Recently, Ipsism viewed an article on Newport Institute , and couldn't help relating the signs of an abusive relationship and the political regime currently in control. To distinguish the article from Ipsism comments, the article will be italicized and Ipsism comments will follow.

If you’re wondering how to tell if someone is gaslighting you, consider whether someone has exhibited any of the following behaviors within your romantic, family, or work relationships:

Lying about or denying something and refusing to admit the lie even when you show them proof

The left (legacy media, Democrats and the intelligentsia) refer to complaints about the 2020 presidential election as the 'Big Lie'. They often refer to suits being dismissed. Those who question the results are 'right wing nuts' or 'extremists'.

But they conveniently ignore the states that violated their own state constitutions to alter voting methods (a method of rigging an election since, being unlawful, they were illegal). For a two year period, the left worked to implement laws allowing mail-in ballots, unconstitutional in their states. And states' supreme courts found the practices unconstitutional. Jimmy Carter declared this method of voting as highly susceptible to fraud. There are reports of large stacks of mail-in ballots that were uncreased. Guess all those voters used 8x10 envelopes so they wouldn't have to fold their ballots. Why would ballot machines suddenly fail at the same time in five battleground states? And what about the poll-watchers who were forced to leave the counting rooms only to have video of Democratic vote counters pulling out suitcases full of ballots and continue counting?

And all the lawsuit dismissals? they were on procedural grounds (like lack of standing to bring suit) rather than on the merits of the suits. None evaluated the merits of the suits. Even the State of Texas was dismissed in its suit against other stated for voting irregularities.

And the Left just can't get over the 'Big Lie': Law360 (September 21, 2022) -- Legal watchdog group The 65 Project filed complaints against 15 state attorneys general on Wednesday for their past or continued involvement in amplifying former President Donald Trump's false accusations of fraud...
The suit in Texas was dismissed based on the suit violating separation of powers of the government.
"Democrats are big believers in their own 'big lie' "
Trump is demonized ; but the Left ignores that Hillary called Trump "illegitimate" and said the race was "stolen."
Matthews said of Trump, "a guy who won a fluke election with Russian help."
"Former MSNBC host Chris Matthews, who pushed Russia theories: 'We have honest elections in this country' " Published September 22, 2022

Men can be women and women can be men.

Men can get pregnant.

Men can compete against girls in sports even though their genitalia are intact and muscle mass gives an unfair advantage.

"Air Force Academy promotes fellowship that bans ‘cisgender' men: ‘This program isn’t for you’ Eligible applicants must be cisgender women, transgender women, non-binary, agender, bigender, two-spirit, demigender, genderfluid or genderqueer" Published September 23, 2022

Insisting that an event or behavior you witnessed never happened and that you’re remembering it wrong

Vice President Harris says that the southern border is secure.
California Gov Newsome says that the 'border crisis' is made up.
NBC reports, "The GOP's myth of an 'open border' "

"El Paso mayor, residents react to migrant crisis as thousands cross border El Paso residents split on city's approach to handling recent surge of migrants" Published September 23, 2022
For fiscal year 2022, captured illegal aliens are estimated to number 2.3 million, an all time record high.

Spreading rumors and gossip about you, or telling you that other people are gossiping about you

Love him or hate him, how many lies has the left spread about Trump? Russian agent? White supremacist leader? Paying hooker for golden showers on Barack's bed? About to be indicted - daily for six years? Incited an insurrection? What ever you can think of, someone on the left has accused Trump of being the villain.

An 'insurrection' where the insurrectionists were unarmed? A protest out of control; a riot even; but an insurrection? No.

Changing the subject or refusing to listen when confronted about a lie or other gaslighting behavior

Barack's culpability in spying on Trump.
Dismissing Hillary's private email server, bleach-bit erasure of her hard drive, destroying 33,000 emails and breaking phone with hammers so data couldn't be recovered.
Barack's culpability in sending classified messages to Hillary's private server using a pseudonym.
Hillary's campaign starting the 'Barack was born in Kenya' narrative.
Hillary an Bill's criminal conduct, including taking in $2 billion in donations to their foundation collecting in advance on the promise of Hillary being elected president.
Refusing to look into how the Clinton foundation's $2 billion was paid out.
Hillary's 'uranium one' scam.
Hunter Biden's laptop.
Joe's involvement in Hunter's influence pedaling.
Joe's cognitive decline into dementia.
There are only two sexes: women and men.
Men can't get pregnant.
"The Left discovers its own agenda is impossible" -- Opinion by Kaylee McGhee White

"Washington Post fact-checker slammed for calling ‘fetal heartbeat’ a ‘misnomer’ in defense of Stacey Abrams Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams recently said, 'There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks' " Published September 22, 2022
"Planned Parenthood changes website after Stacey Abrams's heartbeat comments" Published September 23, 2022

-- What happened to follow the science? When the Left lies, they have a contingency to argue that their lies are actually true.

The NIH reports, "At the end of the 4th week of gestation, the heartbeats of the embryo begin."

So who do you believe? The NIH or Stacy Abrams?

How many times have you heard that something's a 'right-wing' conspiracy?

Blame shifting in relationships—saying that if you acted differently, they wouldn’t treat you like this, so it’s really your fault

Remember joe's 'pandemic of the unvaccinated'? He continued the rhetoric even after it was shown that the vaccines didn't stop the spread nor prevent acquiring Covid. Among the vaccinated, the shots’ effectiveness declined from 36% up to two months after the second dose of the primary series, to 1% up to four months later (or six months after the second dose).
How often have you heard Biden saying that there wouldn't be any dispute if you just did things his way?
Naturally he was echoing the words of his predecessor, Obama.

Trying to smooth things over with loving words that don’t match their actions

Biden claiming to be a unifier while demonizing the half of the country that didn't vote for him.

Antifa is an imagination of the right.
The riots of 2020 (with more than $60 billion of burning and destruction and numerous deaths) were "mostly peaceful".
"Mainstream media network bias shows up not only in what they cover and how they cover it, but what they ignore," Cornell law professor and media critic William Jacobson.

Minimizing their hurtful behaviors or words by saying something like, “It was just a joke” or “You’re way too sensitive”

How many times have you heard Joe say 'it's a joke' after making an absurd statement?

Separating you from friends and family who might recognize your gaslighting abuse symptoms.