CONK!
The fabulous Carol Roth is one of the smartest people I know, and a champion of freedom, individual liberties, and the American Dream. A Dream that has been under attack for quite some time now. This is one of the reasons why I asked her to post a guest column here, as she speaks to what is currently happening in our economy and our world, and how we can educate ourselves and fight back.
Carol is not really into the Substack thing—unlike me, most people have a limit to how much social media platforms they’ll sign onto—so even though this column is under my headline, the words are hers alone.
Carol is a “recovering” investment banker, two-time New York Times bestselling author, entrepreneur, and the creator of the Future File legacy planning system. Carol is a TV personality who has appeared on CNBC, Fox Business, The Megyn Kelly Show, and a host of other legacy media and podcast outlets. In her spare time, she is a business advisor.
You can find Carol’s most recent book, You Will Own Nothing on Amazon, or join her personal newsletter here.
Without further adieu.
There is so much data and information nowadays that it is often overwhelming. FinancesOnline recently posted that there are almost 42 million What’s App messages shared every minute, and almost 350,000 Instagram stories posted each minute; and that’s just two of many platforms for data creation and sharing.
Whether the information comes from the mainstream media (aka the corporate press) and trickles down, or it starts as grassroots propaganda, there is a lot of information out there, and with that, a lot of intentional misinformation.
This information dump has been a powerful tool to gaslight the public and shape the narrative on recent events.
The list is too long to hit every instance, but think about a few of the biggest gaslighting efforts of late.
The gaslighting on COVID was of epic proportions and people remain misinformed to this day. Otherwise sane and knowledgeable people will argue, “we were all in it together,” when that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Small businesses were shuttered when big businesses performing similar services were open down the street, as well as entities that benefited state tax revenues, like liquor and weed stores. Trillions of dollars were transferred via monetary and fiscal policy from Main Street to Wall Street. But, because of the gaslighting, people believe a different story, even thinking that small businesses “received a bailout” instead of a tiny fraction of the money deserved from government shuttering their business “for the common good.”
The outgrowth of these policies which resulted in inflation, then stoked further by the Biden administration doubling down via more stimulus and supply-reducing policies was another area. We were told that there would be no inflation. Then, after it predictably appeared, we were told that it would be transitory, that it was good for you, that it would only affect the rich, that it was greedy corporations’ fault and that it was Putin’s fault, among other insanity.
Still, the administration and the media are trying to convince Americans, who are struggling with their day-to-day living, that we have a booming and wonderful economy and that they just aren’t understanding that.
Gaslighting.
Over the past month, we have endured more gaslighting in terms of the horrible massacre of Jews, Americans and others from around the world by the terrorist group Hamas. The gaslighting here has reached a new level.
Regarding Israel, the lies are copious and there isn’t enough pushback. There was a ceasefire, but Hamas broke it by firing rockets. Some evil people seem to think this doesn’t count, because the Iron Dome intercepted them instead of them causing mass casualties. Hamas specifically targeted not soldiers or military installations, but civilians. They were specific and surgical in their quest, and they killed, tortured, and did unspeakable acts to enact the largest mass slaughter of Jews—a tiny population to begin with—since the Holocaust.
They still hold hostages, including Americans. Despite livestreaming and bragging about their acts, some astonishingly don’t believe it. Women and other people, including many young people in major U.S. and European cities heartlessly rip down posters asking for the release of young children and the elderly.
Israel is called an occupier, despite the fact that the Jews are native to these lands. They have had a presence there for thousands of years. They were in recent history also granted land by mandate and they have defended the land through wars won. In every means that could grant one the right to a land, they have had it; as much, if not more, than the claim of land anywhere else in the world.
They are being accused of genocide, a horrible torture to people who lost a third of their population to genocide via the Holocaust. The media doesn’t battle this lie with reminders that 2 million Arabs live in Israel, and many serve in the IDF.
The gaslighting is so extreme that some LGBTQ individuals are supporting Hamas, when Hamas has stated and has shown that they kill or imprison people for any homosexuality, while Israel has been the leader in the Middle East in LGTBQ rights.
The media doesn’t hammer home that Hamas’ charter includes the destruction of the Jews. They don’t repeat, over and over again until it sinks in, that Israel does everything it can to minimize civilian casualties, including warnings ahead of any conflict to minimize damage, but that Hamas puts civilians in harm’s way. Hamas intentionally hides in civilian areas like hospitals. They don’t clear out their civilians to keep them safe—they use them as human shields. They kill their own civilians then blame it on Israel as propaganda.
They don’t rip Hamas for stealing the aid sent to Gaza to use for violence and munitions instead of for bettering the lives of the Palestinians.
They don’t repeat what others have noted in the past. If Hamas and the other terrorists in the region put down their weapons, there would be peace. If Israel put down their weapons, there would be no Israel.
They don’t ask over and over again, what is the solution when Hamas has stated they will not stop until Israel is wiped out. Where is the middle ground and the grand solution there?
As it relates to the Jewish people, they keep saying “it’s just about Israel,” while people, from college students to protestors in the street, have made threats against the Jews worldwide.
Even the Biden administration’s response to the past few weeks is to create a task force on… Islamophobia.
It would be a hilarious satire movie if we weren’t all living in it and if it didn’t have very grave consequences for our lives and liberty.
Gaslighting is meant to divide us. It breaks us down because it has brainwashed so many generally capable people into believing a series of untruths as if they were facts.
But we must keep working to extinguish this gaslighting. Otherwise, we will end up where Orwell’s 1984 is an instruction manual: everything gets rewritten and the truth doesn’t matter.
There is too much at stake, always, but especially at this moment. We are all frustrated and exhausted, but we need to keep fighting and let the truth see the light. It’s the only substance that can combat and extinguish the gaslighting.
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