I have become especially attuned to the use of projection or “gaslighting” by people. Most often it is by liberals or “big L” libertarians. A dead giveaway in ordinary conversation is when you ask a question like, picking one randomly popping into my head, “What is the national debt under Obama?” and they “answer” by initially repeating that very same question back... and then somehow blame conservatives or change the subject.
One of the first times I really caught on to that was early in 2008 when Obama was running for president. He was posed a question:
"Mr. Obama, the budget deficit has become far too big under President Bush. What concrete steps would you take a president to reduce the budget?"
"You are correct. The budget deficit has become too big. I would do three things: I would invest in roads and bridges, invest in schools, and invest in green technology."
Huh?? But I guess it sounds super awesome if you're not paying any attention.
Facts don't faze them.
The modus of this line of discussion & reasoning will have no traction with liberals because there is something underneath what you are pointing out.
The only religion liberals have is the religion of refusing to say or think that any one thing is better than any other. “Discernment” is one partially accurate adjective.
Once this religion becomes the de facto governing mode of thinking, if and when one thing is perceived to be better than another, there can be be no other reason than the so-called better thing achieved its betterness by cheating the so-called lesser thing. And the longer the phenomenon of perceived “betterness” persists, the worse the cheating must have been.
It is by refusing to think that one thing is or can be better than another that “terrorists” cannot and must not be distinguished from “freedom fighters”. Or “evangenicals” from “islamic fanatics”.
If you haven’t seen them, I reco the two videos with Evan Sayet at evansayet.com 2/3rds down the page. I think he explains this the best.