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Flat White

Political gaslighting

30 September 2022

4:00 AM

30 September 2022

4:00 AM

When it comes to political analysis, Shakespeare may not get the credit he deserves.

One of his most memorable lines was delivered by Queen Gertrude in Hamlet when, in response to the overacting of an actor in a play created by Hamlet, the Queen says, ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks.’

When it comes to protesting too much, the left wing of politics are the standard bearers and do it better than anyone.

There are far too many individual examples to consider in a short essay like this, yet one stark instance is in the use of language which implies that representative principles are employed by leftist totalitarian regimes.

Countries that use the words ‘democratic’, ‘peoples’, or ‘republic’ are generally the least likely to be genuinely democratic, for the people, or actual republics.

Arguably the most famous example of such a generous use of these terms is East Germany, which existed from 1949-90 and was officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

The GDR was formed after the second world war by the Soviet Union, when communist leaders were installed to govern half of the German nation using a planned economy controlled by a totalitarian regime.

The Potsdam Agreement committed the Soviets to supporting democracy, however the Soviets’ understanding of democracy was limited to naming rights only as outside the use of the words ‘democratic’ and ‘republic’, the GDR showed few signs of any such traits.


Today we have the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, better known as North Korea, which ranks 167th of a possible 167 countries assessed by the Economist in its 2021 Democracy Index.

The DPRK is another totalitarian regime in which people are repressed in every aspect of their lives, including voting rights, freedom of speech, travel, employment, and religion. The Kim dynasty has ruled North Korea for three generations. There is nothing ‘democratic’ about the DPRK.

At rank 166 there is the Democratic Republic of Congo, followed by another ‘democratic heavyweight’ in the Central African Republic which comes in at number 165. Also, let’s not forget the People’s Republic of China qualifying at number 151.

It is as sad as it is ironic that ‘Democratic Republics’ have turned out to be among the most authoritarian and the least democratic of all countries.

The leaders of these ‘Democratic Republics’ certainly doth protest too much. The President of China Xi Jinping once said, ‘We must uphold the principle that all power of the country belongs to the people.’

This slippery use of language also extends to left-leaning political parties in the West such as the Democratic Party in the United States. Founded in 1848, the Democratic Party’s website states that, ‘As Democrats, we believe that every person in this nation should be treated with dignity and respect.’ Yet the Obama Administration reportedly planted spies inside the Trump campaign to drum up false accusations of President Trump illegally interfering with the 2016 election. Doesn’t sound very ‘democratic’ to me.

From the Russian collusion hoax and the impeachment scam to blocking and frustrating the Trump Administration in critical announcements and culminating with the Democrats’ appalling silence regarding the Antifa/BLM riots across the country, it’s hard to see how they treated the United States, or the office of the President, with anything vaguely resembling dignity or respect from 2016-20.

In addition, the Democrats have the gall to call for unity following Joe Biden taking the whip hand in the Presidential race. We all know that by unity they simply mean compliance with their agenda.

The so-called party of democracy has seen fit to be at the centre of most of the unedifying conduct during the previous Presidential term culminating in some very undemocratic conduct during the 2020 election.

The Democrats have mastered the art of accusing ‘…the other side of that which you are guilty’. In essence, a form of political gaslighting on a grand scale. This quote is attributed to Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx, and sometimes even modern leftist icon Saul Alinsky and succinctly sums up how the Left operate.

They love to call Republicans racist for banning Critical Race Theory, yet prior to the 2020 election, Joe Biden said, ‘If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.’ Furthermore, Democrats incessantly claimed Russian interference in the 2016 election, but upon Biden’s victory in 2020 they suddenly insisted that elections were foolproof.

Closer to home, we see the same trend emerging from the Left on a routine basis.

Left-wing media outlets are fond of describing themselves as ‘independent’, despite being deeply ideologically motivated by collectivist attitudes. Leftist publications often seem to view themselves as being the ‘alternative’ or the ‘resistance’ despite often toeing the same lines as massive woke corporations and Hollywood.

In relation to energy policy, we see Labor and the Australian Greens vigorously protesting for the need for carbon neutrality, yet when offered virtually emission free energy in the form of nuclear power, they throw up their arms. A clear example of how ‘progressive’ policies prove to be regressive.

For all the Left’s protests about emissions, their energy policies have nothing to do with emissions reduction and everything to do with ideological zealotry regarding renewables dependent on government subsidies.

Accusing the other side of that which they are guilty of and then protesting too much – hypocrisy and political gaslighting, it’s in the Left’s DNA.

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