Gaslighting - What does it even mean?

Pikonic said:
"Gaslighting" was once a tumblr term but is now being used by actual people.
Here's a CNN article that correctly defines gaslighting:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cn...rump-is-gaslighting-america-ghitis/index.html
If you don't feel like clicking I'll explain.
"Gaslighting" is an old term that dates from the 1930-40s. In the 1930s play (and later 1940s film,) called Gaslight, the main character's husband used gaslights to search through her jewelry, causing the lights in the rest of the house to dim. The husband convinces his wife the lights aren't flickering and dimming, his constant lies make her question what she's actually seeing. That's what gaslighting is, that's how it got the name.
Smutley once defined gaslighting as "a tumblr term for telling the truth about someone." Over the years gaslighting became "saying something people don't like." It became a term to throw at someone who disagreed with you.
Using the explanation above we can get two nessassaries about gaslighting.

1.) Gaslighting must be an outright and undisputed lie. The husband tells the wife the lights are just fine when they are not. Since this must be an outright lie, then the truth must be a fact, not an opinion. Saying "I don't think transgender people shouldn't receive SRS from taxpayers money" or "millenials are entitled" isn't gaslighting, it's sharing an opinion. The article posted above mentioned Trump mocking the disabled reporter, saying the left is gaslighting you into thinking that. They're not, they're sharing their opinion.

2.) Gaslighting must be direct. In the play/movie the husband directly lies to his wife. Phil claims the Kiwifarms gaslights him, but that's not true because we don't directly lie to him, we don't directly make him question his reality. You can't gaslight a group of people.

Let's look at this image, posted by an actual person on Facebook:
View attachment 175080
Sally refuses to be gaslit, which is good because that's not happening here.
"Normalizing Trump" is what happens when people say "Well, he's the president," or "I want to keep an open mind and I really hope he does well for the country." Neither of these are gaslighting, the first statement is the truth and the second statement is wishful thinking.

"So Pikonic, what you're saying is gaslighting isn't real?"
No, gaslighting is real and I sadly have been a victim.
My ex boyfriend was abusive, physically and mentally. I've mentioned him in the past but here's how he attempted to gaslight me.
We had been together for about a year and I got a new job so I needed to move closer.
When we were looking for apartments to live in together he turned down every one I picked and we visited. He had no input on where to look so I suggested that we still continue to live apart. I had no problem living apart but he got upset, thinking I was gonna bring guys to MY apartment. We broke up about a year later because we couldn't handle living together, which is common among couples. He told me it was my fault because I pushed him into living with me. When I told him I was fine living separate, he acted like I never said that. He kept up this lie thoughout our separation process and made me wonder if my memory was fucked up, did I really push him into living together and do some mental gymnastics so I'd be in the right?
It was only after his sister told me that she remembered he was upset that I suggested living apart did I realize he was lying. When you're the shit end of gaslighting, you don't realize it, this is why "you're gaslighting me" is bullshit.

So why am I making a thread, mostly because I saw real people using this term and I don't want it to be like tumblr, where people overexaggerate their victim status to the point where real victims are laughed to the side.
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What bothers me most about the picture is Trumps

*Trump's
 
Gaslighting is just inconvenient truth that makes people autistically scratch and stim.
I like how CNN thinks they're using the term properly when Trump was proven right about rapefugees. The problem is and always will be pansies that are afraid or sensitive to confrontation of truth in its most raw form.
 
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I've always been under the impression that gaslighting is when one party tried to make the other party question themselves and their sanity in order to establish that their position is the correct position. Basically emotional manipulation.

However, paranoid crazy types are probably prone to feeling gaslit. Because someone rightfully pointing out that your logic is flawed because your brain isn't working correctly would seem to them like a hostile attempt to discredit them.
 
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Broken Pussy said:
I've always been under the impression that gaslighting is when one party tried to make the other party question themselves and their sanity in order to establish that their position is the correct position. Basically emotional manipulation.

However, paranoid crazy types are probably prone to feeling gaslit. Because someone rightfully pointing out that your logic is flawed because your brain isn't working correctly would seem to them like a hostile attempt to discredit them.
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Well, when your presented with the truth versus your own beliefs, you are bound to either feel stupid or validated.
 
Sorry to necro, but at some point did people start circulating a meaning specifically of "bringing up something I said that contradicts what I now say"?

I get how in practice it ends up that way, but it seems like there's people who really think that's the actual meaning.

I've seen it pop up a few times with spastics of the onlines where people will chuck random lies at the person like "you're not Spastic, he died a few years ago and you hacked his twitter" that doesn't get gaslighting called on it, but later on in the same conversation specifically pointing out things in the same thread that contradict current statements brings up "you're gaslighting me!" even though the last thing Spastic said is still sitting there.
 
Broken Pussy said:
I've always been under the impression that gaslighting is when one party tried to make the other party question themselves and their sanity in order to establish that their position is the correct position. Basically emotional manipulation.

However, paranoid crazy types are probably prone to feeling gaslit. Because someone rightfully pointing out that your logic is flawed because your brain isn't working correctly would seem to them like a hostile attempt to discredit them.
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Without wishing to be cruel, the most common way I hear it used is crazy people trying to force people not to call them crazy.
I'm sorry, but your shit is not normal and I'm not going to indulge you by pretending otherwise.
If you think the government is monitoring you via cameras in your cheerios, you are unwell, and people pointing that out is not something you get to feel persecuted over.
 
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Lucricitous said:
I always thought gaslighting was termed because of the 'you're low on gas' notification in cars turning on when there's actually still plenty of gas in the tank.
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How are you even a staff member or a mod when I don't even know who you are?

@Null @Null you are gaslighting me by modding people I've never heard of! REEEEEEEE! REEEEEEE!
 
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AnOminous said:
How are you even a staff member or a mod when I don't even know who you are?

@Null @Null you are gaslighting me by modding people I've never heard of! REEEEEEEE! REEEEEEE!
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Bullshit. I've been here since Feb 3, 2013. That's what it says on DevilDog's profile and if you say otherwise then you're gaslighting him. And me.
 
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