Politicians can’t just keep gaslighting us. As I discovered last year, there is nothing like a very long motorway wait to provide some political clarity
It’s become such a cliche to complain about gaslighting in politics that it’s hackneyed now even to complain about other people saying it. Yet it remains the case that when politicians deny the problems that are staring everyone in the face, or admit the problem but deny the cause, then turn round and argue that no, actually, you caused it, or remainers caused it, or Albanians caused it, or the wokerati caused it, that is quite unsettling. You could call it gaslighting, or you could call it nascent totalitarianism, and I am happy with either because I don’t work for the BBC.
If you cling on to your observable realities, you fall out of step with the norm. To join the herd, you have to deny your own experience. It’s amazing how many people are prepared to ventriloquise plainly ridiculous propositions, such as: “It’s not Brexit causing this or that crisis – it’s small boats”, on to other, nameless opinion-formers – “That’s what they think in Lincolnshire, anyway” – just to avoid the discomfort of the fringes.
Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist
