@DebIllsley
🧵Difference between cognitive dissonance and cognitive distortions

Cognitive dissonance occurs when you hold two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or attitudes simultaneously.

We are all faced with aspects of cognitive dissonance in our daily lives. It is the basis of our decision-making. Conflicting thoughts, needs, wants or demands occur every day.

• You may believe eating candy every day is bad because it’s unhealthy but still continue to eat it. 
• You may avoid information that conflicts with your beliefs, even if it’s important to the situation, leading to bad decisions in the future.
• You may lie even though you know it is wrong. Cognitive Distortions

The mindset that permeates much of the social media that we find discomforting, confusing or unacceptable is based on Cognitive Distortions.

Cognitive distortions involve thinking patterns that are not based on fact or reality.

People who view the world from an "either-or fallacy" have a challenging time sifting through conflicting issues, competing emotions, or any uncertainty.

The origin of the political division in our country is due to this. To support Trump is either right or wrong. It is a cognitive framework that simplifies complex situations or concepts by reducing them to only two opposing categories or perspectives.

It's the "right or wrong" or "Us versus Them".

Logical manipulation plays on emotions. You are either a caring person or self-centred.

When presented with only two extreme options, as the sole possibilities, all other potential alternatives are ignored or excluded.

"How could you not care about all the people who are deprived of health care and food because USAID has been stopped?"

These outraged "chicken littles" are unable to even consider various facts. One fact being that it is a 90-day halt to all programs. No one said it will never be restored, ever again.

Part II Gaslighting
🧵
Recognizing gaslighting behavior is essential to protect oneself from its harmful effects. Building self-awareness, setting boundaries, seeking support from trusted individuals or mental health professionals, and developing healthy coping strategies can help individuals navigate gaslighting dynamics and assert their own reality and well-being.

It is crucial to address gaslighting behavior promptly and assertively to maintain one's mental health and protect against further manipulation.

Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in a group, making them question their own memory, perception, or sanity.

The term "gaslighting" originates from the 1938 play “Gas Light” and its film adaptations, in which a husband gradually manipulates his wife into doubting her reality by dimming the gas lights in their home and then denying that the light changes have occurred.

It is important to recognize the Gaslighting tactics that people use in daily life.

An abundance of people on social media openly use these ploys to prompt people to feel defensive, to censor people, and trigger emotional reactions. The effects of gaslighting can be profound and damaging, leading to confusion, self-doubt, anxiety, and a distorted sense of reality in the victim. Gaslighting can occur in various settings, including personal relationships, workplaces, and larger social or political contexts.

The more you become aware of these ploys, the less you become susceptible to the efforts. Some of what people use against you can include:

1. Denial and distortion: The gaslighter denies facts or events that the victim experienced or witnessed, or distorts information to make the victim question their own memory or perception of reality.
 
2. Minimization and trivialization: The gaslighter downplays the victim's feelings, experiences, or concerns, dismissing them as unimportant or exaggerations.
 
3. Projection: The gaslighter shifts blame onto the victim, accusing them of behaving in ways that mirror the gaslighter's own actions or intentions.
 
4. Withholding information: The gaslighter deliberately withholds key details or information, leading the victim to further doubt their understanding of the situation.
 
5. Gradual escalation: Gaslighting behaviors often start subtly and gradually escalate over time, wearing down the victim's confidence and reinforcing the gaslighter's control.

🧵Gaslighting has been the primary psychological mind-game used on us for decades and decades. 
 
As we are faced with gaslighting.everyday, I thought it might be helpful for you to know the ploys that have been used on all of us.
 
Even if you have been awake for a long time that doesn’t mean you are immune to gaslighting.
 
I just want you to be able to cut through the BS quicker. 
 
These are the ploys:
 
1.       Seduction: gets the intended victim(s) attention, and gives them attention, gaining their trust
2.       Confusion: creates a necessary uncertainty about an issue, a person, or denying a fact and telling the person they are wrong
3.       Fear porn: attempt to convince you of the dangers, risks, threats, or calamities
4.       Distraction: gaslighter denies facts of a situation or issue, disowns, his/her own actions and contradicts what you think, especially when you are right
5.       Isolation: Think Lockdown. Their goal is to prevent any outside influence from recognizing the gaslighters’ ploys. Isolation. It’s why the focus is on blaming conspiracy theories, and claiming it’s misinformation or disinformation. 
6.       Dominance and Control: Final moves going for the kill, destroys what’s important or meaningful so they can snatch one’s finances or even their country. Gaslighters make the ones telling the truth the crazy ones. 

The mind-games objective is/was to weaken our minds and psychologically play with our emotions. It has resulted in decades of division, spreading the tentacles of political correctness until it reach the heights of making people afraid to speak their minds, restricting free speech because speaking freely void of fear of reprisal means you use your brain and you trust your own perceptions and conclusions.