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The play 'Gas Light' by Patrick Hamilton in 1938. The husband, Jack, deliberately keeps the gaslights in the house dim, and then dismisses his wife, Bella, who says the light has dimmed, by telling her, "It's because you're too sensitive." Through repeated denial, the wife eventually begins to doubt her own eyes and memory. This is the origin of what we commonly call 'gaslighting' today, and the cruelest form of psychological manipulation that destroys a person's cognitive system. 

However, this meticulous manipulation is recently being reenacted in the South Korean political arena under the guise of 'opinion polls.' This is not simply a matter of numerical error. It is a sophisticated marketing tactic aimed at injecting a 'manufactured reality' into the minds of the public to emasculate the sovereign's instinctual doubts.

You Don't Realize You're Getting Wet in a Drizzle

There is a Korean proverb, 'You don't realize you're getting wet in a drizzle.' This is precisely where manipulated opinion polls become dangerous. The human cognitive structure tends to accept repeated information as 'fact.' 

When biased figures, such as one candidate being overwhelmingly dominant or the entire nation supporting a certain policy, are released weekly, citizens eventually fall into self-doubt, wondering, 'Is my judgment out of step with the times?' This precisely mirrors the method Jack used in the play to manipulate the gaslight and paralyze his wife's sense of reality. It is 'cognitive gaslighting' that numbs the collective intelligence of the public.

Emotional Paving for the Main Course: An 'Appetizer'

Opinion polls are not just results in themselves; they serve as an 'emotional inoculation' for a larger conspiracy. They create a psychological buffer zone that makes the public 'accept' even unexpected results on election day, the main event.

First, they become a tool for justifying the outcome. Even if strange numbers emerge when the ballot boxes are opened, the defense argument, "Didn't the opinion polls always show that?" is already subconsciously ingrained in the public.

Second, they neutralize the possibility of criticism. Voices that detect signs of fraud and raise issues are confined to the frame of 'conspiracy theorists who don't understand scientific statistics' and are socially isolated.

Poison Tree, Poison Fruit: Information from a Tainted Source is Just Contamination

We already remember the Election Commission's QR codes for advance voting. A database of tens of millions, capable of gauging voters' political inclinations, is itself a vast surveillance network. While pollsters are provided with data from the Election Commission under the name of 'safe phone numbers' for public disclosure, it is obvious who this 'safety' is for.

An investigation based on data provided by an organization highlighted as a ringleader of fraudulent elections? No one would see fairness in that. This is merely a manipulation of figures leading to a predetermined conclusion.

It's Time to Turn Off the Gaslight and Raise the Torch

The core values of the right-wing conservatives lie in defending the spirit of the Constitution, the rule of law, and fair play. We must maintain a cool vigilance, questioning whether the 'feast of numbers' we encounter weekly is a drizzle slowly soaking us, or perhaps the prelude to a grand manipulation.

The only way to escape gaslighting is to face the objective 'reality,' not the manipulator's voice. Now is the time to stop the self-doubt under the gaslight and regain the sharp eyes of the sovereign that expose every detail of the manipulation. Only by becoming vigilant observers, not silent majorities, can we prevent the collapse of democracy.

◆ Min Byung-gon, Writer 

Current) Political documentary writer 

Current) Spokesperson for the People Power Party's South Chungcheong Province Chapter