In #TrumpNation you didn't see what you thought you saw; you didn't hear what you thought you heard; and the...
In #TrumpNation you didn't see what you thought you saw; you didn't hear what you thought you heard; and the president isn't what he portrays himself to be.
Perhaps, Sanders believes she's using a Jedi mind trick on the weak minds of the media.
Originally shared by Dave Hill
When Press Secretaries are Gaslighters
Sarah Huckabee Sanders isn't even trying any more. Or, perhaps, she's just upping her game.
I mean, it's one thing when Trump says, "X" and Sanders says, "Well, what he really meant was not X, but Y."
Apparently that's too many words, as she's now going directly to "No, he said Y." Even though, yeah, there's the video footage of him saying "X."
There's Trump, on tape, saying: _"We need quick justice and we need strong justice — much quicker and much stronger than we have right now — because what we have right now is a joke, and it's a laughingstock."
And there's Sanders turning around and essentially asserting he said something different (emphasis mine).
❝ A few hours after Trump's Cabinet meeting, CNN's Jim Acosta asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, "Why did the president call the U.S. justice system a joke and a laughingstock?"
"That's not what he said," Sanders replied. "He said that process has people calling us a joke and a laughingstock." ❞
Now, maybe that's what he meant to say, or maybe that's what was scripted for him to say. But it's not what he actually said. He didn't talk about "people" calling "us" a joke and laughingstock -- he said, speaking for himself, that "what we have" is a joke and a laughingstock.
But Sanders isn't arguing that Trump misspoke, or was unclear, or was misinterpreted. She's simply asserting he said something different from what he said.
Gaslighting is a psychological term for where someone attempts to control someone else by asserting reality is different from their memory of it. [1] It's frequently used by abusive spouses and authoritarian regimes. If you can get someone doubting their memory of events, it means they can be convinced that something was their fault, that abuse never happened, or didn't happen in just that way, or that it was somehow justified, or that future things they perceive are, perhaps, their own misunderstanding.
It's rare that you see it in political contexts quite so blatantly, or so proximate to when the event happened and was caught on video, as this.
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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/01/hours-after-trump-calls-us-justice-system-a-laughing-stock-white-house-denies-he-ever-did.html
Perhaps, Sanders believes she's using a Jedi mind trick on the weak minds of the media.
Originally shared by Dave Hill
When Press Secretaries are Gaslighters
Sarah Huckabee Sanders isn't even trying any more. Or, perhaps, she's just upping her game.
I mean, it's one thing when Trump says, "X" and Sanders says, "Well, what he really meant was not X, but Y."
Apparently that's too many words, as she's now going directly to "No, he said Y." Even though, yeah, there's the video footage of him saying "X."
There's Trump, on tape, saying: _"We need quick justice and we need strong justice — much quicker and much stronger than we have right now — because what we have right now is a joke, and it's a laughingstock."
And there's Sanders turning around and essentially asserting he said something different (emphasis mine).
❝ A few hours after Trump's Cabinet meeting, CNN's Jim Acosta asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, "Why did the president call the U.S. justice system a joke and a laughingstock?"
"That's not what he said," Sanders replied. "He said that process has people calling us a joke and a laughingstock." ❞
Now, maybe that's what he meant to say, or maybe that's what was scripted for him to say. But it's not what he actually said. He didn't talk about "people" calling "us" a joke and laughingstock -- he said, speaking for himself, that "what we have" is a joke and a laughingstock.
But Sanders isn't arguing that Trump misspoke, or was unclear, or was misinterpreted. She's simply asserting he said something different from what he said.
Gaslighting is a psychological term for where someone attempts to control someone else by asserting reality is different from their memory of it. [1] It's frequently used by abusive spouses and authoritarian regimes. If you can get someone doubting their memory of events, it means they can be convinced that something was their fault, that abuse never happened, or didn't happen in just that way, or that it was somehow justified, or that future things they perceive are, perhaps, their own misunderstanding.
It's rare that you see it in political contexts quite so blatantly, or so proximate to when the event happened and was caught on video, as this.
------
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/01/hours-after-trump-calls-us-justice-system-a-laughing-stock-white-house-denies-he-ever-did.html
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