“conservatives ... have a particular distaste for gaslighting even apart from the sadism inherent in the usage of the tactic.”
That is so true. I’m an “I.D. Addict”, and watch that channel quite often. I’m interested in the psyches of the criminals, how cases are solved, etc. When it comes to murder, rape, etc., it’s interesting and informative, but when I know a case is going to involve gaslighting, or someone being wrongly accused, I absolutely cannot watch it.
LOL, I don’t have cable or watch television (Okay, I have been watching the new “All Creatures Great and Small” series on PBS, but I figure my tax money goes to that, so I am fully justified in doing so!) but I do know of those shows and they are quite popular by all accounts.
That said, I know what you mean. I think that boils down to our sense of innate justice. I have just been listening to Jordan Peterson, and he talks about how there is something ingrained in us about fairness and justice that even the youngest of children grasp. We have to learn that a hot stove is dangerous, but we understand at a fundamental level when another child gets more candy than we do...as we mature, we understand that there are valid reasons for what we perceive as injustice, and we can use rationality to temper it.
In this, we understand that concept of the REAL betrayal of “justice” and it does offend us, even more so when we observe the Left trumpeting the same “injustice” on completely flawed and ideologically based criteria. In their case, it is part a combination of never maturing, and using it as an ideological tool to get what they want. Disgusting.