Image by Taylor Burnett from Pixabay
I mentioned in Monday’s post how one of the hallmarks of 2020 was constantly battling the feeling of cognitive dissonance from watching plots of dystopian sci-fi and horror movies from my youth play out in real life. Yesterday and this morning, I’m experiencing that feeling in spades.
Having grown up with a narcissistic parent, I’ve learned well how to recognize when I’m being gaslit, manipulated, bullied, and outright lied to. Things in our nation and culture have devolved to such a point that this is now happening daily, on both sides. Those who report and commentate on the news seem to be divided into those who are knowingly participating in the lying and gaslighting and those who are naive and deceived enough to go along with the narrative. It’s hard to know what, or who, to believe, and right now I feel like nobody’s telling the whole truth.
Just an aside: another hallmark of narcissists and psychopaths is projection — that is, accusing others of what they themselves are guilty of in order to deflect blame away from themselves. In my observations, the people who shout the loudest accusations are usually the most guilty of those things which they’re accusing others of doing or thinking. Narcopaths always tattle on themselves. Never forget that.
At any rate, I don’t know what to think about the events that unfolded yesterday, or what to believe. I do know, now that the dust has settled a bit, that the events at the Capitol disrupted the proceedings just in time to prevent Cruz and Hawley, et al, from formally making their protests, and put an end to all debate about the veracity of the election outcome. Upon reflection, it seems like the only ones who benefited from those shenanigans were Biden and the Left. If it was indeed Trump supporters who led the charge, they undermined everything their side claimed to desire and destroyed all future hopes of a political future for the President as well as ensuring that, at best, no one will ever take their side seriously again, and at worse, that all Trump supporters will be branded as crazies and terrorists.
I want to share two videos for your consideration, and I suggest you watch them quickly before they’re removed. The first is only a minute long. I’m not sure who this guy is or where the footage was obtained, or even if he’s telling the truth, but I don’t find his claims hard to believe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H3C6b85N2I
The second is longer, around 45 minutes, but I urge you to make time to watch it. I find this woman extremely credible and, as crazy as everything she’s saying would have sounded a year ago, after 2020, it’s all completely believable to me.
https://vimeo.com/497855165
(Update: YouTube already took the second video down. I’ve replaced it with a copy from Vimeo. If that should disappear as well, here’s a link to watch it on Bitchute.)
Like I told my husband last night, life in our present age feels a lot like how it felt growing up with an alcoholic narcissist — never able to relax, always bracing for the next crazy thing, never sure what to believe, wondering if I’m the one who’s crazy.
And yet, through it all, I have a deep, abiding sense of peace. I have peace because, in the midst of all the lying and gaslighting, I have the objective, absolute truth of God’s word as an anchor. I know that the Creator of the universe is sovereign over all of His creation, that He installs governments, raises up their leaders and removes them as He sees fit. I know that He has a plan, and that His plans always prevail, and that nothing happens that He doesn’t allow, and that He works ALL things together for ultimate good, and in the end, nobody’s going to get away with anything.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. –Romans 8:28 (NASB)
We can’t trust our media, we can’t trust our government, and we can’t trust our politicians. Put your trust in God, and in Jesus Christ his Son. They will never fail you.