I trust that each of you enjoyed the numerous daily posts you have received from me in the past two months while I was away. Are you shaking your head in wonder? Thinking ‘did I miss something?’ In turn, I wonder if this is gaslighting or sanewashing my readers. To include a fact-check, I didn’t post any pieces during that time.

Generally, I don’t explore politics at Aging_With_Pizzazz. Normally, I attempt to provide health benefits and ease stress, not add to it. Not to mention that I hear enough of it in my volunteer life. But here is a tangential foray into the current state of affairs.

The Art of Gaslight Spinning

The method of gaslighting takes its name from a movie many of us may remember, the 1944 psychological thriller in which Angela Lansbury made her film debut. (Her initiation into the thriller realm was followed by similar genres as she went on to star in Sweeny Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, the suspenseful Manchurian Candidate and the TV show, Murder She Wrote.)

Gaslighting nowadays is increasingly prevalent in the political world. It sometimes feels painfully close to Orwell’s 1984 world in which the Ministry of Truth is tasked with rewriting history to better reflect the propaganda and untrue claims from “Big Brother.” We may not be seeing modifications of historical records and falsifying information yet, but campaigns come close in their pursuit of winning votes, if not seeking to control the population as in 1984.

The gaslighters of our current world will attempt to manipulate the public by propagating half-truths, misinformation, disinformation and lies to gain support. The falsehoods are meant to generate doubt in your mind or create confusion. What to believe? Or as is often jokingly quoted “Who ya gonna believe? Me? Or your own lying eyes.”

It has nothing to do with our senior eyes, our minds or any confusion. And nothing to do with age. Instead, it has everything to do with political spin, and we need to be diligent to recognize less than reasonably-true information.

What about the Art of Sanewashing?

Now there’s a somewhat-new buzzword. It’s a relative to ‘white washing.’ And neither white-washing nor the new ‘sanewashing’ is germane to cleanliness. We don’t earn points as you would in the Washing Day Quiz for Seniors. But if seniors can remember all the details of washing day (do you remember what day of the week that was?), then perhaps we can remember other helpful facts.  Recollecting historical events in American history or our lifetime history, can clarify when someone is pulling one over on us.

Sanewashing creates a substitute narrative, almost an alternative reality. In times gone by, the related word would have been normalizing. Thus, at a minimum it’s normalizing, or worse, sanewashing when we observe radical ideas spun into more appealing messages (or at least acceptable) to a wider audience. Nonpartisan experts agree it is not meant to help people, but to sway and manipulate minds into believing we all think this ‘alternative’ way.

Historian, Rebecca Solnit, who inspired the word “mansplaining” in her 2012 essay “Men Explain Things To Me” is one of those highlighting the recent complaints of media ‘sanewashing’ language of former president, Donald Trump. “Instead of showing how rambling and off-topic he is,” she writes, “they piece together fragments of his speeches to come up with a few crisp sentences.” Or as journalist, Matt Bernius asks in Outside the Beltway (September 6, 2024), “Is it the press’s responsibility to turn nonsense into sense?”

When the Republican Lincoln Project (an anti-Trump organization) accused the same mainstream media of this sanewashing behavior (after the candidate’s interview with the Economic Club of New York), the phrase was repeated, repeated, repeated in the echo chambers. Thus, an instant new buzzword was born, but with concerning, rather than frivolous, repercussions.

Isn’t Sanewashing just Paraphrasing?

We all paraphrase. We hear a story, joke or description we like and we may change it slightly to best reflect our point. A paraphrase, or a ‘rephrase’ isn’t whitewashing, changing or losing the meaning behind the language. Sometimes journalists will paraphrase as they believe they can state things more succinctly while presenting the stated idea clearly. It reminds me of teachers in junior high school telling us to “put it in your own words.”

Paraphrasing is not Sanewashing. Paraphrasing can still present accurate information, facts, data or evidence from credible sources. Changing words but keeping the meaning. It might be taking a lengthy statement and whittling it down to a short quotation for the news, maybe even a ‘sound byte.’ It’s paraphrasing as long as it keeps the meaning and doesn’t make it sound more rational than it was.

Many of us who have a sideline in the volunteer-activist world paraphrase all the time. In those realms, or in the traditional-journalist world, the goal is meant to educate or inform. As stated above, this is not the goal of sanewashing, in which usually-unacceptable remarks are reworked to make them seem more palatable to those not paying strict attention.

Interestingly, I read that in the mid-teens of this century (around 2014-2016) the term sanewashing was adopted to describe the cryonics industry. The idea of selling a service that freezes a person after death, and waits to thaw them in the future when a cure for their ailment is discovered can sound pretty nuts. But the industry was able to use snippets of science to explain certain processes to make it sound reasonable enough for people to buy into it. It’s not cheap, so their ability to sanewash must have been darn good.

Prebunking

Opposite of gaslighting or sanewashing or exaggerated paraphrasing is something most of us would like to see more of – prebunking. Whether for disinformation or rumor control, prebunking is providing a preemptive debunk before the dis/mis/mal information is actually disseminated. Seniors have the advantage of helping prebunking in our society due to their memories and knowledge of history.

I read an amazing example of prebunking just this last week. Currently, the word fascism has been seen in the news at an alarming rate. In the mid-1940s when US soldiers were faced with the rise of fascism in the world, the US Army took steps. They made efforts to ‘prebunk’ any erroneous and positive elements they expected the soldiers might hear.

The US Army issued one of their important “fact sheets” that they often prepared to educate their forces. Fact Sheet #64 (March 25, 1945) was to instruct soldiers and prepare them for discussions about fascism as the war across the pond wound down. The handout was filled with specific details of a fascist system and also stated that “[F]ascism is not the easiest thing to identify and analyze; nor, once in power, is it easy to destroy.” The army wished to prebunk the glories of an autocrat with fascist ideas, whether domestic or foreign.

More Pre-bunking

Bringing us up-to-date, the government is currently trying to prebunk misinformation about voting. Worried about the intimidation of voters from those who attack the integrity or confidence in elections, they have produced several statements. See the joint federal cyber election interference statement (CISA, FBI, & Director of National Intelligence) just issued, or background on the American cyber defense system report: Foreign Influence Operations and Disinformation.

Despite these examples, the best avenue for prebunking is the media. Obviously, some of them do it well, others only add to the information that ought to be debunked. Certain laws and guidelines that used to bridle poor media tactics no longer exist. And often, media doctor information to ‘play to their base’ only, just like candidates.  Yes, we can prebunk in our own social circles, but it’s good to encourage the media as well.

Watching for Helpful Pre-bunking

I am going to paraphrase ? some of the tips from Kelly McBride a journalist, and leading voice on media ethics and democracy. In her article at Poynter.org she points out ways for the media to avoid, and for us to notice, sanewashing.

1. Watch to see if quotes are left to stand as given. No abbreviations or edits.
2. Be certain the writer shows value and a reason for sharing a quotation. For instance, McBride writes, “If a journalist is running an extended quote to show people how offensive a statement was, they should tell people that.” As another example she clarifies that “If they’re trying to document a lack of mental incoherence, they should say so.” Hopefully, they identify their journalistic purpose.
3. Notice if the writer / journalist paraphrases what is being said to the extent of being sanewashing.
4. Make certain the writer points out inaccuracies or lies, and calls them as they are. Additionally, do they explain the purpose those lies serve? If they are attempting to fact-check a statement, the journalist should explain to readers they are “setting the record straight.”
5. Ask yourself if the writer helps you understand (and exposes) which audience these lies or conspiracies are intended for? She also explains that for both the right and the left “dog whistles” can be subtle. When used by a candidate or official, the writer should point them out and explain their significance.

FINAL THOUGHT

Seniors have great resources of memory to draw from when watching the news or reading the paper, or (gast) doom-scrolling on social media. This isn’t just at election season or when candidates are running. (Although, aren’t they ALWAYS running?) It’s important for us to understand a shifting world around us and be able to evaluate what it means for us. We need to make certain we don’t listen only to our own ‘tribe’ but do the best we can to evaluate the facts, and not be gaslighted or influenced by sanewashing.

A friend recently related a story in which her employee kindly pointed out “Well, there are your facts, and then there is this 2^nd set of alternative facts over here.” Oh dear.

I realize there are often extenuating circumstances to consider in most matters. So, I can easily welcome ‘additional’ facts. However, I’m a skeptic when it comes to the idea of ‘alternative’ facts. Instead, I plan to take refuge in my childhood television and consider Detective Joe Friday’s advice of “just the facts ma’am.” That may be the greatest value in most situations, read for the facts and draw from our memories to help us avoid getting caught in a dragnet of lies and confusion.

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Resources:

How to avoid sanewashing Trump (and other politicians) – Poynter

Fake News & Fake Facts: Media Literacy Awareness: Recognize Gaslighting and Sanewashing – Fake News & Fake Facts: Media Literacy Awareness – LibGuides at Western Technical College

Washing Day Quiz for Seniors – Memory Lane Therapy. https://memorylanetherapy.com/washing-day-quiz-for-seniors/#google_vignette

Where’s The Line Between Paraphrasing And “Sanewashing?” – Outside the Beltway

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Picture credit: title – Pinocchio liar at podium Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Unity Photo: by Robert Koorenny on Unsplash

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