People keep on using 'gaslighting' incorrectly
I feel like the term ‘gaslighting’ has gone from obscurity to mainstream in only a few years.
If you didn’t know, ‘gaslighting’ comes from the 1944 film “Gaslight” where “a husband who uses trickery to convince his wife that she is insane in order to steal from her.”
Essentially, if you gaslight someone you are trying to make them doubt their own version of events. And also at the same time make them doubt their own sanity.
It’s a good word to know. But, I feel like its true meaning has become lost as it has grown more popular and become something of a buzzword.
Essentially, too many people now say someone is gaslighting when in fact what they’re really doing is just good old-fashioned lying.
Take this paragraph from an article [c] in the Atlantic today:
For half a decade, Republicans—especially self-described moderate members of the party—have been gaslighting America on the issue of abortion rights, pretending they didn’t know that Donald Trump’s Supreme Court picks were always planning to overturn Roe.
Pretending you don’t know something is lying, not gaslighting!
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