How to gaslight people about freedom (and virtue signal)

Also published on Wordpress.

*puts on a mask*

First thing first, what is tyranny?

In general, tyranny is what happens when the so-called leaders abuse their powers. But, some people think it can also means deliberately taking the freedom to choose from others, even though having more options is harmless or even beneficial. Of course, that doesn’t bother you.

We know that your main goal in life to force your ideals upon everyone and making sure yours are the only legally acceptable ones. Of course, you cannot be open with your tyrannical tendency. In fact, you want to be seen as the exact opposite: a lover of freedom.

It is simple.

First, you need good framing. You need to frame the tyrannies you support as “reasonable” restrictions and the freedom you oppose as “tyrannical”, even though they are anything but.

Second, you need to give an illusion of freedom. You need to persuade people that the restrictions you impose still allow for more options, even though the other options are so unfeasible, you feel discouraged from taking them.

I have four examples:

You support car-centrism and euclidian zoning in urban design because you claim everyone deserves the right to drive and own spacious single-family detached house with spacious lawns.

You oppose secularism and religious neutrality because you claim they restrict religious freedom.

You are anti-abortion because you claim the unborn deserve the freedom to live.

You oppose queer-inclusive education because you claim students deserve to not have sexualities shoved down their throats.

Of course, those aren’t true. Deep down, despite what you claim, you never care about freedoms. What you care about is having special rights, being on top of the caste systems.

You support car-centrism and euclidian zoning because you are a car nut and you want your cars to hog all of the spaces; it is much easier to do so when public transits and pedestrians barely exist. You also love it when your neighbourhood is free from diversity; you feel it is beneath you to share one with people who don’t share your backgrounds.

You oppose secularism and religious neutrality because they hinder your ability to shove religions down people’s throats. Every time you scream “religious liberty”, it is always on the context of people condemning your discriminations against minorities.

You are anti-abortion because you love controlling women’s bodies; if you actually value life, you would take care of those born children, you would never force women with health complications to give birth and you certainly would never force rape victims -especially the underage ones- to keep their rapists’ babies.

You oppose queer-inclusion because you don’t want incoming generations to humanise minorities. You want to beat the queerness out of people, figuratively and literally. And who do you think you are kidding? You support conversion therapies.

Gullible people will definitely fall for your deceitful rhetoric. But, just in case, you need to take yours even further: you also have to convince them to perceive reality through a dishonest perspective.

You can assert that a car-centric and euclidian city still has mass transit, pedestrian infrastructures, bike lanes and other housing options, a theocratic and anti-queer state may allow minorities to exist and you are free to abort your pregnancy elsewhere.

Those assertions are dishonest because they leave out crucial details.

A car-centric city has inefficient and unreliable mass transit who is only used by desperate people and not only walking and cycling are uncomfortable, they can be deadly because speeding cars rule the landscape.

A very euclidian city mostly has two housing options: big detached houses with big lawns AND high-rise apartments. The other options — low-rise apartments, townhouses — barely exist, if at all.

A truly theocratic and anti-queer state will give minorities less rights; to say they will suffer even more disadvantages is an understatement. Converting to the official and majority religion and staying in the closet sound like the only paths to better, easier lives.

You may be allowed to go elsewhere for an abortion. But, it still doesn’t hide the fact that your place still criminalises it. Not to mention poor people are at a bigger disadvantage as traveling requires them to spend extra cash.

And you have to omit those details. You should never acknowledge them.

When others point out those details, you have to silence them by any means. You can accuse them of spreading fake news. You can accuse them of being delusional and seeing non-existing patterns.

You can also project yourself onto them; accuse them of advocating extreme or unreasonable things, even though you are the ones advocating for them and your opponents are doing the exact opposite.

Omitting certain details does not count as lying when the things you explicitly say are technically true.

If you follow my advices, not only you can repress anyone whom you refuse to humanise, gullible people (and we have enough of them) to hail you as a defender of liberty, even though your actions clearly scream the exact opposite.

*takes off the mask*

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