October 22, 2025 • 29 mins
At 3:31 a.m. in Minneapolis, a sound echoes through the dark — a call that now defines a city’s new idea of “inclusion.”
From that single moment, this episode unpacks the story we’ve all been sold: that diversity automatically makes us stronger.
But what happens when inclusion becomes a script, disagreement becomes hate, and silence becomes the safest response?
We trace the shift from tolerance to enforcement — from slogans to censorship — and show how the same moral choreography plays out in cities, corporations, campuses, and your own inbox.
Featuring:
- Minneapolis’s new ordinance on amplified prayer calls
- The U.K.’s 12,000 annual “offensive communication” arrests
- Corporate DEI retrenchment and algorithmic speech filters
- Campus self-censorship (58% of students admit it)
It’s not about race or religion — it’s about rules.
Who gets the microphone.
Who gets the mute button.
And how the “Volume-Knob State” is quietly teaching everyone to whisper.
Stick around to the end for the callback, the laugh, and a special announcement about Distorted: Expanded Edition — out February 10, in hardcover, paperback, and Audible.
Stay sharp. Stay skeptical. #SpotTheGaslight
Read and reflect at Gaslight360.com/clarity
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_03 (00:00):
3 31 a.m.
(00:01):
Minneapolis.
A sound rolls down an emptystreet.
Legal now.
The call to prayer.
Five times a day, all year,broadcast before dawn and after
dark.
City Hall called it inclusion.
Some neighbors called it achange in the sound of home.
Cut to London, not a riot, not athreat, just a timeline where 30
(00:23):
people a day are arrested formessages they posted online.
Cut again, a school boardmeeting where parents read from
school-approved books and getescorted out for violating
decorum.
Every era has a slogan thatmeans more than it admits.
Ours might be this one.
It sounds moral, it feelsunifying.
(00:45):
And yet, somewhere betweentolerance and silence, the
meaning shifts.
If diversity is our strength,why does disagreement make us
weak?
Before we go further, thisepisode examines ideas and
institutions, not individuals orfaiths.
It asks what happens when goodintentions start to enforce
(01:06):
orthodoxy.
Because the louder we celebratediversity, the less room there
seems to be for difference.
And today, we're going there.
This is Think First, where wedon't follow the script.
We question it.
Because in a world full ofpoetic truths and professional
(01:26):
gaslighting, someone's gotta saythe quiet part out loud.
Every institution repeats it.
Politicians in soundbites, CEOsin ads, universities in marble,
diversity, equity, inclusion.
It's treated like gravity.
(01:48):
Self-evident, beyond debate.
Disagree and you're not justwrong, you're immoral.
Let's test that.
In the UK, roughly 12,000 peoplewere arrested last year for
online communications labeledoffensive or distressing.
That's about 33 a day.
In Canada, comedians facetribunals for jokes.
(02:08):
In America, cities bend neutralordinances to amplify one ritual
while restricting another'sflag.
What do we call it when fairnessitself becomes situational?
That's where gaslighting creepsin.
Not as a lie shouted fromrooftops, but as a story
whispered until we repeat itourselves.
Gaslighting at scale runs asimple playbook.
(02:31):
One reframe.
That's when disagreement becomeshate.
Two invert.
That's when censorship rebrandsas compassion.
And three, forget.
That's when yesterday's failurereturns tomorrow wearing a
progress badge.
We've seen it before.
Every time an institution says,you're not silenced, you're
(02:55):
promoting harm.
Ask a forbidden question andwatch the tone change from
invitation to interrogation.
So five questions to carry withyou.
One, was the slogan built to endthe argument?
Two, who decides whichdifferences deserve celebration?
Three, when did offense becomeproof of guilt?
(03:18):
Four, why did neutral principlesturn into code words?
And five, can a democracysurvive when its laws apologize
for existing?
Because diversity doesn't alwaysstrengthen.
Sometimes it strains, especiallywhen imported faster than trust
can form, or when guilt replacesstandards.
(03:40):
Every era needs a moral tagline.
Ours is three words long andplastered on everything from HR
emails to airport banners.
Diversity.
Equity.
They sound like progress, theyfeel like proof, but somewhere
between the poster and thepolicy, the definition changes.
When inclusion becomes a reasonto rewrite rules, we're not
(04:03):
expanding freedom, we'rereallocating it.
Let's start with the officialstory, the one told from the
podium.
The mayor called it a landmarkfor religious freedom.
Sounds noble, and it is, if therule applies to everyone.
SPEAKER_00 (04:19):
Monday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry signed an
ordinance allowing a dailybroadcast of the Islamic call to
prayer five times a day.
SPEAKER_05 (04:34):
Today, Minneapolis officially becomes the very
first city in the United Statesto allow Adan, all five daily
prayers, 365 days a year to bepublicly broadcast.
(05:09):
Minneapolis is proud to be hometo a flourishing Muslim
population.
And this ordinance not onlysupports our residents, but it
shows that we are a city of allreligions.
We are a city of inclusivity.
We are a city where all areindeed welcome.
This is a victory here inMinneapolis, one that should be
(05:31):
celebrated.
And I truly hope that othercities around Minnesota, around
our country, and around theglobe choose to take this path
as well.
Why?
Because we value our diversecommunities.
We value freedom of religion.
And in doing so, this call toprayer a don.
Just like church bells or theringing of the shofar, they are
(05:55):
all important to our religions.
They can all be heard.
SPEAKER_03 (06:00):
Now imagine another group asking for the same five
amplified minutes, five times aday.
Would the decibel tolerance staythe same?
Or does fairness have a favoritefrequency?
That's the first trick ofinstitutional gaslighting.
Selective universality, a rulefor all, until it isn't.
The sales pitch.
(06:21):
Make space for every voice insociety grow stronger.
Beautiful idea.
But speech obeys physics.
Amplify one frequency too high,and the rest disappear into
noise.
So we reduce harm.
London calls it a public safetymeasure.
Birmingham police call a likebutton potential hate.
On campuses from Boston toBristol, lived experience
(06:44):
outranks evidence, and askingwhy becomes a disciplinary
offense.
Poetic truth sells comfort likecandy, and the price is always
paid in questions you stopasking.
Let's look at the receipts.
Receipt number one policingoffense.
(07:07):
It started with a promise tomake the internet safer, but in
the UK, that promise turned into12,000 arrests last year for
offensive or distressingmessages.
That's 33 people a day, oneevery 45 minutes, cuffed over
pixels.
Here's Tucker Carlson.
SPEAKER_07 (07:27):
How many people do you think were arrested in the
United Kingdom for speechviolations?
Arrested by the police,handcuffed and brought to jail
in 2023?
What's your guess?
Is it more than 12,000?
Because that's the answer.
More than 12,000.
Wow, that seems like a lot.
Is that a lot?
Well, let's compare it to thenumber, the widely agreed upon
(07:49):
number from the mosttotalitarian country in the
world.
A country so lacking in basicfreedom, a country run by a
madman, a country that's soevil, we're literally at war
with that country right now,just on principle.
And that country, of course, isRussia under Vladimir Putin.
How many were arrested inRussia?
A country with twice thepopulation of the UK.
(08:11):
Oh, we happen to have thenumber.
3,319.
So that tells you, you don'tthink totalitarianism can come
to the Anglosphere?
Oh, it already has.
SPEAKER_03 (08:25):
Threats are criminal, but jokes, sarcasm, a
meme?
That's where free speech endsand mood management begins.
The distortion hides in themotive.
Police say they're protectingvictims, citizens hear they're
protecting feelings.
And when law enforcement startsmoderating tone instead of
crime, the line between safetyand submission blurs.
(08:47):
People stop joking.
Then they stop speaking.
Eventually, they stop thinkingout loud at all.
Receipt number two.
Consistency versus curation.
The rule book says neutrality.
Reality says selectiveenforcement.
In Boston, city officials banneda Christian flag to stay
(09:07):
neutral.
The Supreme Court called thatunconstitutional.
Two years later in Hamtramck,Michigan, officials banned all
private flags, and the courtsaid that was fine.
Same principle, differentcourage.
Because fairness isn'tcomplicated, it's just
inconvenient.
Once a bureaucracy discoversthat neutrality can offend,
(09:29):
neutrality disappears.
Every exemption writes a newsermon about who's sacred and
who's safe to ignore.
So, when a city amplifies oneritual to promote inclusion, but
mutes another to avoid division,it's not equality, it's
curation.
And curation is just censorshipwith graphic design.
(09:49):
Receipt number three Fear andSilence.
The hardest distortion to see isthe one built on fear.
A 2025 national audit found gapsin tracking child exploitation
crimes, data missing,accountability missing.
Officials admitted they'dhesitated to act in earlier
(10:10):
cases like Rotherham 2015, wherestaff ignored abuse for fear of
being labeled racist.
That fear didn't come frommalice, it came from moral
blackmail, the kind that swapscourage for reputation.
The system told workers betterto do nothing wrong than risk
looking wrong, and so nothinggot done.
(10:30):
The gaslight here isn'tpropaganda, it's paralysis.
A bureaucracy so scared ofoutrage that it forgets who it's
supposed to protect.
When leaders trade justice foroptics, compassion stops being
virtue.
It becomes vanity.
Receipt number four.
Symbols over policy.
The Office for NationalStatistics released its 2023
(10:52):
baby name data.
Muhammad ranked number one forboys across England and Wales.
Some called it trivia, otherscalled it transformation.
Because names are never justlabels, they're signals, and
when the signal shifts that far,that fast, people notice and
wonder what else is changingunderneath.
Headlines treated that unease asxenophobia, but beneath it is
(11:15):
something older, a questionabout continuity, about whether
the house still feels like home.
Cohesion doesn't requiresameness, but it does require
trust, shared rules, sharedlanguage, shared expectations.
When institutions ignore thatinstinct, citizens read the
silence as surrender.
That's the real issue, not who'snaming their children what, but
(11:37):
who's allowed to talk about itwithout being shamed.
Statistics became symbolsbecause symbols carry emotion,
and emotion fills the vacuumthat data leaves behind.
Protection claims to shield thevulnerable, then declares
everyone vulnerable.
If safety requires censorship,it's not safety, it's
(11:58):
management.
What began as compassion nowsounds like command.
Before we dive back in, a quickword about the project that's
bigger than this podcast.
What if the biggest lies you'vebeen told weren't lies at all?
What if they were stories?
Comforting stories, soothingmyths, the kind of poetic truths
(12:19):
that feel good, even whenthey're not true.
That's the game.
Politicians do it, media doesit, institutions do it.
They don't just lie, theydistort.
They gaslight you with shame,they cradle you with bedtime
myths, and that gap betweenperception and reality is where
we're losing the plot.
That's why I wrote Distorted: How gaslighting and poetic truth (12:37):
undefined
bend our perception of reality.
It's not another self-help book,it's a survival manual, a guide
for spotting the tricks, dodgingthe spin, and refusing to
outsource your thinking.
Early access is open now.
Find it at Barnes Noble, Amazon,and at gymdechen.com.
(12:58):
And if you do grab a copy,here's my one ask: leave a
review.
Because the world isn't short onlies.
It's drowning in distortions.
Alright, back to the show.
Let's steel man the officialview.
Inclusion defends thevulnerable.
(13:20):
Speech can wound.
Pluralism needs limits.
All is true in moderation.
But when limits fall one wayonly, that's not pluralism.
It's curation.
Picture a mixing board.
For generations, the West keptthe volume near the middle.
Everyone gets a turn at the mic.
Imperfect, but legible.
(13:41):
Then came a new idea.
Turn some voices down to makeothers safe.
That's not balance.
That's mixing.
And whoever controls the mixercontrols the mood.
Welcome to what I call thevolume knob state.
It works like this.
A city amplifies one ritual forequity, yet bans another for
(14:03):
neutrality.
A platform throttles a view toprotect users, then spotlights
another to promote awareness.
A government punishes onlineannoyance, yet ignores
streetside shouting.
It's not faith versus the West.
It's control versus consistency.
Power now hides insidecompassion.
(14:24):
The less you can question anidea, the more sacred it
becomes.
And the more sacred it becomes,the less it can be examined.
That's not empathy.
That's engineering.
SPEAKER_01 (14:36):
So you go out on your show and said in part the
following.
This is on the show The Saturday5 on GB News 7.
SPEAKER_02 (14:44):
I'm done.
I'm done with the euphemisms.
I'm done with the crocodiletears.
I'm done with the calls forunity.
I'm done being told not to hate,and I'm done skirting around
uncomfortable truths.
So let's listen.
Uncomfortable truth one.
Multiculturalism hasn't merelyfailed, it has embedded
sectarian violence on thestreets of the UK and cost
(15:05):
countless lives.
Most recently, the lives ofAdrian Dorbley and Melvin
Kravitz in Manchester.
Again, strength and love totheir families.
Uncomfortable Truth Two,diversity is not our strength.
It has never been out strength.
And in fact, it has now becomeour greatest weakness
economically and culturally.
And not yet to hear any coherentargument for its value that
(15:27):
doesn't default to whether weget good restaurants out of it,
which isn't good enoughjustification for complete
cultural and social fracture.
And the stars have got therecipes now anyway.
Uncomfortable truth three.
Islamism is a cancer on the UK.
And more citizens will die as aresult of appeasing it.
(15:48):
We need to say theseuncomfortable truths loudly, and
whilst we still can.
SPEAKER_03 (15:54):
As you just heard on the Meghan Kelly show, Will
Kingston essentially put it: diversity has never been our (15:57):
undefined
strength.
Shared values are.
A sentence so simple it couldget you banned from LinkedIn.
There's a chapter on this inDistorted.
Not a conspiracy, just apattern.
Once language becomesenforcement, reality learns to
whisper.
In the volume knob state, youdon't go to jail for speech, you
(16:21):
just lose reach.
Self-censorship becomespatriotism with better lighting.
Because the easiest citizen togovern is the one who edits his
own sentence before he speaks.
How do you know the volume knobstate has moved into your
neighborhood?
It's easy, just listen for thetone shift.
1.
The word swap.
(16:42):
Old rules used to say permissionrequired.
Now they say respect required.
It sounds polite, but it meanswatch your mouth.
When words like safety andwell-being start showing up in
fine print, they're usuallydoing someone else's heavy
lifting.
2.
The one-way rule.
Notice which symbols get a hallpass.
(17:02):
One group's banner is calledheritage.
Another's is labeled offensive.
Same poll, different standard.
That's not fairness, that'sbranding.
3.
The shortcut.
Leaders skip the hard part,explaining.
Instead, they call disagreementdivision.
It ends the debate before itstarts.
(17:23):
Two signs it's about to getworse.
Signal 1.
Sneaky laws.
New bills slide in words likeharm or online safety.
They sound harmless untilthey're used to police opinions.
Signal 2.
Fragile institutions.
When an email begins with, somein our community feel unsafe,
you already know how it ends.
(17:45):
Another rule about what youcan't say.
That's how control works now.
Quiet, reasonable, and wrappedin empathy.
The laws are just the start.
The real test isn't written onpaper, it's written into daily
life.
Poetic truth is what happenswhen slogans from Washington
start showing up in your inbox.
(18:06):
Corporate America fell hard forit, posters of smiling faces,
emails about belonging, a weekof training on empathy, and a
lifetime of pretending it works.
Then, 2024 arrived.
Quiet layoffs, empty missionstatements, and a press release
calling it strategicrealignment.
When Virtue became a budgetline, it was already on borrowed
(18:30):
time.
Because if your values depend onfunding, they're not values,
they're subscriptions.
But the real story isn't thelayoffs, it's who took their
place.
The new referee doesn't wear aname badge or attend sensitivity
training.
It's digital, invisible, alwayspolite.
Now your gatekeeper isn't aperson, it's an algorithm that
(18:50):
reads tone.
It doesn't shout, you can't saythat.
It just filters you out beforeyou hit submit.
That's not censorship with aclub, it's censorship with a
smile and a software update.
Universities used to teachpeople how to think.
Now they grade them on how theyfeel about what they think.
(19:13):
FIRE, the Foundation forIndividual Rights and
Expression, surveyed more than250 colleges last year.
The finding?
Six in ten students admit theyhold back in class.
That's 58%, more than half,editing themselves before they
even speak.
Think about that.
These are adults, bright,opinionated, paying$30,000 a
(19:37):
year to hesitate.
They don't fear being wrong,they fear being recorded.
One word out of rhythm and theclip lives forever, captioned as
hate.
So they stay quiet, smilethrough the seminar, and hope
participation points don'trequire honesty.
Administrators call it creatinga safe environment.
Students call it not worth therisk.
(19:59):
It's ironic.
The freest generation in historyis now afraid of words.
That's not education, that'semotional choreography with
tuition.
And if universities, thesupposed laboratories of truth,
start rewarding conformity, it'sonly a matter of time before the
rest of society follows theirsyllabus.
(20:22):
Now, let's dig deeper on FIRE'scollege free speech rankings.
SPEAKER_04 (20:27):
Some of the most prestigious universities are
among the worst offenders inprotecting free speech.
A recent survey found that thewar in the Middle East is
deepening divisions on collegecampuses and encouraging
censorship.
SPEAKER_06 (20:43):
2023 was the worst year on record for shoutdowns on
college campuses.
And since October 7th, it's beenpretty much exclusively
pro-Palestinian students who'vebeen engaging in these
shoutdowns.
Um, and that's the definition ofmob censorship.
SPEAKER_04 (21:03):
Greg Lukianov, president of the Foundation for
Individual Rights andExpression, has been monitoring
the state of free speech oncollege campuses for decades,
using the most comprehensivesurvey to date, spanning more
than 250 universities.
(21:23):
The survey conducted this yearfrom January to June collected
responses from students infour-year programs.
It found the top schoolpromoting a strong free speech
environment is the University ofVirginia, followed by Michigan
Technical University.
SPEAKER_06 (21:37):
I don't think it's a coincidence that Michigan
Technological Universityfinished first last year and
second this year, partiallybecause they have a really
pretty even split amongpolitical backgrounds of their
students.
And that creates a muchhealthier environment.
(22:03):
When you have like you know nineto one liberal to conservative
students, though that creates askew.
And certainly when you have, youknow, um, some of these
universities have entiredepartments that don't have a
single conservative in them.
It creates terrible groupthink,which is not good for the
production of knowledge.
SPEAKER_04 (22:18):
Over half of the students surveyed identified the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict asthe most difficult topic to
discuss openly, marking a recordhigh for any issue since the
rankings began in 2020.
The war has surpassed evenabortion and gun control, with
Jewish, Muslim, agnostic, andatheist students all reporting
significant discomfort whenengaging in conversation about
(22:39):
it.
Perhaps even more concerning,however, is how the issue of
free speech is becoming a globalproblem.
SPEAKER_06 (23:00):
Oh, yeah.
I mean, the the global picturefor free speech right now scares
me to death.
I mean, Canada, I think, isstill considering passing a law
that speech crimes could get youup to life in prison.
Ireland uh has a hate hatespeech law that it recently
passed.
Thousands of uh Brits back in2015 and 2016 were arrested for
(23:22):
quote-unquote offensive commentcomments on the internet.
Like it we're in a bad way.
In America, thank goodness wehave the First Amendment.
Thank goodness we have such astrong commitment to freedom of
speech.
But boy, is that going to betested as the rest of the world
turns against it.
SPEAKER_04 (23:37):
Lukinov believes universities need to make
massive reforms, suggesting theCollege Free Speech Survey could
be one way to make campusessafer environments for free
speech, and he urges parents touse it when deciding which
schools their children shouldattend.
Brody Carter, CBN News.
SPEAKER_03 (23:55):
Now, let's shift to what I call the moral budget.
Virtue works like currency.
Every slogan spends a littletrust, every public apology
prints more of it.
Eventually, the moral dollarinflates, and truth loses value.
We've all met the corporateversion of this.
That manager who mistakespoliteness for courage, that
(24:16):
all-staff email titled KindCandor in the Workplace.
Translation (24:20):
Say whatever you like, as long as it sounds
approved.
When niceness replaces honesty,you don't get peace.
You get politeness with teeth.
A culture addicted to virtuealways needs a higher dose.
When empathy stops inspiring,outrage takes its place.
That's the national version.
(24:40):
But what does it look like inreal life?
On your street, your feed, youroffice slack?
Let's bring it home.
So far, we've talked aboutpolicies, language, and power.
The big stuff.
But distortion doesn't live inheadlines.
It lives in the small, politemoments you barely notice, the
(25:01):
ones that make you hesitatebefore you hit send, before you
speak up, before you clap ordon't.
That's where the volume knobstate really hides.
Not in law books, in daily life.
Here's how to spot it.
One, the mandatory applause.
Picture a company meeting.
Someone says, we're committed tocourageous conversations about
(25:24):
inclusion.
No one knows what that means,but everyone claps anyway.
That's not agreement.
That's instinct.
Because when silence feelsrisky, you're not in a democracy
anymore.
You're in a performance.
Two, the double standard.
Your city bans Christmas bannersfor neutrality, but sponsors a
pride parade under the samelogo.
(25:46):
Or your company flies one flagto raise awareness, but rejects
another as too political.
You're not crazy.
That's not fairness.
That's selective virtue withballoons.
3.
The language patch.
Watch how everyday words quietlyget replaced by mood words.
Concern becomes trauma.
(26:07):
The question becomesmicroaggression.
Policy becomes journey.
It sounds gentle and billable.
That's how power hides.
Behind words that feel nice andcost extra.
Still not convinced?
Try this.
Post a simple headline onlineand add, curious what others
think.
(26:28):
Then watch who comments and whodisappears.
That chill in the thread, that'sself-censorship.
The volume knob state doing itsjob.
And here's two warning lightswhen it's about to get louder.
Signal 1, algorithmic empathy.
Your phone finishes yoursentence to keep the tone
positive.
(26:48):
It's not helping you write, it'steaching you the approved
emotion.
Signal two, professional peril.
HR adds a new core value calledkind candor.
Translation.
As long as it sounds like us.
So, how do you stay sane?
You don't have to shout.
Just stay curious and keep yourown volume knob on manual.
(27:14):
3:31 a.m.
again.
Same street, same loudspeaker,same city that said it was
making room for everyone.
This time, the sound hitsdifferent, because now we've
heard how the rules bend, whogets volume, who gets silence,
and who calls it progress.
It's not about faith, it's aboutfrequency.
Who gets heard and who gets toldtheir tone is unsafe?
(27:38):
Diversity was supposed to makethe choir louder.
Instead, it handed outmicrophones by ideology.
So if you're wondering what thevolume knob state sounds like,
it's not a government memo.
It's a speaker on a poll at 3.31a.m., reminding you who's
allowed to be loud.
Because if your strength needs amoderator and a mute button, it
(28:00):
isn't strength.
It's stage management withbetter lighting.
And somewhere, a city noiseinspector is filling out the
paperwork.
For courage.
You don't need all the answers,but you should question the ones
you're handed.
Because in the end, diversity ofthought only counts if all the
thoughts sound the same.
(28:21):
Until next time, stay skeptical,stay curious, and always think
first.
By the way, a quick heads upbefore you go: the expanded
edition of Distorted dropsFebruary 10th.
Hardcover, paperback, andaudible.
More than 200 new pages ofresearch, stories, and receipts
(28:41):
we couldn't fit in the firstrelease.
If you've liked these episodes,that book is the full picture.
Again, February 10th, Distorted.
Available everywhere you getyour reality checked.
Want more?
The full six-step framework weuse is at gaslight360.com.
(29:02):
You can also dive into thedeeper story, the bio, the
podcast, and the mission atgymdechen.com.
And if you like this one, tagit.
Save it.
Share it.
3 31 a.m.
(00:01):
Minneapolis.
A sound rolls down an emptystreet.
Legal now.
The call to prayer.
Five times a day, all year,broadcast before dawn and after
dark.
City Hall called it inclusion.
Some neighbors called it achange in the sound of home.
Cut to London, not a riot, not athreat, just a timeline where 30
(00:23):
people a day are arrested formessages they posted online.
Cut again, a school boardmeeting where parents read from
school-approved books and getescorted out for violating
decorum.
Every era has a slogan thatmeans more than it admits.
Ours might be this one.
It sounds moral, it feelsunifying.
(00:45):
And yet, somewhere betweentolerance and silence, the
meaning shifts.
If diversity is our strength,why does disagreement make us
weak?
Before we go further, thisepisode examines ideas and
institutions, not individuals orfaiths.
It asks what happens when goodintentions start to enforce
(01:06):
orthodoxy.
Because the louder we celebratediversity, the less room there
seems to be for difference.
And today, we're going there.
This is Think First, where wedon't follow the script.
We question it.
Because in a world full ofpoetic truths and professional
(01:26):
gaslighting, someone's gotta saythe quiet part out loud.
Every institution repeats it.
Politicians in soundbites, CEOsin ads, universities in marble,
diversity, equity, inclusion.
It's treated like gravity.
(01:48):
Self-evident, beyond debate.
Disagree and you're not justwrong, you're immoral.
Let's test that.
In the UK, roughly 12,000 peoplewere arrested last year for
online communications labeledoffensive or distressing.
That's about 33 a day.
In Canada, comedians facetribunals for jokes.
(02:08):
In America, cities bend neutralordinances to amplify one ritual
while restricting another'sflag.
What do we call it when fairnessitself becomes situational?
That's where gaslighting creepsin.
Not as a lie shouted fromrooftops, but as a story
whispered until we repeat itourselves.
Gaslighting at scale runs asimple playbook.
(02:31):
One reframe.
That's when disagreement becomeshate.
Two invert.
That's when censorship rebrandsas compassion.
And three, forget.
That's when yesterday's failurereturns tomorrow wearing a
progress badge.
We've seen it before.
Every time an institution says,you're not silenced, you're
(02:55):
promoting harm.
Ask a forbidden question andwatch the tone change from
invitation to interrogation.
So five questions to carry withyou.
One, was the slogan built to endthe argument?
Two, who decides whichdifferences deserve celebration?
Three, when did offense becomeproof of guilt?
(03:18):
Four, why did neutral principlesturn into code words?
And five, can a democracysurvive when its laws apologize
for existing?
Because diversity doesn't alwaysstrengthen.
Sometimes it strains, especiallywhen imported faster than trust
can form, or when guilt replacesstandards.
(03:40):
Every era needs a moral tagline.
Ours is three words long andplastered on everything from HR
emails to airport banners.
Diversity.
Equity.
They sound like progress, theyfeel like proof, but somewhere
between the poster and thepolicy, the definition changes.
When inclusion becomes a reasonto rewrite rules, we're not
(04:03):
expanding freedom, we'rereallocating it.
Let's start with the officialstory, the one told from the
podium.
The mayor called it a landmarkfor religious freedom.
Sounds noble, and it is, if therule applies to everyone.
SPEAKER_00 (04:19):
Monday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry signed an
ordinance allowing a dailybroadcast of the Islamic call to
prayer five times a day.
SPEAKER_05 (04:34):
Today, Minneapolis officially becomes the very
first city in the United Statesto allow Adan, all five daily
prayers, 365 days a year to bepublicly broadcast.
(05:09):
Minneapolis is proud to be hometo a flourishing Muslim
population.
And this ordinance not onlysupports our residents, but it
shows that we are a city of allreligions.
We are a city of inclusivity.
We are a city where all areindeed welcome.
This is a victory here inMinneapolis, one that should be
(05:31):
celebrated.
And I truly hope that othercities around Minnesota, around
our country, and around theglobe choose to take this path
as well.
Why?
Because we value our diversecommunities.
We value freedom of religion.
And in doing so, this call toprayer a don.
Just like church bells or theringing of the shofar, they are
(05:55):
all important to our religions.
They can all be heard.
SPEAKER_03 (06:00):
Now imagine another group asking for the same five
amplified minutes, five times aday.
Would the decibel tolerance staythe same?
Or does fairness have a favoritefrequency?
That's the first trick ofinstitutional gaslighting.
Selective universality, a rulefor all, until it isn't.
The sales pitch.
(06:21):
Make space for every voice insociety grow stronger.
Beautiful idea.
But speech obeys physics.
Amplify one frequency too high,and the rest disappear into
noise.
So we reduce harm.
London calls it a public safetymeasure.
Birmingham police call a likebutton potential hate.
On campuses from Boston toBristol, lived experience
(06:44):
outranks evidence, and askingwhy becomes a disciplinary
offense.
Poetic truth sells comfort likecandy, and the price is always
paid in questions you stopasking.
Let's look at the receipts.
Receipt number one policingoffense.
(07:07):
It started with a promise tomake the internet safer, but in
the UK, that promise turned into12,000 arrests last year for
offensive or distressingmessages.
That's 33 people a day, oneevery 45 minutes, cuffed over
pixels.
Here's Tucker Carlson.
SPEAKER_07 (07:27):
How many people do you think were arrested in the
United Kingdom for speechviolations?
Arrested by the police,handcuffed and brought to jail
in 2023?
What's your guess?
Is it more than 12,000?
Because that's the answer.
More than 12,000.
Wow, that seems like a lot.
Is that a lot?
Well, let's compare it to thenumber, the widely agreed upon
(07:49):
number from the mosttotalitarian country in the
world.
A country so lacking in basicfreedom, a country run by a
madman, a country that's soevil, we're literally at war
with that country right now,just on principle.
And that country, of course, isRussia under Vladimir Putin.
How many were arrested inRussia?
A country with twice thepopulation of the UK.
(08:11):
Oh, we happen to have thenumber.
3,319.
So that tells you, you don'tthink totalitarianism can come
to the Anglosphere?
Oh, it already has.
SPEAKER_03 (08:25):
Threats are criminal, but jokes, sarcasm, a
meme?
That's where free speech endsand mood management begins.
The distortion hides in themotive.
Police say they're protectingvictims, citizens hear they're
protecting feelings.
And when law enforcement startsmoderating tone instead of
crime, the line between safetyand submission blurs.
(08:47):
People stop joking.
Then they stop speaking.
Eventually, they stop thinkingout loud at all.
Receipt number two.
Consistency versus curation.
The rule book says neutrality.
Reality says selectiveenforcement.
In Boston, city officials banneda Christian flag to stay
(09:07):
neutral.
The Supreme Court called thatunconstitutional.
Two years later in Hamtramck,Michigan, officials banned all
private flags, and the courtsaid that was fine.
Same principle, differentcourage.
Because fairness isn'tcomplicated, it's just
inconvenient.
Once a bureaucracy discoversthat neutrality can offend,
(09:29):
neutrality disappears.
Every exemption writes a newsermon about who's sacred and
who's safe to ignore.
So, when a city amplifies oneritual to promote inclusion, but
mutes another to avoid division,it's not equality, it's
curation.
And curation is just censorshipwith graphic design.
(09:49):
Receipt number three Fear andSilence.
The hardest distortion to see isthe one built on fear.
A 2025 national audit found gapsin tracking child exploitation
crimes, data missing,accountability missing.
Officials admitted they'dhesitated to act in earlier
(10:10):
cases like Rotherham 2015, wherestaff ignored abuse for fear of
being labeled racist.
That fear didn't come frommalice, it came from moral
blackmail, the kind that swapscourage for reputation.
The system told workers betterto do nothing wrong than risk
looking wrong, and so nothinggot done.
(10:30):
The gaslight here isn'tpropaganda, it's paralysis.
A bureaucracy so scared ofoutrage that it forgets who it's
supposed to protect.
When leaders trade justice foroptics, compassion stops being
virtue.
It becomes vanity.
Receipt number four.
Symbols over policy.
The Office for NationalStatistics released its 2023
(10:52):
baby name data.
Muhammad ranked number one forboys across England and Wales.
Some called it trivia, otherscalled it transformation.
Because names are never justlabels, they're signals, and
when the signal shifts that far,that fast, people notice and
wonder what else is changingunderneath.
Headlines treated that unease asxenophobia, but beneath it is
(11:15):
something older, a questionabout continuity, about whether
the house still feels like home.
Cohesion doesn't requiresameness, but it does require
trust, shared rules, sharedlanguage, shared expectations.
When institutions ignore thatinstinct, citizens read the
silence as surrender.
That's the real issue, not who'snaming their children what, but
(11:37):
who's allowed to talk about itwithout being shamed.
Statistics became symbolsbecause symbols carry emotion,
and emotion fills the vacuumthat data leaves behind.
Protection claims to shield thevulnerable, then declares
everyone vulnerable.
If safety requires censorship,it's not safety, it's
(11:58):
management.
What began as compassion nowsounds like command.
Before we dive back in, a quickword about the project that's
bigger than this podcast.
What if the biggest lies you'vebeen told weren't lies at all?
What if they were stories?
Comforting stories, soothingmyths, the kind of poetic truths
(12:19):
that feel good, even whenthey're not true.
That's the game.
Politicians do it, media doesit, institutions do it.
They don't just lie, theydistort.
They gaslight you with shame,they cradle you with bedtime
myths, and that gap betweenperception and reality is where
we're losing the plot.
That's why I wrote Distorted: How gaslighting and poetic truth (12:37):
undefined
bend our perception of reality.
It's not another self-help book,it's a survival manual, a guide
for spotting the tricks, dodgingthe spin, and refusing to
outsource your thinking.
Early access is open now.
Find it at Barnes Noble, Amazon,and at gymdechen.com.
(12:58):
And if you do grab a copy,here's my one ask: leave a
review.
Because the world isn't short onlies.
It's drowning in distortions.
Alright, back to the show.
Let's steel man the officialview.
Inclusion defends thevulnerable.
(13:20):
Speech can wound.
Pluralism needs limits.
All is true in moderation.
But when limits fall one wayonly, that's not pluralism.
It's curation.
Picture a mixing board.
For generations, the West keptthe volume near the middle.
Everyone gets a turn at the mic.
Imperfect, but legible.
(13:41):
Then came a new idea.
Turn some voices down to makeothers safe.
That's not balance.
That's mixing.
And whoever controls the mixercontrols the mood.
Welcome to what I call thevolume knob state.
It works like this.
A city amplifies one ritual forequity, yet bans another for
(14:03):
neutrality.
A platform throttles a view toprotect users, then spotlights
another to promote awareness.
A government punishes onlineannoyance, yet ignores
streetside shouting.
It's not faith versus the West.
It's control versus consistency.
Power now hides insidecompassion.
(14:24):
The less you can question anidea, the more sacred it
becomes.
And the more sacred it becomes,the less it can be examined.
That's not empathy.
That's engineering.
SPEAKER_01 (14:36):
So you go out on your show and said in part the
following.
This is on the show The Saturday5 on GB News 7.
SPEAKER_02 (14:44):
I'm done.
I'm done with the euphemisms.
I'm done with the crocodiletears.
I'm done with the calls forunity.
I'm done being told not to hate,and I'm done skirting around
uncomfortable truths.
So let's listen.
Uncomfortable truth one.
Multiculturalism hasn't merelyfailed, it has embedded
sectarian violence on thestreets of the UK and cost
(15:05):
countless lives.
Most recently, the lives ofAdrian Dorbley and Melvin
Kravitz in Manchester.
Again, strength and love totheir families.
Uncomfortable Truth Two,diversity is not our strength.
It has never been out strength.
And in fact, it has now becomeour greatest weakness
economically and culturally.
And not yet to hear any coherentargument for its value that
(15:27):
doesn't default to whether weget good restaurants out of it,
which isn't good enoughjustification for complete
cultural and social fracture.
And the stars have got therecipes now anyway.
Uncomfortable truth three.
Islamism is a cancer on the UK.
And more citizens will die as aresult of appeasing it.
(15:48):
We need to say theseuncomfortable truths loudly, and
whilst we still can.
SPEAKER_03 (15:54):
As you just heard on the Meghan Kelly show, Will
Kingston essentially put it: diversity has never been our (15:57):
undefined
strength.
Shared values are.
A sentence so simple it couldget you banned from LinkedIn.
There's a chapter on this inDistorted.
Not a conspiracy, just apattern.
Once language becomesenforcement, reality learns to
whisper.
In the volume knob state, youdon't go to jail for speech, you
(16:21):
just lose reach.
Self-censorship becomespatriotism with better lighting.
Because the easiest citizen togovern is the one who edits his
own sentence before he speaks.
How do you know the volume knobstate has moved into your
neighborhood?
It's easy, just listen for thetone shift.
1.
The word swap.
(16:42):
Old rules used to say permissionrequired.
Now they say respect required.
It sounds polite, but it meanswatch your mouth.
When words like safety andwell-being start showing up in
fine print, they're usuallydoing someone else's heavy
lifting.
2.
The one-way rule.
Notice which symbols get a hallpass.
(17:02):
One group's banner is calledheritage.
Another's is labeled offensive.
Same poll, different standard.
That's not fairness, that'sbranding.
3.
The shortcut.
Leaders skip the hard part,explaining.
Instead, they call disagreementdivision.
It ends the debate before itstarts.
(17:23):
Two signs it's about to getworse.
Signal 1.
Sneaky laws.
New bills slide in words likeharm or online safety.
They sound harmless untilthey're used to police opinions.
Signal 2.
Fragile institutions.
When an email begins with, somein our community feel unsafe,
you already know how it ends.
(17:45):
Another rule about what youcan't say.
That's how control works now.
Quiet, reasonable, and wrappedin empathy.
The laws are just the start.
The real test isn't written onpaper, it's written into daily
life.
Poetic truth is what happenswhen slogans from Washington
start showing up in your inbox.
(18:06):
Corporate America fell hard forit, posters of smiling faces,
emails about belonging, a weekof training on empathy, and a
lifetime of pretending it works.
Then, 2024 arrived.
Quiet layoffs, empty missionstatements, and a press release
calling it strategicrealignment.
When Virtue became a budgetline, it was already on borrowed
(18:30):
time.
Because if your values depend onfunding, they're not values,
they're subscriptions.
But the real story isn't thelayoffs, it's who took their
place.
The new referee doesn't wear aname badge or attend sensitivity
training.
It's digital, invisible, alwayspolite.
Now your gatekeeper isn't aperson, it's an algorithm that
(18:50):
reads tone.
It doesn't shout, you can't saythat.
It just filters you out beforeyou hit submit.
That's not censorship with aclub, it's censorship with a
smile and a software update.
Universities used to teachpeople how to think.
Now they grade them on how theyfeel about what they think.
(19:13):
FIRE, the Foundation forIndividual Rights and
Expression, surveyed more than250 colleges last year.
The finding?
Six in ten students admit theyhold back in class.
That's 58%, more than half,editing themselves before they
even speak.
Think about that.
These are adults, bright,opinionated, paying$30,000 a
(19:37):
year to hesitate.
They don't fear being wrong,they fear being recorded.
One word out of rhythm and theclip lives forever, captioned as
hate.
So they stay quiet, smilethrough the seminar, and hope
participation points don'trequire honesty.
Administrators call it creatinga safe environment.
Students call it not worth therisk.
(19:59):
It's ironic.
The freest generation in historyis now afraid of words.
That's not education, that'semotional choreography with
tuition.
And if universities, thesupposed laboratories of truth,
start rewarding conformity, it'sonly a matter of time before the
rest of society follows theirsyllabus.
(20:22):
Now, let's dig deeper on FIRE'scollege free speech rankings.
SPEAKER_04 (20:27):
Some of the most prestigious universities are
among the worst offenders inprotecting free speech.
A recent survey found that thewar in the Middle East is
deepening divisions on collegecampuses and encouraging
censorship.
SPEAKER_06 (20:43):
2023 was the worst year on record for shoutdowns on
college campuses.
And since October 7th, it's beenpretty much exclusively
pro-Palestinian students who'vebeen engaging in these
shoutdowns.
Um, and that's the definition ofmob censorship.
SPEAKER_04 (21:03):
Greg Lukianov, president of the Foundation for
Individual Rights andExpression, has been monitoring
the state of free speech oncollege campuses for decades,
using the most comprehensivesurvey to date, spanning more
than 250 universities.
(21:23):
The survey conducted this yearfrom January to June collected
responses from students infour-year programs.
It found the top schoolpromoting a strong free speech
environment is the University ofVirginia, followed by Michigan
Technical University.
SPEAKER_06 (21:37):
I don't think it's a coincidence that Michigan
Technological Universityfinished first last year and
second this year, partiallybecause they have a really
pretty even split amongpolitical backgrounds of their
students.
And that creates a muchhealthier environment.
(22:03):
When you have like you know nineto one liberal to conservative
students, though that creates askew.
And certainly when you have, youknow, um, some of these
universities have entiredepartments that don't have a
single conservative in them.
It creates terrible groupthink,which is not good for the
production of knowledge.
SPEAKER_04 (22:18):
Over half of the students surveyed identified the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict asthe most difficult topic to
discuss openly, marking a recordhigh for any issue since the
rankings began in 2020.
The war has surpassed evenabortion and gun control, with
Jewish, Muslim, agnostic, andatheist students all reporting
significant discomfort whenengaging in conversation about
(22:39):
it.
Perhaps even more concerning,however, is how the issue of
free speech is becoming a globalproblem.
SPEAKER_06 (23:00):
Oh, yeah.
I mean, the the global picturefor free speech right now scares
me to death.
I mean, Canada, I think, isstill considering passing a law
that speech crimes could get youup to life in prison.
Ireland uh has a hate hatespeech law that it recently
passed.
Thousands of uh Brits back in2015 and 2016 were arrested for
(23:22):
quote-unquote offensive commentcomments on the internet.
Like it we're in a bad way.
In America, thank goodness wehave the First Amendment.
Thank goodness we have such astrong commitment to freedom of
speech.
But boy, is that going to betested as the rest of the world
turns against it.
SPEAKER_04 (23:37):
Lukinov believes universities need to make
massive reforms, suggesting theCollege Free Speech Survey could
be one way to make campusessafer environments for free
speech, and he urges parents touse it when deciding which
schools their children shouldattend.
Brody Carter, CBN News.
SPEAKER_03 (23:55):
Now, let's shift to what I call the moral budget.
Virtue works like currency.
Every slogan spends a littletrust, every public apology
prints more of it.
Eventually, the moral dollarinflates, and truth loses value.
We've all met the corporateversion of this.
That manager who mistakespoliteness for courage, that
(24:16):
all-staff email titled KindCandor in the Workplace.
Translation (24:20):
Say whatever you like, as long as it sounds
approved.
When niceness replaces honesty,you don't get peace.
You get politeness with teeth.
A culture addicted to virtuealways needs a higher dose.
When empathy stops inspiring,outrage takes its place.
That's the national version.
(24:40):
But what does it look like inreal life?
On your street, your feed, youroffice slack?
Let's bring it home.
So far, we've talked aboutpolicies, language, and power.
The big stuff.
But distortion doesn't live inheadlines.
It lives in the small, politemoments you barely notice, the
(25:01):
ones that make you hesitatebefore you hit send, before you
speak up, before you clap ordon't.
That's where the volume knobstate really hides.
Not in law books, in daily life.
Here's how to spot it.
One, the mandatory applause.
Picture a company meeting.
Someone says, we're committed tocourageous conversations about
(25:24):
inclusion.
No one knows what that means,but everyone claps anyway.
That's not agreement.
That's instinct.
Because when silence feelsrisky, you're not in a democracy
anymore.
You're in a performance.
Two, the double standard.
Your city bans Christmas bannersfor neutrality, but sponsors a
pride parade under the samelogo.
(25:46):
Or your company flies one flagto raise awareness, but rejects
another as too political.
You're not crazy.
That's not fairness.
That's selective virtue withballoons.
3.
The language patch.
Watch how everyday words quietlyget replaced by mood words.
Concern becomes trauma.
(26:07):
The question becomesmicroaggression.
Policy becomes journey.
It sounds gentle and billable.
That's how power hides.
Behind words that feel nice andcost extra.
Still not convinced?
Try this.
Post a simple headline onlineand add, curious what others
think.
(26:28):
Then watch who comments and whodisappears.
That chill in the thread, that'sself-censorship.
The volume knob state doing itsjob.
And here's two warning lightswhen it's about to get louder.
Signal 1, algorithmic empathy.
Your phone finishes yoursentence to keep the tone
positive.
(26:48):
It's not helping you write, it'steaching you the approved
emotion.
Signal two, professional peril.
HR adds a new core value calledkind candor.
Translation.
As long as it sounds like us.
So, how do you stay sane?
You don't have to shout.
Just stay curious and keep yourown volume knob on manual.
(27:14):
3:31 a.m.
again.
Same street, same loudspeaker,same city that said it was
making room for everyone.
This time, the sound hitsdifferent, because now we've
heard how the rules bend, whogets volume, who gets silence,
and who calls it progress.
It's not about faith, it's aboutfrequency.
Who gets heard and who gets toldtheir tone is unsafe?
(27:38):
Diversity was supposed to makethe choir louder.
Instead, it handed outmicrophones by ideology.
So if you're wondering what thevolume knob state sounds like,
it's not a government memo.
It's a speaker on a poll at 3.31a.m., reminding you who's
allowed to be loud.
Because if your strength needs amoderator and a mute button, it
(28:00):
isn't strength.
It's stage management withbetter lighting.
And somewhere, a city noiseinspector is filling out the
paperwork.
For courage.
You don't need all the answers,but you should question the ones
you're handed.
Because in the end, diversity ofthought only counts if all the
thoughts sound the same.
(28:21):
Until next time, stay skeptical,stay curious, and always think
first.
By the way, a quick heads upbefore you go: the expanded
edition of Distorted dropsFebruary 10th.
Hardcover, paperback, andaudible.
More than 200 new pages ofresearch, stories, and receipts
(28:41):
we couldn't fit in the firstrelease.
If you've liked these episodes,that book is the full picture.
Again, February 10th, Distorted.
Available everywhere you getyour reality checked.
Want more?
The full six-step framework weuse is at gaslight360.com.
(29:02):
You can also dive into thedeeper story, the bio, the
podcast, and the mission atgymdechen.com.
And if you like this one, tagit.
Save it.
Share it.
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