The word “perspective” means the way that one looks at something. It is your viewpoint, your picture of the world. The suffix “-cide” means “to kill.” “Perspecticide” means to kill or destroy someone’s sense of self and their grasp on the truth about the world.
The citizens of United States of America today are the victims of mass perspecticide. Millions of our citizens firmly believe manufactured lies and crazy conspiracies. Millions more are unsure about what is real and insecure about where to find the truth.
Perspecticide occurs when an abuser has told the victim so many lies the victim no longer knows what is real. The term was first used to describe the effect of brainwashing on prisoners of war. More recently it is used therapeutically to describe the damage done by manipulators in abusive relationships. Donald Trump, with his 20,000+ lies (so far), is just such an abuser — on a mass scale.
In a study of more than 38 million articles about the pandemic, researchers at Cornell University recently found that President Trump was the single biggest driver of false information about coronavirus. A major Harvard study released in October found that Trump had perfected the manipulation of mass media to spread false information about mail-in voting, and that the President was an even bigger source of disinformation than “Russian bots or Facebook clickbait artists.”
Charlotte Alter
The behavior of an abusive manipulator
When a manipulator cannot advance his cause through evidence and logic, he will change the subject, muddy the issue, attack the other person personally, and, especially, attack the other person’s sources of information. Donald Trump is a master of all these tactics.
In a formal debate, challenging the opposition’s information is a legitimate strategy, but it must be done logically. The debater must provide documentation (ie. written counter evidence) indicating where the other side’s evidence is inaccurate or biased. Simply crying “Fake News” proves nothing.
Donald Trump never provides evidence for his assertions and he dismisses arguments and evidence against him with childish name-calling and even more fact-free assertions. He speaks almost randomly, sometimes claiming something and denying it in the same breath. He is all ego and no substance.
What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.
Donald J. Trump, July 24. 2018
The damage will not be easy to repair
The damage Donald Trump has done to the United States is incalculable. His brainwashed acolytes will not simply snap back to reality when Trump is gone. The fear, the false narratives, and the conspiracies that have been awakened will not soon go back to sleep.
The racists, the bullies, and the thugs who have come out of the basement and have been empowered by Trump will not be eager to put down their tiki torches and their AK-47s. It will take a long time to recover from the ugliness Trump has exposed in our society.
Beginning to heal
The single most important thing that the victim in an abusive relationship can do is to leave their abuser. Healing cannot begin as long as long as the abuser is still around to manipulate the victim. Trump must be sent back to his tower (if not prison) and Fox News should have its broadcast license revoked for flagrant abuse of the public trust.
But leaving the abuser is not sufficient. The victim of an abusive relationship must find friends she can depend on and professional help she can trust. It takes time to be able to admit that one has been victimized and see the truth of the situation one has been living in. It takes time to rebuild one’s sense of a self that is independent from the abuser.
Truth precedes trust
Trust cannot be rebuilt without first reestablishing truth. Our new leaders must be scrupulously honest and transparent. Politicians who continue to tell lies must be outed and censured by both their colleagues and the media. Voters need to learn that a candidate’s character is more important than the policies they claim to support.
There will be much repair work to do. Strong voting rights for all must be reestablished and protected. The Postal Service needs to be restored. Relationships with our allies need to be rebuilt. Our economy is disastrously top heavy. And the world continues to get warmer….
Americans used to be known as problem solvers. It’s time to restore the soul of America.
Sources: Jennifer Delgado, “Perspecticide: The “brainwashing” technique used by manipulators,” Psychology Spot.
Charlotte Alter, “How a Road Trip Through America’s Battlegrounds Revealed a Nation Plagued by Misinformation,” Time, October 8, 2020.
Andrew Romano and Caitlin Dickson, “YouGov poll: Half of Trump supporters believe QAnon’s imaginary claims,” Yahoo! News, October 20, 2020.
Amen.