Birdnow's Aviary

April 11, 2026

Loss of Confidence Caused by Media Gaslighting

Timothy Birdnow

Proof people are really stupid and have the attention span of gnats:

Iran War Has Consumers Feeling Worse About Economy Than They Did During Great Recession, Biden Era

Gaslighting by the media to the contrary all of the numbers show a strong, vibrant economy, yet the public is fooled by the doom and gloom of the media into believing it's the Great Depression all over again.

The media did this to George H. W. Bush; they created a recession by talking about how a recession was coming and eventually the public believed it. This led to the election of Bill Clinton and the nation began a slow, horrible decline that has only just now been reversed.

This is all based on University of Michigan data.

FTA:

"Many consumers blame the Iran conflict for unfavorable changes to the economy,” the survey’s director, Joanne Hsu, wrote in a report about the survey. Consumers responded by saying they now expect inflation to rise 4.8% in the next year, a full percentage point jump from March’s survey.

Consumer sentiment is a closely watched economic indicator given that consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of America’s gross domestic product each year. The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index previously registered a 6% decline in March, with declines seen across all ages and political parties,

The University of Michigan index reading was even lower than it was during 2008’s Great Recession when consumers were forced to confront harsh economic conditions that resulted from massive defaults in the housing and financial sectors and was also lower than it was during former President Joe Biden’s administration, when inflation peaked at 9.1% following the passage of massive spending bills on COVID and the climate.

The consumer price index increased 0.9% in March, pushing the annual inflation rate to 3.3%, largely due to a 10.9% spike in energy costs resulting from the war in Iran.

The annual rate reading was the largest recorded since April 2024 and increased from 2.4% in February, CNBC reported. Gasoline prices skyrocketed by 21.2% in March as the Strait of Hormuz, a major route for shipping oil, remains largely closed due to the war, accounting for three-quarters of the inflation increase.

Inflation is still quite low and came in below expectations. And wages are up. And the job market improved.

But the media won't tell anyone about any of that. This is gaslighting.

You know what this is like? Most of the gloomy numbers are FORECASTS. Just like the climate models which wind up not describing reality, these are predictions, prophecies by political actors and not actual discussions about the numbers themselves. The fact is inflation is far lower now than under Joe Biden (9%) and all the other numbers are doing much better.

Wars often lead to economic booms, I might add, and not economic downturns. The downturns usually come after a war is over, like the economic depression of 1919 or the brief return of the Great Depression after in the late forties.

Don't believe this; it's just a lie. But sadly a lie can succeed if nobody makes it their mission to call it out.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:32 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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