From the Party of The Perpetual Gaslight

How Democrats Are Still Pretending the Riots Don’t Exist

Jun 12, 2025

The latest riots in Los Angeles offer a masterclass in political gaslighting — and Democrats are once again leading the seminar. Like a rerun of a show nobody asked for, we’re back to parsing phrases like “mostly peaceful” and hearing public officials suggest that chaos is fine as long as it stays on one side of the street.

LA Mayor Karen Bass tells us the destruction is “a few blocks within downtown,” as though bricks flying and businesses burning become acceptable if they're geographically polite. It’s reminiscent of that 2020 refrain — “fiery but peaceful” — when news anchors stood in front of flaming cars and insisted everything was under control, like a bartender assuring patrons that the smoke in the back is just part of the ambiance.

But it’s not just bad spin. It’s psychological warfare.

Gaslighting as Policy

Gaslighting — the act of manipulating people into questioning their own perception of reality — was once the stuff of domestic abusers and noir films. Now it’s public policy. When leaders and media figures deny the obvious — say, that mobs are looting stores and setting buildings ablaze — they’re not just lying. They’re trying to alter the public's emotional and cognitive framework.

And they do it with surgical precision:

Minimize the event (“just a few blocks”)
Reframe the motive (“it’s a cry for justice”)
Moralize the violence (“you can’t judge the reaction without understanding the pain”)

The goal isn’t persuasion. It’s disorientation.

The Four Flavors of Gaslighting (with Fresh Examples)

Minimization Gaslighting – “It’s not that bad.”
- Karen Bass: “It is not all of downtown, and it is not all of the city.”
- CNN headline: “Protests erupt in a portion of downtown Los Angeles, rest of city remains calm.”
  The message: If your building didn’t burn, stop whining.
Redirection Gaslighting – “Focus on something else.”
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (2020, rehashed now on social): “If you’re more upset about the protest than the conditions that created it, you’re part of the problem.”
  Translation: Your house is on fire, but let’s talk about systemic equity.
Moral Gaslighting – “The violence is virtuous.”
- The Nation: “What we’re seeing isn’t chaos — it’s righteous anger against injustice.”
- MSNBC commentator: “This is what revolution looks like.”
  Apparently, revolution means destroying someone else’s small business to make a point you can’t articulate without caps lock.
Reversal Gaslighting – “You're the crazy one.”
- NYT op-ed (2020, recycled this week): “Riots are a natural form of protest in a nation unwilling to listen.”
- Online blue checks: “If you’re using the word ‘riot,’ you’ve already revealed your bias.”
  So if you call it what it is, you’re the problem. Welcome to Opposite Day — permanently.

The Psychology Behind the Pretend

Why would seemingly intelligent officials say things that are demonstrably false — like claiming riots aren't riots, or that organized looting is spontaneous community catharsis?

The answer is threefold:

Self-preservation: Admitting the truth means owning policy failures. So they pivot — away from accountability and toward abstraction. If a brick goes through a window but a Democrat doesn't acknowledge it, did it ever really happen?
Righteous Delusion: Many genuinely believe their cause is holy. In that mindset, any behavior — no matter how violent — can be rationalized as necessary. Looting? That’s reparations. Arson? That’s the fire of justice. You can’t reason with the faithful, especially when they believe they're saving the soul of America.
Control the Optics, Control the Power: If the public believes everything is fine, they won’t demand change. And if they don’t believe it — well, then you just brand them as bigots or fascists. Problem solved.

Have They Learned Nothing?

The Biden-Harris campaign of 2020 ran on a curious cocktail of denial and sanctimony. Crime spikes? Red state hysteria. Cities burning? Fox News fabrication. When Trump mentioned Portland or Kenosha, Democrats rolled their eyes. Months later, they quietly hoped no one would remember.

And now, in 2025, it’s clear they’ve learned nothing. Either that, or they’ve learned that gaslighting works — if your media allies keep the flame lit.

A Dangerous Fantasy

Delusion is comforting. It’s easier to chant slogans than confront moral contradictions. It’s easier to tweet about “equity” than to stand amid shattered glass and explain to a store owner why their livelihood was sacrificed for “the movement.”

But fantasy governance is not governance at all. It’s a mirage. And every time another city block burns while officials offer platitudes, trust in institutions shrinks further — and the cycle deepens.

So here we are again. Gaslit. Patronized. Lectured. But not fooled.

The match may be lit downtown — but the real fire is under the public’s patience. And once that goes, no amount of gaslighting will keep the lights on.