Six big lies that won the election: How Donald Trump gaslit America
Nine days before Election Day, Donald Trump delivered his closing argument at a Madison Square Garden rally that drew comparisons to a 1939 pro-Nazi rally in the same arena and characterized by similar anti-democratic themes: demonization of immigrants and political enemies, invocation of strongman leadership, threats of violent retribution, denunciations of the press.
Responding to criticism of this self-evident hate-fest, Trump characterized it as “a lovefest.” He wasn’t just lying. That’s too simple an explanation of how Trump behaves in general, and what he’s doing here. Lying is deceiving people about the state of the world, and Trump routinely does that too. But simply tallying up the lies gives no insight into their purpose. Bulls***ting is deceiving people about one’s motives — using true or false claims indiscriminately — and is a more accurate description of his routine behavior. But calling that rally calls a “lovefest,” is doing something more: That's gaslighting, an effort to undermine people’s entire sense of reality and impose an invented reality in its place
Trump was saying, in effect: The hate you saw was really love, and if you can’t see that, you’re the hateful one. It’s the kind of upside-down logic commonly found in abusive relationships, whenever the abuser is challenged. They may lie all the time, but when the chips are down, they gaslight.
Trump’s reliance on gaslighting was flagged repeatedly in his 2016 campaign. That May, Emily Crockett wrote at Vox about Trump’s gaslighting in response to Megyn Kelly’s questions about misogyny during the first Fox News primary debate. In May, Andrea Grimes wrote at the Texas Observer about the Trump campaign’s gaslighting in defense of Melania Trump’s plagiarism of Michelle Obama in her convention speech. And in September, Brian Beutler wrote at the New Republic about Trump's attempt to disavow his role in pushing birtherism and shift the blame to Hillary Clinton or her aides.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/six-big-lies-that-won-the-election-how-donald-trump-gaslit-america/ar-AA1tNjDa