Election Day Lunar Eclipse 2022 – A Very Strange T-Square and Gaslighting

by Robert Wilkinson

Yesterday was a strange day in more ways than one.

I should start by stating that while I hoped some elections would swing differently, overall it’s pretty much what I expected. The “red wave” never materialized, accompanied by the usual screeching by republicans about incompetency in counting ballots because of rules the republicans insisted be put in place. So they gripe about how slow the counting is when they were the ones making those rules. That’s Gaslighting.

I had three different weird experiences on social media yesterday, with Mars retrograde a clear factor. A spiritual wisdom site I’m a member of has attracted a racist, sexist troll who just can’t seem to figure out she’s on the wrong site. So while I attempted to carry on a reasonable and somewhat detached conversation about a question related to my experience with the Ageless Wisdom, this person kept coming back with attack after attack, and when I wouldn’t respond to her racism and sexism, she threw more insults and accusations totally unrelated to anything being said. Even sites dedicated to the Ageless Wisdom may attract bottom feeders. So beware of racist and sexist trolls who accuse you of those things when they’re the ones generating the merde. This is one of those situations where “consider the source” becomes necessary for a sense of perspective. And yes, when someone accuses you of the behavior they’re exhibiting, that’s Gaslighting.

Then I found myself being attacked and insulted on quora for what began as a disagreement about what constitutes a certain musical term. I attempted to point out a flaw in how the term was being defined in Wikipedia, and it escalated from “you don’t know what you’re talking about” to direct insults directed at me, my knowledge, my history, and my understanding, even though this stranger literally knew nothing about me. I decided to leave the stream, since when people start throwing insults then there’s nothing left to discuss. I just found the escalation from zero to 60 over something fairly obscure was strange, but oppositions to Uranus are like that, especially when coupled with Mars retrograde. The entire unpleasant episode involved the other person gaslighting through Cherry Picking and referencing an "expert" who was narrowly defining something which is not usually defined in that way.

The third encounter was truly strange. I am/was an editor on Wikipedia, and have been for years, mostly adding to or correcting various entries about musicians. I saw a ridiculous statement related to a ‘60s band which just isn’t true, and never was. So I tried to correct it, only to find someone immediately took down my edit because it wasn’t “proper style” in the eyes of the moderator. So I corrected it, and they took it down again because of an obscure rule which is flagrantly ignored in thousands of articles on Wikipedia. So then I corrected it again, and they took it down again based in a rule they cited which is nowhere to be found.

I have no idea how to contact anyone in charge over there, but unexpectedly found myself in a talk thread with an admin about what was going on. I asked about their own internal inconsistencies, and how to post the correction without it being taken down. I was accused of all manner of issues and problems which made it clear that some Wiki mods and admins are jerks of the worst sort, arrogant and heavy handed in their statements and accusations. They actually attacked me for asking questions how to post something.

This is a kind of Mars retrograde situation, in that I heard in the past the site is run by people who hate astrology and will do everything they can to dilute anything posted there. In past years I’ve read of serious firefights over there with astrology deniers throwing all kinds of hate at astrologers, especially those who know more than they do, which is nothing at all. While my post had nothing to do with astrology, it was clear they follow rules only they know and are very heavy handed with anyone who questions anything in any way.

So I kept asking how to do the edit according to their unpublished rules, and one admin got offended that I was even asking questions and after insulting me and attributing all kinds of psychological problems to me for asking questions about how to conform to their rules, chose to mute me. I went to his icon and saw he is an Alabama right winger. One would think that if his candidates were doing as well as they were he might have been a bit happier and more gracious. But he wasn’t. So Wikipedia clearly has heavy handed jerks running the show, passive-aggressive until they are active-aggressive. I don’t know why I’m surprised at the nasty arrogance and heavy handedness there, but it still was a bit of a shock.

So on this post election day, I just have to remind you that a) people are strange, and some believe that because they are relatively anonymous on social media it gives them the right to spout racist and sexist insults at others they do not know in any way; b) With Mars retrograde, beware of discussions which escalate into attacks which are inappropriate at best. It indicates that I must have triggered some frustration within them for such rapid attacks to come forth; and c) Wikipedia is run by jerks. When they do their fund raising, I promise not to give them a dime, and encourage you also not to contribute to them in any way. I won’t pay for the experience of being insulted by an arrogant hotheaded right winger. And he was.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming…..

For more on various techniques of gaslighting and gaslighters, please check out A History of FLICC: the 5 techniques of science denial. FLICC breaks the categories into Fake experts, Logical Fallacies, Impossible expectations, Cherry picking and Conspiracy theories. Each of these 5 has several variants, as outlined in the article. This is a very good source for spotting gaslighting when it's happening, with ways to bust the gaslighting every time. Take a look!

Copyright © 2022 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[whatsis]

Thank you for sharing the experience and resource for managing (surviving)this fractious time.

[Denise]

Yikes - what a day! Disappointing to hear things like that, but appreciate you sharing. Reminds me of a 60s song: "Mama said there'll be days like this..."

[Robert]

Hi whatsis and denise -

Well, I've always figured that whatever I was going through was part of a larger energy, so understand that what happens may have relevance in others' lives. And yes, "Mama said they'll be days like this" was always one of my favorite Shirelles songs, since it's true, even if our situation isn't about a boy named "Billy Joe."