Gaslighting

Let’s do this one together.

Exactly a minute ago, right before this writing, Donald Drumpf took his place on the lawn of the White House. He was apparently on his way to Iowa for campaigning. On behalf of the citizens of Minnesota, I offer my thanks to the Taunter-in-Chief. At least he wasn’t on the way to Minneapolis.

An offscreen voice called out a question about Syria, to which Drumpf naturally responded with his default reply. Miraculously remembering the name of the new president, he said that he had just talked to Ahmed al-Sharaa and thought that it was a “very fine” conversation. At that point, he began to leak bodily fluids in the form of random references to an array of issues. All the right things are going up, he said, and all the right things are going down. “In many parts of the country, gas is already way down to $1.99 a gallon. “

That’s the little detail I’d like us to concentrate on. Because I’m a maniacally compulsive critic, I decided to check Drumpf’s figures on the price of gas, knowing in advance that they would be dead on arrival. Along with some of you, I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma and gas prices here are typically among the lowest in the nation. Yet, there isn’t a gas station for miles in or near the city where gas is now selling for $1.99 a gallon.

But fortunately for all of us there is something called the Internet, with many sites that list nation-wide prices for gas. The one from AAA seemed like a good bet to me, and I found quick confirmation of my suspicions. The highest price today is the State of Hawaii, where premium is selling for $4.89. Sure as shootin’, Oklahoma is the lowest, where you can fill your tank for $2.40. Yet another reason for Canadians to move to Tulsa (I’ll get back to this soon). But there is nowhere in the country where gas is $1.99, except in the Delusional State in which our president lives. At Mar-a-Lago, of course, gas is free and there are lemonade springs and singing bluebirds on the Big Rock Candy Mountain. Anywhere else? Not so much.

Saying all of this gives me no pleasure (except for the part about lemonade springs). It’s just that I’m worried about the effect of constant exposure. Outrage is a difficult emotion to sustain, and when someone lies often enough, we begin to lose sight of the fact that he is lying. It becomes the hum in the background, the ambient noise, and we start to lose track that we are being deceived and gaslit, including the part about the price of gas.

Virtually everything that Drumpf says is a bald-faced lie, including, as Mary McCarthy once put it about Lillian Hellman, the “ands” and the “buts.” I am officially choosing for perpetual outrage, long enough to get me to the midterms, where I hope to embrace another fixation: keeping J.D. Vance out of the White House.

Note to members of the national press corps: try not to let Sauron get away with murder. We need reporters to respond with rude corrections, fact-checked retorts, and the guard-rails of truth.