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If you have ever used the term gaslighting there is a 100% chance you may be an asshole who refuses to admit it.
@FailForward There is plenty of legitimate gas lighting, that wasnt the point. Typically the people who go around playing hte victim every time they are an asshole (which is the vast majority of the internet and a good portion of the population) love to use that term because it makes them sound smart and more credible as they cry about how your gaslighting them them for calling them rude for yelling at you because you use the term "whitelist" to refer to a internet technology or whatever other nonsense.
+bonifartius 𒂼𒄄
@freemo as non native english speaker these terminologies piss me off extra-much as they are completely random for me "gaslighting", "sealioning", cont. ad nauseam. i can't get meaning from context, instead have to learn specialized terminology. which might as well serve the dual purpose of feeling right. "look, we even have our own vocabulary, how could we be wrong!!1".
@bonifartius @freemo to be fair, "gaslighting" isn't obvious to native English speakers either. It has a legitimate meaning but is, I think, based on an old movie few have seen.
To manipulate someone psychologically such that they question their own sanity.
That's one dictionary definition. I think it's a real thing we often see in politics and the media lately. But used as a common insult? Odd.
It is a valid term and a valid tactic for sure.. but I often find the people going around being assholes on fediverse and then get called out for it keep claiming they are being gaslit.. and im just sitting here watching going "no, you were a legit asshole dude".
