Gaslighting isn’t just a buzzword people throw around online. It’s a real psychological tactic, and when it’s used by people in power, it can make entire communities question their own reality.
Gaslighting happens when someone with authority denies what you clearly saw, reframes it aggressively, and then treats your confusion as proof that you’re wrong. It makes you pause, rewind, and second-guess yourself. It creates that quiet feeling of wait… did I imagine that? And when it works, it shifts power away from the public and back into the hands of whoever controls the narrative.
That’s why the past week felt so unsettling.
After the Minnesota ICE shooting, video evidence began circulating almost immediately. People watched it. They processed it. They formed questions. Then the administration stepped in with certainty that didn’t match the footage. Before investigations could fully breathe, officials confidently told the public exactly what happened and why. No room for doubt. No acknowledgment of contradictions. Just a firm insistence that the government’s version was the only truth that mattered.
When Kristi Noem was pressed on national television about those contradictions, the moment became a perfect example of how gaslighting works. Faced with visuals that complicated her claims, she didn’t pause or reconsider. She doubled down. She spoke as if the evidence wasn’t evidence at all. As if what people watched with their own eyes was irrelevant compared to what she was saying out loud.
That’s the trick.
Gaslighting isn’t loud chaos. It’s calm confidence delivered in a way that dares you to challenge it. It’s telling the public that footage doesn’t mean what it looks like it means. It’s declaring conclusions before facts are settled. It’s reframing skepticism as ignorance and concern as disloyalty.
And when this tactic comes from an administration, the impact spreads. People start arguing with each other instead of questioning power. They ask themselves if they’re being dramatic, emotional, or biased for reacting to what they clearly saw. That’s how gaslighting does its real damage. It isolates people from their own instincts.
This isn’t about one interview or one official. It’s about a governing style that treats reality as flexible and perception as something to be managed. It’s about repetition. Say it enough times, say it confidently enough, and eventually some people will stop trusting themselves.
If you felt unsettled watching officials dismiss video evidence, that doesn’t mean you’re confused. It means you’re aware. Gaslighting only works when people give up their confidence in their own judgment. And the most important thing you can do in moments like this is trust what you saw, ask questions anyway, and refuse to be talked out of your own perception.
Because the goal isn’t clarity.
The goal is control.
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