John Klar: Vermont liberals gaslight … themselves?

Vermont’s headlong rush to defeat “systemic racism” has encountered pushback, but Black Lives Matter advocates employ textbook “gaslighting” methodology against dissenters. Ironically, this is failing so utterly that these deluded slanderers have succeeded in deceiving themselves only.

Vermont led America in displaying BLM flags at schools. Following George Floyd’s death, the proliferation of Vermont BLM messaging became steroidal — schools, churches, hospitals, town offices, and public streets became speech platforms. But this is leftist speech only — any dissenting views have been systematically excluded.

John Klar

In frustration, many Vermonters turned their ire on these vulgar racist messages — at night, when the government could not stifle their views. BLM graffiti on roads became “protected murals” while anti-BLM efforts were promptly criminalized and labeled as hate speech.

Is this “hate speech,” or the desperate pleas of an oppressed majority? Dismissing these cries of protest as “racist hate speech” works for “itching liberal ears.” But victimized citizens’ ears are opening: a very different sort of “woke.”

A Montpelier city councilor orchestrated the painting of a BLM message before the Vermont State House, which was immediately vandalized. The police had no indication that it was racially motivated, and ultimately ruled that there was no evidence thereof: “police said the messages appeared focused on government spending, and did not appear to reference the ‘Black Lives Matter’ community mural project nearby.”

But vitriolic Councilor Conor Casey promptly imputed guilt, saying, “If people think racism doesn’t exist in Vermont, this should shine a spotlight on it. Clearly, the people who did this are despicable cowards who came here and did it in the middle of the night.”

In a statement to media, Vermont’s RINO governor knee-jerked into the fray:

Early this morning, in an effort to fuel hate and division, the Black Lives Matter painting in front of the State House was vandalized. This painting serves as an important reminder to make equity a priority and use this movement to drive real action and long-overdue change. This act of vandalism only reinforces that we’re not immune to racism, divisiveness and hate in Vermont. We must redouble our efforts to dismantle systemic racism and bigotry, and stay united as Vermonters.

This pattern was repeated in other towns. As WCAX reported:

Vermont State Police Capt. Garry Scott says although the art on the roads is technically vandalism, given the current racially charged climate in the country, they represent a driving force to create change.

‘These conversations need to be had, and when someone defaces property like that, it can traumatize communities in ways as a white society we have never recognized. So, it’s important we at least have the conversations and when someone is doing that, come to the table and then address what that means and how that can really hurt people in ways we never thought of,’ Scott said.

It is not a “conversation” when only one side is permitted a voice, and opposing voices are silenced with character attacks — no Vermonter dares say anything against the Holy BLM Grail in broad daylight. These late-night attacks are more akin to a French Underground movement, and there is no proof of racist animus. But that doesn’t hinder Phil Scott.

This is “gaslighting,” which psychotherapist Stephanie Moulton Sarkis defines as “a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality. … Anyone is susceptible to gaslighting, and it is a common technique of abusers, dictators, narcissists, and cult leaders.”

Such leaders employ the gaslighter’s tools: “tell blatant lies,” “attack the foundation of your being,” and project on to others. They call Vermont racist while enacting laws that distribute COVID funds and other state resources based on race — and seek to create a BIPOC bank in white Vermont. They are racists, projecting their hate onto resistant Vermont victims.

Douglas Murray warns this “crowd madness” must be thwarted:

If we fail, then the direction of travel is already clear. We face not just a future of ever-greater atomization, rage and violence, but a future in which the possibility of a backlash against all rights advances — including the good ones — grows more likely. A future in which racism is responded to with racism, denigration based on gender is responded to with denigration based on gender. At some stage of humiliation there is simply no reason for majority groups not to play games back that have worked so well on themselves. (The Madness of Crowds, p. 9.)

BLM/Antifa racism is causing justifiable backlash. The horrible threat is that BIPOC Vermonters will be targeted in reactionary hate; this angst should instead be directed at the lying ideologues who are fanning flames of racial division to increase political power.

Mislabeling Vermonters’ complaints as proof of racism is a double insult, but also a gift — it reveals the utter elitist disconnect of so many in government. Vermont’s race-baiting agitators are gaslighting themselves, repeating the same stupid mantra, returning again and again to the same vomit.

That’s getting sticky for them.

John Klar is an attorney and farmer residing in Brookfield, and the former pastor of the First Congregational Church of Westfield. © Copyright True North Reports 2021. All rights reserved.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Ardfern

23 thoughts on “John Klar: Vermont liberals gaslight … themselves?

  1. Gaslighting is the perfect word. I don’t care what they are saying now, but from my point of view, racism was all but dead in this country a few years ago. I still say it is. Yes, we do have a ways to go. Yes, there are still pockets of prejudice, but for the most part we have come a long way. It’s getting way too ridiculous. A person can’t even say ALL lives matter without risking their job now. They are just trying to divide us – they fear a united populace.

  2. It’s quite baffling how the black community doesn’t see themselves as being played for fools, apart from the ones who have figured out how to profit handsomely from it. But then, Sharpton and Jackson have made careers from it, role models they. The Left is just using them as human shields.

    The trouble is, when the black community finally does figure it out, they are going to be mighty angry. Hopefully it’s the virtue-signallers that get a taste of that mayhem.

  3. Considering the continued obstacles with City Place in Burlington, I still like the idea of erecting a 9-10 story high BLM obelisk, there. They could use unionized artists. If the City Council doesn’t pursue it, just proves they are racists.

  4. A good example of how far this ‘political correctness’ can go. take a look at China’s ‘Cultural Revolution’ (1966 – 1976). Radical governments, be it on the left or the right are never sustainable. History proves that.

  5. This was a great and informative commentary. One cannot express an opinion on this subject without being called a racist. If you don’t want to be labeled a racist just keep your mouth shut. But I recall the BLM’s protestors screaming “Silence is Violence”. What ever you do is wrong.

  6. One of the fundamental Communist strategies, pit cultures, races and religions within a country against each other by fomenting hate and then seize power by taking over the government with the claim it is necessary to restore order. Many examples of this starting with the Soviet Union.

    1989-2021 From “The Shining City upon a hill” to The Razor Wire City in the swamp.

    • Great analogy at the end of your comment. Independent thinkers are well aware of what the left is doing and the media is their platform, so how do we wake up those who support and vote for these enemies of the people, remember “We The People”? Those who promote the division are profiting from it through control and political policies designed to strip the average citizen of liberty and individualism. Why else would the left want to disarm the people in direct violation of their oath to defend the constitution? Evil flourishes when good men (and women) do nothing. While we preach to our choir, the evil continues. Who has the answer? How far will we be pushed up against the wall before we stop it. The left is like the unchallenged bully at school. Left to do his or her abuse (Nancy) the abuse goes unabated.
      We have to raise our voices so those who censor us are left powerless, being silent enforces the enemy. This is a war of words right now. Either we speak up or the words switch to force. Just take a look at the United States Capitol. Four miles of fence and barbed wire patrolled
      by our national military. That is a stunning picture for a president that was supposedly endorsed by 80 million people. What are they afraid of or is it to demonstrate that you will not be tolerated? This is not my country any more!

  7. Thanks, Mr. Klar, for speaking truth to the mongers of victimization who have snatched the dialogue from rational thinkers and common sense.

  8. The whole conversation is purposely staged and framed.

    How would you bring two strangers together? Call them names? Point out things they are involved in and point out all the bad points?

    Would you maybe have a dinner, invite people over and get to know each other? Might you find common ground, interests? Might you lift the other up? Make a statue for them rather than tearing one down? How about ignoring a slight? How about forgiveness? How about not blaming you for some thing your father did that was wrong?

    Where are all the donations given to Black Lives Matter going? We question and grade all other organizations.

    What would you do to bring people together in love? What are we doing, should that be our true goal? If some people were so inclined it would not take much to defeat hatred and lies, the VTGOP has a great opportunity to lead hear, cause the actions of the NWO pimps is quite obviously working toward something completely different.

  9. Again, I always find it curious when certain privileged white people question the existence of racism, while others use their elite status to announce, for example, that ‘Black Lives Matter’, as if their presumptive pronouncements are sufficient to assuage the privilege of their whiteness. One can only hope and pray that those privileged whites, arguing amongst themselves as to who is more or less the racist, will one day only judge people by the content of their character.

    • If all these white people, elitists, who are the real racists here, are so on board with the privilege of their whiteness, our whiteness, why aren’t they stepping down from all the roles they hold in our society because they only got them through their white privilege? I cannot figure that one out.
      Also, who is going to start this movement of fighting back? You open your mouth and you get canceled, you lose your job and don’t think it isn’t coming here or hasn’t happened here. There is no Revolutions Are Us waiting for people to sign up and join – you are being watched and monitored.
      Obviously I am on board with the mantra of something needs to happen, but how can you push back against something that seems you have zero power to push back against, in this state especially?

    • Well said. But more, what if each white Vermonter who declared we are systemically racist gave an accounting of what in their entire life they have DONE (apart from namecalling and hatemongering and shaming others) to advance the lives of black people. They would likely protest that demanding such a demonstration would be wrong — yet they make horrid allegations without ANY evidence. It is evil. Generally, the less they have done for blacks, the more guilt they feel, and so they assuage that by attacking white people who may have DONE a great deal indeed. And BIPOC people WILL suffer from these racist “initiatives”….. Malcolm X called the liberals out …. They haven’t learned.

  10. BLM and it’s white protectors are creating more racism than there was in the 60’s. People reject being labeled as “racists” or “haters” when there is no racism or hatred in their hearts and, as this article states, people of color will inevitably feel the backlash from such labeling.
    I never cease to be amazed at the support people of color continue to provide liberals who clearly feel that blacks are so pathetic and stupid that they must be constantly protected, defended, propped up, and looked after by their white masters. Biden himself recently implied that they were too dumb to even utilize the internet to locate vaccine sites. And we all are well aware that blacks are so lacking in intelligence that they would be unable to procure an ID if one were required to vote. How sad.
    Finally, we have been told for decades now that we must adjust the educational system in order to boost the egos of all of the little snowflakes in the public schools. Now those same little children are being brutalized by the BLM movement and being forced to admit to their whiteness and their inherent racism. Such should be called for what it is, child abuse.

    • Nobody seems to really talk about it or confront it, But our crappy “leaders” insisting on this belief system, attacking our identity at every turn has real consequences for an entire generation of children. It’s not just race, but gender, vocabulary, and anti-masculinity. These are tools that have been used in the past to usher in communism and great atrocities have been perpetrated by the people who ushered these identity issues into society. It’s meant to divide us and unfortunately its very effective and at this rate I’m not sure America will ever recover.

      This article just popped up this morning:
      A New York school decided to ask parents to rate their whiteness? Did they ask black parents to rate their blackness? How ridiculous is this?
      https://nypost.com/2021/02/16/nyc-public-school-asks-parents-to-reflect-on-their-whiteness/

      If this is what they’re sending home to their parents can you imagine what they’re saying in class?

      If you want to know the basic playbook the left has been using it’s called Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky. Hillary Clinton wrote her honors thesis about him, Obama references in his own book as one of his biggest influencers and George Soros published it and distributed it before working with the US to change the politics in Macadonia. If you want to read it all you have to do is look up: saul alinsky rules for radicals pdf on Google.

      • In the Bolen Report, he says, “What is really interesting about the use of Alinsky’s simplistic tactics is that they were designed to be used by people with low intelligence – those whose lips move when they read. If they EVER read. Tools and fools. CNN’s audience.”

        • “”All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those to whom it is addressed. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be.” –
          Adolf Hitler
          “what distinguished the Third Reich from all previous dictatorships was its use of all the means of communication to sustain itself and to deprive its objects of the power of independent thought.”
          Albert Speer

  11. Back in 2005 Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes interviewed Morgan Freeman and when asked by Wallace how to get rid of racism, Freeman responded; “Stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you a white man. And I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. I know you as Mike Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. You’re not going to say, “I know this white guy named Mike Wallace.” Hear what I’m saying?” How refreshing it would be if we all followed Morgan Freeman’s lead and just stopped talking about race.

    • The dynasties are already firmly ensconced, and their rice bowls get filled with tax dollars regularly so they can branch out and add more staff to proclaim how racist the rest of us are.

      Trying to end a government funded program is nearly impossible. It’s natural state is exponential growth.

Comments are closed.