Gaslighting vs Truth Telling

I’m trying to stay positive, but I thought I’d write about things bothering me in addition to my creeping cancer.

First of all I’m very, very frustrated by the ppl who refuse to get vaxxed. The very ppl who claim to be pro-life are killing ppl and babies. This blows my mind. The disease affects the developing babies in utero (and my daughter is pregnant!). Some babies born to covid moms have more days in nicu or born prematurely. Here’s a good article below. But all studies indicate that vaccines prevent serous illness to mom and baby. But I’m still frustrated with you if you’re not vaxxed or you’ve spread misinformation about it.

https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/29/us-covid-vaccines-pregnancy

My second truth is saying my hubs also has a chronic condition so if you’re not vaxxed you are harming him too—not just me with metastatic breast cancer. We encourage and commiserate with each other. He gets so frustrated by health care workers not vaxxed. How selfish. btw He is an oncology doctor and is vaxxed for his patients and himself.

My third truth is I’m so over ppl who ignore verifiable truths. The capitol riot was peaceful? The election was stolen? I know what I saw for hours on tv and know the truth that over 700 ppl have since been arrested and charged for participating. Plus law suit after lawsuit was thrown out by courts (over 50) by even Trump appointed lawyers who agreed that the election was legit. And if you’re still watching fox for news you’re not gonna get accurate political news because they are set up for entertainment—they can legally lie all the time . Lawsuits have proved it. And legit anchors like Chris Wallace have left. Be better than that. Find other sources.

So while ppl like my family are struggling with scary life and death issues, privileged white ppl are slinging insults about a stolen election listening to politicians who call opponents socialists. Really what they’re saying is “no one works as hard as white Americans and ppl of color will steal their money.” Is this a new idea? No, after the Civil War white ppl called black ppl “socialists” and the narrative was if black, brown or indigenous ppl got power they’d destroy white people’s lives. So they made it more difficult for former enslaved people to vote, to own property or hold office. The most famous case occurred in Wilmington, North Carolina where legitimately elected black/white politicians were murdered or terrorized by whites who didn’t want them to have land or power. So some black families were never able to build up generational wealth the way white families did because of the policies preventing backs from advancing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_insurrection_of_1898

History will not remember our time period kindly. Ppl are being gaslighted which means politicians are telling lies to make ppl think they’re unable to know truth and so they rely on ppl who keep repeating the same lies over and over. The term comes from the 1944 movie “gaslight” in which a man tells his wife the lights are on when they aren’t in order to drive her crazy and get her money. This type of abuse happens in abusive relationships to convince the victim they are the crazy ones

I understand the frustration from people who just throw up their hands and want someone to tell them what to believe. That’s how autocrats come to power and what happened in Nazi Germany. They say “you’ve got this problem? we the leaders will fix it for you” (and jail the opponents).

btw socialism happens when govts own ALL companies. Hardly happening here. I am not a socialist. I am a free market capitalist.

So let’s hope for a more peaceful, honest year. Pay attention to facts. Do fact checks. Do research. I’ve taught research for nearly 30 years and trust facts from credible sources. We need a healthy 2 party system without name calling and adults at the wheel not supporting violence. I have voted for dems and republicans but this has gotten crazy. And let’s pray that the pandemic gets under control. Get your shots! I believe in us—all of us.

And one more truth, while this current admin has made mistakes, Biden is doing a great job even though he inherited a crumbling economy and an attempt to overthrow the govt. Childcare credits, stock market way up, jabs in millions of arms (despite finding out 45 had no fed plan for vaccines), jobless rates falling, clearing up logistics problems in LA harbor, healing wounds in foreign relations & our status in the world, exporting vaccines, performing the feat of airlifting 130,000 ppl out of Afghanistan in an extraordinary short period of time. Yes, sadly 13 service people died but more would have died if he hadn’t. Plus Biden had inherited the former prez’s messy promise to the Taliban to get out by May—and he had not even spoken to the legit Afghan govt..

I hope 2022 is better for all of us—especially in light of the millionth (undercounted) worldwide case of Covid as we enter the New Year.