Wow, reading your response felt like reading my exact experience growing up and now, except for me the abuser was my mother. I am sorry that you too went through a childhood that left you with so much mistrust, so much pain, and so much resistance and now feel yourself under the thumb again of an all too familiar oppressor (except on a much larger scale). I feel it too, internet stranger. You didn’t deserve that and still don’t, and that also goes for myself and anyone else.

Your comment gave words to feelings I’ve attempted to express but in a much more articulate manner, and I appreciate you for that.

The gaslighting and manipulation we experienced growing up, while horrible and unfair, are the very things that gave us the capacity to recognize the mass psychosis that is a direct result of the oppression and systematic violence that we and our fellow countrymen are experiencing. Under this type of abuse it is hard to understand what is real, what is true, and even what we see and hear. This is by design. We must always hold our truth, and trust it above all else.

I wish you the very best, wonderingwanderer. Thank you for sharing your story.