Badlands Media will always put out our content for free, but you can support us by becoming a paid subscriber to this newsletter. Help our collective of citizen journalists take back the narrative from the MSM. We are the news now.
I’m not a genius.
I’m sure most reading this are thinking, “uh… obviously”. Nor do I think I’m a prophet. I’m actually quite humbled that anyone takes the time to read anything I have to say. At the same time, I also realize I’m not the main character from the movie Airplane, where people sitting next to him on the plane are killing themselves to avoid listening to him talk.
Mind you, there are plenty of people who don’t want to hear what I have to say, but generally it’s due to them not wanting to hear the “truth”. They don’t want to have their belief system challenged. They would rather go on believing lies than attempt to confront and dismantle their Stockholm Syndrome. It’s embarrassing to admit you were and are wrong. I get it. It’s not necessarily as much idiocy believing lies rather than accepting the truth, as much as it is weakness. Some people aren’t intentionally rejecting the truth; they just can’t process it. It’s like trying to remember something you forgot. Trying harder may not help; it will come to you when it comes to you, or maybe it’s lost forever.
I have been and still am manipulated, just like everyone else. I choose what to accept and not accept based on how much the information challenges my belief system. I hear fake news and on occasion pass the information on, it’s embarrassing.
Last week, I read on Truth Social that Biden extended Title 42 last-minute. I was going to include this information in my last Badlands post, but after discovering I couldn’t get any other validation to this claim, I deleted the information from my post before it went out. On Mother’s Day, I read on another Truth Social post from a prominent figure in the ‘truther’ movement that George Soros had died from a massive heart attack. This person later went on to explain he fell for a hoax. Notice both fake news items I heard this week were on Truth Social, not Twitter, or MSNBC or CNN. There is a motivated effort being made to mislead us on “our” sites. To fool us into believing what we want to hear.
Like many out there, I try to wait a day or two before commenting on information that hasn’t been verified. It helps keep one out of trouble. It keeps one from looking incredibly gullible. It requires discipline. Everyone wants to be the person to first comment on something or to break a story. These fake stories infused into our community are extremely damaging to the cause, and they are passed on for two reasons: Either the person passing on the bad information is doing so intentionally or unintentionally. They were fooled, they didn’t do their homework to verify, or they were in too big of a hurry to break the story.
If I have anything going for me that allows me to successfully traverse through the 5th-Generation Warfare in which we currently exist, it is my faith. I fully believe that God will never abandon me, my family or my country. With this belief or understanding firmly cemented into my foundation, I continue to push forward in my understanding of the truth.
One could picture this as a rock climber climbing El Capitan at Yosemite National Park. As the rock climber continues to climb higher, they anchor safety lines. If they slip or start to fall, the anchor will hopefully stop them from falling too far. The closer together the anchors, the shorter the distance one falls. My faith makes up the anchors in the rock face. When things start to become overwhelming, confusing and appear too bleak to overcome, I fall back to the understanding that God will never abandon us. With this belief, one must also understand that what we are experiencing must occur.
Gaslighting occurs from all sides.
I suppose the technical definition of “gaslighting” is “the subjective experience of having one’s reality repeatedly questioned by another.”
I see it more as a crazy person telling a sane person they are in fact the one that is crazy. A motivated effort to make one question their own beliefs. ‘Geez, so many people are saying men can menstruate, maybe they can actually menstruate.’ I also view “gaslighting” as an intentional showcasing of a subject matter to influence people and change their beliefs, usually done in unison by the media. The more people who support an idea, the more believable and legitimate the idea appears. The idea may not be the endgame, but leads one to accept a bigger idea.
Gaslighting can be used in multiple ways. Generally, it’s used by the media to push fear, control and to change people’s belief systems to fit a narrative and agenda. But gaslighting can also be turned on the people pushing false narratives and agendas. Gaslighting can be used to keep people asleep, keep people in fear, change their belief systems and morals, make people blackpilled, or to wake people up and to expose the lies.
This past week, we heard a lot about the border and the ending of Title 42. No one was talking about it two weeks ago or two months ago, but all of a sudden, two days before Title 42 expired, the border situation became the biggest concern we now had. Why is this?
If it is such a concern, why wasn’t it being talked about much earlier. Why wasn’t it stressed and dramatized? In my opinion, the Deep State doesn’t want us to know how bad it is, the “black-pillers” want to use the situation to fill our hearts with fear and hopelessness, and Trump and the Patriots are using this situation to wake people up.
Let’s look at this border situation with a little logic.
First, who do you think wants the invasion at the Southern Border to happen the least? I would say it is Mexican and Latin Americans who reside in the US legally. The invasion at the border makes their lives a living hell. It’s akin to being a Muslim right after 9-11.
Recently, Biden gave a speech to the graduating class of Howard University, a Black school. He stated that white supremacy is the biggest threat the nation currently faces. This claim was later parroted by the head of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. Everyone reading this knows this claim is ridiculous and a narrative shift the Deep State is trying to push to avoid talking about the border crisis.
Now, let’s look at the logic of this statement and the border crisis. The Southern Border is being overrun by minorities risking their lives to get into this country. We are to believe these minorities are risking their lives to get into a country wrought with racism and white supremacy. It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.
What do we know when things don’t add up? Invariably, it signals a narrative being used to push an agenda. The agenda to destroy America through illegal immigration, drugs, human and child trafficking. (By the way, the cost of food has skyrocketed in Central and South America recently, and many are now trying to enter the US illegally. Coincidence?) Many are being forced out of their countries with a hope of a better life in the US. If the white supremacy narrative was real, wouldn’t minorities be going the other direction at the border? Instead, the people in Central and South America are being told America wants them to come, and that they will be accepted with open arms. One message to Americans and another to the border crossers.
Also, what is the highest wage-earning group in America? It’s not Whites, it’s Asians. Does this support the White Supremacist claim? No, which is why it isn’t ever talked about by the Left. The only time the Left has ever talked about Asian Americans is when they tried to blame Trump for violence stirred up against them for using the term “China virus.” Darn those hard-working, highly educated and successful Asian Americans … they mess up the whole “white supremacy” narrative.
Why is the Deep State pushing the “white supremacy” narrative?
The Deep State wants to distract away from the border. The Deep State would love nothing more than to destroy the US through an invasion of illegals, drugs and human trafficking. Destroy the country while getting rich working with the Mexican Cartels. But in order to maintain this operation, they can’t have too much attention drawn to the border, otherwise people will recognize there is an issue.
What are Trump and the Patriots currently doing? They are gaslighting the border situation. They are exaggerating the border fiasco tenfold. Don’t get me wrong, the border situation is bad, very bad, but it’s not as grave as they are currently making it out to be. And where was all the hand wringing two weeks ago or two months ago? Trump and the Patriots are drawing attention to the border now to wake people up.
This process of Trump and the Patriots gaslighting to wake people up has consequences; it has collateral damage. While “sleeping” people on the Left are waking up to the border crisis, “awake” people on the Right are becoming black pilled. “Black-pillers” and “Doomers” are using Trump and the Patriot’s gaslighting to demoralize and frighten people on the Right. Don’t fall for it. This is the collateral damage of gaslighting the Left into waking up.
What is the alternative to Trump and the Patriots gaslighting the Left into waking up? It would mean actually allowing the border situation to be as bad as they are currently portraying it. It would mean, instead of exaggerating the situation tenfold, they would allow the situation to actually become ten times worse than it currently is. I can’t imagine anyone would prefer allowing the border to be worse versus exaggerating it.
In theory, we have four groups of people in America: One group is made up of permanently, psychologically damaged people who will never come around to the truth no matter what facts are presented to them. Q estimated 4-6% of the country fits into this category. I would guess around 60-65% of America is awake, which would leave 30-35% of America still sound asleep, but with the potential to wake up if they hear enough of the truth. Of the 60-65% of America that is awake, a good portion of them fall prey to black pilling, while a much smaller portion of the awake can understand the tactics being used to save our country. This smaller portion of the awake are what they call, “comfy” all the time. Feet up, popcorn in hand. It’s not that they aren’t doing anything, it’s just that they aren’t stressing because they see what’s going on.
This awakening process is like the parable of the shepherd who leaves his flock to go and look for a lost sheep. Or the father who celebrates his prodigal son who returns. Or the woman who searches, finds, and celebrates finding a lost coin. Trump and the Patriots are currently bringing people into the fold, into the light, and the process of this is confusing to us and used by the black pillers to intentionally demoralize us into a state of hopelessness.
Getting back to the prominent person on our side who “forwarded” the fake news that George Soros died. I looked at the comments on his post. The majority believing at the time Soros died said, “who cares, his son is worse than him anyway”, or “who cares, someone just as bad as him will take his place.” I was shocked to see how black pilled people on our side are, devoid of any hope; no matter what the news, they turn it into something bad. Mind you, I can’t say for sure how many were bots.
The black-pilling is like someone giving you a beautiful house for free and you immediately respond, “great, now I have to pay property taxes on it each year, “I’ll probably have to mow the yard in the Summer too.” Or someone giving you a car for free and you saying, “geez, have you seen the price of gas?” There is a good portion of the awake population that is really this bad, this negative, this unable to see the good that is happening.
Elon Musk bought Twitter and started exposing the Deep State corruption while allowing most people back on the platform. The black-pillers said, “he’s just setting us up for a big fall—at some point he is going to pull the rug out from us.” Tucker Carlson left FOX, a controlled opposition network who completely censored what he could and couldn’t say. The black-pillers response was, “we’ll never have access to the truth again.” When Musk hired a new CEO to run the advertising on Twitter, the black-pillers said, “she’s WEF, she’s a democrat, she’ll eliminate free speech on the platform.” Seriously, Tucker just announced he’s going to be airing his show on Twitter. Do you really think he would do this if he thought this new CEO was going to eventually shut him down?
Does anyone think Trump randomly scheduled the Town Hall meeting on CNN for the day after the verdict came out finding him guilty of defamation? Do people really believe a jury found Trump not guilty of raping the woman, but found him guilty of saying he didn’t rape her? This situation was created, or rather showcased to show people the country can’t be fixed through the judicial system, as it’s too corrupt. Trump knew what the verdict would be, and he also knew going on CNN the night after would shorten the verdict’s news cycle down to 24 hours. The Deep State would have extended it out for weeks, if not months if they could have. Trump wanted to turn the attention to the border.
It’s not a coincidence that Trump lost a ridiculous defamation case, then the Durham report came out a week later with no new indictments. People are black pilled over this. The report completely exonerated Trump and claimed all the accusations against him were false, as in defamation. A few weeks ago, FOX lost a defamation case they could have easily won. Then Trump lost a defamation case so ridiculous people have a hard time taking it seriously. Then Durham comes out with obvious and clearcut evidence of defamation against Trump. Precedent set. How many people will Trump be able to sue for defamation now?
Gaslighting is being used to wake people up. Bud Light, Sports Illustrated, Miller light and Adidas are being forced to push revenue-losing narratives so the public will have the impression things are much worse in our society than they really are, and they will be motivated to do something about it. We don’t wake up from someone quietly whispering from across the room. We wake up when the annoying alarm clock goes off.
Again, please don’t think I’m saying the bad stuff isn’t that bad. I’m saying the bad stuff is being amplified and exaggerated to wake people up. The gaslighting is necessary. There is collateral damage. Jesus said, “there will always be sick and poor.” This wasn’t Him minimizing or justifying their experiences. He came to save the people who were lost. Right now, lost people are being saved, sleeping people are being woken up, but it doesn’t mean all atrocities are being eliminated and criminals punished.
Trump and the Patriots are doing now what the Deep State did during Covid. During Covid, the Deep State manipulated, lied about, and exaggerated the direness of the situation to gain control of the nation. This isn’t to say some very unhealthy people didn’t die during the pandemic, but rather that the situation wasn’t nearly as bad as they made it out to be. Currently, the Patriots are exaggerating the damage the Deep State is doing to the country, the border, the economy, a potential WWIII, while controlling that damage from behind the scenes. This is necessary to wake the asleep. Yes, this is painful and discouraging for many who are awake, but suck it up, as war sucks. You aren’t going to get your hand held, you aren’t going to get one on one attention. This is the part where we are expected to act like adults.
We can ridicule the Left for all the dumb things they believe, but a good portion of our side refuses to see any good in what is happening, and immediately turns everything negative, even though they have a fairly good understanding of what has occurred and is still occurring in our country. In other words, they know who the bad guys are and what they’ve done, yet they still get black pilled around every corner.
It’s like the black pilled are sheep lured out of the pen by a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The wolf convinces the sheep to climb over the fence, as it’s safer outside of the fence. The shepherd is away trying to find the lost sheep, he has abandoned you. The wolf in sheep’s clothing are the people who appear to be on our side, but are intentionally trying to get us to abandon our hope and confidence. The black pilled are the people who follow the wolves, their hearts filled with despair.
Right now, the border situation is being exaggerated to wake people up, but it is not only that. The gaslighting of this border fiasco has motivated congress to put out a serious border-protection policy. The Democrats will be forced to sign it because their constituents will start begging for it. Their constituents are being gaslit into thinking the border is worse than it actually is. This is making lemonade out of lemons.
Let’s go back to my anchor in the rock-climbing scenario. My anchor is the belief, faith, confidence and understanding that God would never abandon me, my family or my country. With this understanding, every situation that appears to be bad or going in the wrong direction, or instills hopelessness, shake it off. Accept that bad things need to occur for our nation to get to the other side. This isn’t to make excuses or justify the evil that has occurred and is still occurring, but this is just to say, God can turn every act of evil into something good.
What is the good in this situation? People are waking up; people are turning from their idols and their evil ways. Stop being negative! Take joy and solace in the fact that people are actually waking up, and they are turning from their idols. Think back to four or five years ago, a lot more people are awake today. They may still lack the courage to speak up, but they know something is wrong with our society.
Because the border situation is being gaslit, stronger border policies will go into effect, the wall will eventually be completed, fewer women and children will be trafficked in the future, fewer women and children will be abused, less drugs will enter our country and reach our streets, fewer cartel soldiers will enter our country and fewer lives will be destroyed. The cost of this? A little drama for a few weeks. Drama we can easily avoid by turning the TV off or jumping off social media for a few weeks. Or even easier, by simply understanding that it’s not as bad as they are making it out to be.
Recognize when the message is for you and when the message is for them. When it’s for you, it’s straightforward and accurate. When it’s for them, it’s usually exaggerated to penetrate through their mind control. If you receive the exaggerated message as being for you, you can become overwhelmed and lose hope.
It’s not going to be Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in a year. The exaggerated message being put out to wake up the sleeping will make one believe this if you accept it. Things will likely get worse in our economy, but not to the point of the exaggerated message being put forth about the economy and financial system. Trump and the Patriots won’t allow us to get into a nuclear war. But they need the sleeping to believe there is a possibility their politicians could take us there.
When things get overwhelming, ground yourself with the understanding that God never has and never will abandon you. When you have confidence in this, the drama we are experiencing is still annoying, just no longer believable.
Badlands Media articles and features represent the opinions of the contributing authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Badlands Media itself.
If you enjoyed this contribution to Badlands Media, please consider checking out more of my work for free at Erik’s Substack.
I personally believe that We The People as a whole have become much better at discernment between what’s real and what’s fake. I take every “breaking story” with a grain of salt & give the cycle a day or two for the evidence to reveal itself. I don’t need to wait long before a hoax is debunked or a truth is retruths by a reputable source. WE get it finally!
Excellent article, solid work and encouragement. I believe that God will never abandon our country because The United States of America is the beacon of Hope, Freedom, Liberty and endless opportunities. The founding fathers of America were deeply committed to Faith and the absolute guidance of Gods hand. The values of our Constitution and Bill of Rights has never been more threatened, those seeking to destroy have never come up against We the People of this great nation. Keep writing!