The Shell Game of Fascist Gaslighting

Why Pretending Not to See Authoritarianism Is the Most Dangerous Choice of All

Los Angeles, USA – June 8, 2025: Los Angeles riot police standing by during a downtown demonstration against expanded ICE operations and in support of immigrant rights - Image: Shutterstock.com

This is, after all, a philosophy blog.

And I need to say something that will be deeply uncomfortable for many of you: if you have friends, family, or colleagues defending what’s happening right now, their old sane selves may not be coming back.

Let me be specific about what I mean. Yesterday, Donald Trump posted explicit orders on Truth Social directing federal law enforcement to conduct “Mass Deportation Operations” targeting “America’s largest Cities” because they are “the core of the Democrat Power Center.” He used the term “REMIGRATION”—language borrowed directly from European fascist movements. He accused Democratic officials of treason for opposing him. He framed resistance to his orders as hatred of America itself.

This isn’t hyperbole. This isn’t political theater. This is a written directive for ethnic cleansing and political warfare, posted publicly by the President of the United States.

But here’s what’s going to happen next—what’s already happening: his supporters will tell you that you’re overreacting. That Trump is “just being hyperbolic.” That you suffer from some cognitive pathology if you take him seriously. They’ll perform concern for your mental health while his ICE agents conduct raids in the exact cities he named, using the exact dehumanizing language he provided.

This is the shell game of fascist gaslighting, and you need to understand how it works.

The game has three moves, executed simultaneously:

First, speak directly to your base using unmistakable authoritarian language. “REMIGRATION.” “Mass Deportation Operation.” “Radical Left Democrats who hate our Country.” The signal is clear: we are at war with internal enemies who must be eliminated. The base hears this loud and clear.

Second, implement the policy exactly as described. Deploy federal troops. Conduct mass raids. Target political opponents. Separate families. Use the state apparatus to terrorize designated enemies. The action matches the rhetoric precisely.

Third, gaslight everyone else into thinking the language doesn’t mean what it obviously means. “He’s just being tough on immigration.” “It’s political rhetoric.” “You’re reading too much into it.” The goal isn’t to convince—it’s to create enough confusion that resistance seems like overreaction.

This allows the regime to operate in plain sight while maintaining plausible deniability. Supporters get to cheer ethnic cleansing while pretending they’re just supporting “law and order.” Enablers get to collaborate with fascism while telling themselves they’re being reasonable about complex issues.

And critics get painted as hysterical for accurately describing what’s happening in front of everyone’s eyes.

The people in your life defending this aren’t confused. They’re not struggling with cognitive dissonance. They’re not victims of misinformation who just need better facts. They’ve made a choice—to align with authoritarianism while maintaining the comfortable fiction that they’re still reasonable people making reasonable assessments.

When your colleague tells you that mass deportation raids are just “enforcing immigration law,” they know those raids are targeting cities because they vote Democratic. When your family member says Trump is “just being tough,” they know he’s using the language of ethnic cleansing. When your friend claims you’re overreacting to “political rhetoric,” they know that rhetoric is being translated into operational reality by federal agents.

They understand exactly what’s happening. They just want you to pretend you don’t.

This is the most insidious part of the shell game—it recruits you into your own gaslighting. It makes you question whether you’re seeing clearly, whether your moral responses are proportionate, whether your alarm is justified. It transforms your accurate perception of fascist tactics into evidence of your own psychological instability.

Stop playing along.

When someone tells you that explicit orders for ethnic cleansing don’t mean what they obviously mean, that person has chosen to enable fascism. When someone suggests you’re mentally unwell for taking authoritarian threats seriously, that person has chosen to weaponize psychology against moral clarity. When someone demands you remain calm while democracy is dismantled in real time, that person has chosen compliance over resistance.

These aren’t good people trapped in bad information ecosystems. These aren’t confused souls who need patient explanation. These are people who’ve decided that maintaining their social comfort matters more than opposing ethnic cleansing.

The version of them that you could reason with—the one that shared basic democratic values, that would be horrified by mass deportations, that understood the difference between immigration enforcement and political warfare—that person is gone. What remains is someone who’s chosen tribal loyalty over moral truth.

This doesn’t mean they’ve become cartoonish villains. They still laugh at the same jokes, care about their families, perform kindness in their daily interactions. But on the question that defines our moment—whether to resist or enable fascism—they’ve made their choice.

And their choice is enabling.

Stop waiting for them to snap out of it. Stop giving them the benefit of the doubt they wouldn’t extend to you. Stop pretending their “concerns” about immigration justify support for ethnic cleansing. Stop treating their gaslighting as good-faith disagreement about complex policy questions.

They know what they’re supporting. The language is explicit. The implementation is visible. The historical parallels are unmistakable. Their choice to defend it isn’t based on ignorance—it’s based on preference.

Some people, when forced to choose between democracy and authoritarianism, choose authoritarianism. Some people, when forced to choose between human dignity and tribal dominance, choose dominance. Some people, when forced to choose between moral clarity and social comfort, choose comfort.

That’s what you’re learning about the people around you. Not that they’re confused, but that they’re complicit. Not that they don’t understand, but that they don’t care. Not that they need better information, but that they’ve chosen to prioritize their own position over other people’s humanity.

This is who they are now. This is who they’ve chosen to be.

The shell game depends on your willingness to pretend otherwise. It requires you to treat their gaslighting as sincere confusion, their enabling as innocent misunderstanding, their collaboration as reasonable disagreement about policy details.

Stop participating in the performance. Stop pretending their positions are intellectually respectable. Stop treating fascist sympathizers as if they’re just confused about immigration policy.

Call it what it is: they’ve chosen to enable ethnic cleansing because it targets people they consider enemies. They’ve chosen to support authoritarianism because it promises to hurt the right people. They’ve chosen fascism because it offers them power over those they despise.

The most dangerous lie you can tell yourself is that they don’t really mean it. They mean every word. They just want you to pretend they don’t so you won’t resist effectively.

Two plus two equals four. There are twenty-four hours in a day. And when someone shows you who they are—when they defend ethnic cleansing, enable authoritarianism, and gaslight you for noticing—believe them.

The revolution is seeing clearly. The rebellion is refusing to play the shell game. The resistance is calling fascism by its name, regardless of how much that upsets the people who’ve chosen to enable it.

Stop waiting for their permission to defend democracy. Stop seeking their approval to oppose ethnic cleansing. Stop playing their game of pretending this is all normal political disagreement.

This is fascism. They support it. Act accordingly.

Remember what’s real.