll be directed to an article on the site explaining the psychological phenomenon known as gaslighting.
"Gaslighting is a tactic of behavior in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality," psychology expert Stephanie Sarkis writes. "It is a common technique of abusers, dictators, narcissists, and cult leaders. It is done slowly, so the victim doesn't realize how much they've been brainwashed."
In early December, a Teen Vogue editorial dived into how that method of manipulation is being used by the Donald Trump administration. "At the hands of Trump, facts have become interchangeable with opinions, blinding us into arguing amongst ourselves, as our very reality is called into question," it said. The piece went viral and sent off a wide-reaching discussion about gaslighting and what it means in the era of a Trump presidency.
So how does gaslighting happen? At alternativefacts.com, you can find out how to spot 11 signs of gaslighting. No. 1 on the list? "They tell you blatant lies."
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"You know it's an outright lie. Yet they are telling you this lie with a straight face," Sarkis writes. "Why are they so blatant? Because they're setting up a precedent. Once they tell you a huge lie, you're not sure if anything they say is true. Keeping you unsteady and off-kilter is the goal."
Blatant seems to be a fair word to describe the kind of lie being told by White House Press Sean Spicer when he said that Trump's inauguration saw the "largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period" -- at least considering the photographic evidence to the contrary. To remedy the situation, Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway referred to it all as "alternative facts."
That pair of words sent off a Twitter firestorm, with many users pointing out what's psychologically troubling about saying something like "alternative facts" and how it feels kind of like, well, gaslighting.
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Some experts also believe Trump is gaslighting the country.
Psychologist Bryant Welch, author of State of Confusion: Political Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind, told NBC News that constant lies allow for a gaslighter to trick their victim into confused submission.
"If you make people confused, they are vulnerable. By definition they don't know what to do," Welch said, adding that Trump is doing this by attempting to discredit the press.
"It tells them to go ahead and hate this person who is delivering bad news. Then you begin to substitute your own news, your own version of reality," Welch said. "If Donald Trump can undercut America's trust in all media, he then starts to own them and can start to literally implant his own version of reality."
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