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Psychology Today (January 2017) defines gaslighting as “… a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality. It works much better than you may think.”

 

Or, if you prefer, my thoughts on Dirty Rubles by Greg Olear, Trump/Russia and Inception. Also, they still apply.

· Greg Olear,Dirty Rubles,STATOREC,Inception,Gaslighting
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Which is to say, please do take a look at my September 2018 piece on Dirty Rubles by Greg Olear (subtitled "On Inception, Gaslighting and Trump/Russia: Or how Dirty Rubles Connects the Dots on a Story You May Think is Confusing, But Really Isn’t So Confusing After All") at STATOREC. Please let me know what you think. And do enjoy some excerpt below.

"Every time I speak to someone about Trump/Russia and they tell me how confusing it all is, I think, is it, really?

"And then I think about Inception.

"You remember Inception, right? If you’ve seen it, you may recall it as, well, confusing, or feel that you are supposed to do so, and if you haven’t seen it, you probably recall it as a movie people said was… confusing.

"This is what Entertainment Weekly wrote when it was released (7/10):

'Is there anyone else out there who simply didn’t get Inception? Who watched it, as I did, in a state of near-perilous confusion? Please, if you’re there, come out of the woodwork. If only so I can stop feeling like I’m the only dummy in the room.'
 

"I suppose that review could be tongue-in-cheek, but it begs the question: why is the trope of confusion the narrative we are asked to associate with the viewing of this movie?

Isn’t Inception about someone going into other people’s lives (their dreams in this case) and constructing an alternative version to what they think they know so he can extract information to help corporations be better informed when looking to close business deals?

"Yes, it is, really, that’s not actually up for debate, and so what about that is confusing? There are the weird details, the dead wife and the possibility of one getting endlessly stuck in a dream, but are we confused by this, or are merely deciding we are confused because the popular, and yes, endless conversation, found it entertaining to say it must be so? Is it possible we might be able to understand if we were just willing to do the work of understanding it? And if that is true, is talking about Trump/Russia any different than any of that?

"The facts as we know them are being reconstructed by a self-promoting con man with the help of a vast and arguably unethical team comprised of criminals, grifters and shape-shifters, to support his vision of restructuring our vision of the world to match his preferred vision, through lies, manipulations and building walls.


"The story lines are not that different, except for this one fact: one is a movie and the other is the narrative of how the current administration has come to be and how its decisions both prior to, and following the election, profoundly impact the lives of everyday people and the country they love.

"The challenge, for me anyway, is that I can’t insist, as I do with my children, and anyone who will listen on Twitter, that one is obligated to seek a greater understanding about what is going on with Trump/Russia, but I can tell you that the hope, my hope, is that if you did seek to understand it, or tried to, things might be different.

"And now I’m going to contradict myself, because I’m not truly sure what I’m saying is true, because I don’t think those who support the current administration will be swayed by anything they read, and those who don’t support the administration, or just don’t care, may not need convincing, or ever care, about what Trump/Russia is, or is not."