I’ve been seeing a term thrown around a lot lately — gaslighting.

For those of you that don’t know what it means, gaslighting is defined as a form of psychological manipulation and emotional abuse where a person makes someone else question their own reality, memories, or even their own sanity.

Often, they do this by using denial, deflection and lying to gain power and control, making the victim feel confused, anxious and isolated, ultimately eroding their self-trust and confidence.

It originates from the 1938 play (and 1944 film) “Gas Light,” where a husband manipulates his wife into thinking she’s insane by dimming the gaslights in their home.

Gaslighting is most commonly used by abusers in a relationship, but it’s also a common tactic of narcissists, cult leaders and dictators. While most gaslighting situations take place on a one-on-one basis, I’ve been seeing it happen on a massive, countrywide scale recently.

I’m sure you’ve seen it too if you’ve been on social media, have watched the news or read any national newspaper. We’re constantly being gaslit about the state of the economy, Venezuela and plenty more.

And while I think what’s happening off the coast of South America is extremely important, let’s focus on the easiest issue we all can relate to — the economy.

Americans everywhere are experiencing some financial pain heading into the holiday season. I’m sure like me, you’ve felt it if you’ve had to buy a large amount of Christmas gifts for family members in the past month or so.

Things aren’t any better at the grocery store either, as the cost of groceries continues to go up. It was a major talking point before Thanksgiving as families around the country prepared for large gatherings and meals. But according to President Donald Trump in a recent interview with Politico, when asked what grade he would give the current U.S. economy, he first said “A+” then corrected to “A+++++.”

Sure, the stock market continues to do well, but that’s not the only barometer of the economy. The top 10% wealthiest Americans own about 93% of all stocks on the stock market. They’re the ones reaping the rewards while we get the crumbs. I have a Roth IRA that is doing pretty well, but I set that up a little over a decade ago and I can’t touch most of it without major penalties for nearly another 20 years.

The stock market hit record highs for all four years of Joe Biden’s presidency too, but people weren’t celebrating on the streets about how great the economy was doing then either because inflation was outpacing wage growth during the largest single consumer demand increase in history as the world struggled with supply chain issues coming out of a global pandemic.

Trump said he would lower prices on day one of his presidency, but it hasn’t happened. Instead, he just blames Biden. If anyone asks him about affordability for regular Americans, his go-to answer is to say he inherited a mess from Biden.

Sure, inflation was high under Biden, peaking at about 9% in 2022 during the supply chain crisis, but by the time Biden left office, it was a much more manageable 2.9% (an ideal inflation rate is about 2%).

Inflation got as low as 2.3% this April before Trump’s biggest economic policy was implemented when he announced universal 10% tariffs. Inflation has risen steadily every month since and currently is back to 3%.

Trump was happy to talk about Americans struggling to afford groceries in the lead-up to the 2024 election. In fact, it was one of the primary reasons he was elected. But now, Trump has started calling the word affordability a “Democrat hoax,” which is absurd.

The reality is the American economy is going in the wrong direction in just about every metric except the stock market. Foreclosure filings jumped 21% in November. Bankruptcy filings recently reached a 15-year high, jumping 10.6% in a 12-month period ending Sept. 30. U.S. employers have cut over 1.1 million jobs this year, the most since the 2020 pandemic. I’d have more information to share with you, but Trump’s administration canceled key economic reports for third quarter gross domestic product estimates, October’s jobs report and the latest inflation numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

I wonder why they’d do that?

What about rural communities? That’s something we can relate to. American farmers recently had to be bailed out with over $12 billion to make up for losses due to Trump’s trade wars, something the American Soybean Association President Caleb Ragland called “putting a Band-Aid on an open wound.”

That open wound is the decimated global demand for American crops, increased costs of production and rising fertilizer, pesticide, equipment and insurance costs. China stopped buying American soybeans in May. Instead, it purchased all of Argentina’s soybean reserves right after Trump bailed Argentina’s economy out with $20 billion. China promised to resume purchasing American soybeans in late October, but not at the same levels it previously had been buying them.

Do you remember the last time farmers needed bailed out? It was during Trump’s first term, when they had to use $28 billion to rescue farmers from Trump’s trade war with China.

Despite all these struggles, all I’m seeing on social media is right-wing politicians singing Trump’s praises and shouting at the top of their lungs about all the great things they’re doing for the economy and how prices are going down. They cherry pick things like the trade deficit instead of actual economic indicators to imply things are much better for typical Americans than they really are.

Do they think we’re stupid?

It’s like when the Wizard of Oz got exposed by Toto. “Don’t pay attention to the man behind the curtain!” Or perhaps you remember the infamous Iraq information minister we nicknamed “Baghdad Bob” who repeatedly insisted U.S. forces were far from his nation’s capital while the TV showed otherwise.

So what do we do about it?

All I ask is the people reading my column this week hold the current administration to the same standard as the last one when it comes to the economy. Don’t just take Trump’s word for it when he talks about the economy. He has no incentive to tell the truth. I doubt he’s ever had to go grocery shopping once in his life. He doesn’t understand what we’re going through.

Believe what you see at the store. Believe what you see in your bank accounts and your wallets or purses. We need to hold our leaders accountable for what’s happening in this country.

If we don’t, we instead will get closer and closer to George Orwell’s infamous line from “1984:”

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”