The Daily Gaslighting

I've been following and listening to Ben Shapiro for year. I've read many of his columns. I've  been listening to his podcast for a couple of years. Ben is clearly on the far right of the right and he's entitled to that. But he's also a very intelligent and rational person and that's why I listen to him. However during this Trump's term he's been using his gift of gab and rationalizing stuff to serve Trump in such a way that leaves me wondering if he really believes what he's saying or he is gaslighting. Among the sycophantic MAGA podcasters Ben has truly outdone himself. 

The American economy is going downhill. The people are FEELING it in their pockets. People are feeling the rise of prices at the supermarkets aisles and seeing how their dollar buys less and less. That's called inflation. But the government says it's OK and since there have been no GDP or economic reports since November they can repeat that lie without being confronted on the data. Although data won't matter because Trump has made sure to appoint his sycophants in the positions that monitor the economy so goodbye objective data. 

Left leaning media will paint a catastrophic picture of the economy. Right leaning media will either explain away or white wash the status of the economy. Ben goes one step further by gaslighting his audience. 

Gaslighting is defined as the practice of psychologically manipulating someone into questioning their own sanity, memory, or powers of reasoning. A person who gaslights another is doing it on purpose to gain something at the expense of the other person. Some people gaslight to do psychological harm. And in the case of Ben I truly believe he's using his gaslighting abilities to maintain his foot on the White House Press Corps. After all the Daily Wire has made history as the first podcast to have a journalist on the White House Press Corps and Ben knows that if the crosses the Don he'll be kicked like Marjorie Taylor. 

Now back to Ben's gaslighting on his podcast dedicated to make his audience deny reality and believe that the economy is good and thriving under Trump. But first let's talk about perspective. Ben's perspective is that of a millionaire. To him no matter what happens the economy is gonna be OK. He was born on a shiny golden cradle and fed with a golden spoon. Ben has never known or experienced the hardships of the common man. He says he knows what is living paycheck to paycheck and having only $10,000 dollars in his savings account as the closest he's been to having experienced hardship. 

Now the main talking points of Ben which are now the talking points of Trump are that the economy is "schizophrenic". You gotta be subtle here because Ben is walking a very thin line trying not to alienate his audience and subscribers who will be soon cancelling their subscriptions to be able to afford groceries. He's blaming the economy labeling with a mental health disease characterized by having hallucinations. Ben is careful not to call anyone experiencing high prices and a decreasing earning potential crazy but that what he's indirectly doing. It's like calling everyone that criticizes Trump as a "Trump Derangement Syndrome"  sufferer because Trump is not the problem it's the people that see him for what he is him who have a problem. 

According to Ben the problem is a perception problem because the economy is doing great. His evidence? The stock market. Yes, Ben is trying to gaslight people into believing that since the stock market is doing good the economy is ok. 

But wait, there's more. Ben also says that the affordability problem is because young people insist on living in expensive cities like New York, Miami and other places where the cost of living is high due to a scarcity of housing development. His proposed solution? Move to cheaper cities or the suburbs. Easy right. But the problem with this is that it's not only on the metropolitan areas where the economic pinch is being felt, it's nationwide. 

Ben's other proof that the economy is doing great is the GDP Growth. He states (without evidence) that there's been a 4% growth this year and this is a sign that the economy is doing great. There's just a problem with that, GDP Growth does benefit a nation but is concentrated among the wealthy. The common working man that does not have stock in the stock market will not feel that. 

So Ben's main talking points is that the economy is great because people like him, rich people, are doing great. If you say otherwise you are... schizophrenic. 

Well, looks like Trump picked up on that or that there's a script somewhere. Trump started a whitewashing rally on the economy saying that affordability issue is a Democrat hoax. Everything is OK because "prices are way down". That is a lie. Trump also said that he is "crushing inflation" which is a lie. He also said that everything is great because the stock market is great and the 401k are great. 

That fact that Trump elected a CASINO to launch his economic gaslighting rally should tell you something. This is actually an allegory of what Trump has been doing this term, he's gambling with the economy by playing with the tariffs, issuing executive orders that impinge on the agencies that regulate the economy. He's been manipulating the economy by trying to force his way into controlling the Federal Reserve and force them to lower the rates. Trump is playing with the economy as if it was his casino and let's not forget he did that once and ended up in bankruptcy but all the time he kept saying that everything was OK and under control. 

Ben Shapiro's dishonest gaslighting will be replicated by the right leaning podcasts. But people are feeling and seeing the truth on their grocery bills. The Midterms are coming and no amount of gaslighting is gonna make people believe anything contrary to reality because as Ben likes to say "Facts don't care about your feelings" and maybe he and his rich pals are feeling good but people aren't and that's a fact. 

Sources 

https://open.spotify.com/episode/209V80aLsCLpWq56WDoUJN?si=AJ3ZI9swS_qJutPyIaNq_g&context=spotify%3Aplaylist%3A37i9dQZF1FgnTBfUlzkeKt&t=0&pi=5S0HUKRCQsaWm

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/09/fact-check-trump-speech-pennsylvania

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/09/trump-pennsylvania-affordability-speech

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3w9L2SPJW92X3fXXoSbN3M?si=GSRxnJaCSLi0Tthb9Hjtxw&context=spotify%3Aplaylist%3A37i9dQZF1FgnTBfUlzkeKt