alternativefacts.com

Its good that someone did that.

Too bad the Trumpers won't believe it.

#truth

 

I see this in the D&D all the time. Outright lies projected about me. Scary stuff.

Thanks for posting.

 

Thanks for sharing this. It would help our nation greatly if we had GOP leaders stand up to him and refute these tactics clearly. It's not clear just how far Trump/Bannon want to push this crap but if we fit the early data, it looks pretty alarming...

 

I certainly believe that psychological tactic exists. But I've never heard the term "Gaslighting" used before. That's a really weird word to coin for that meaning. I don't get it; why you'd choose that word.

Seems more appropriate for hiding your defects by artificially creating bigger ones ... like when ppl light their own farts to hide the smell.

 

origin is apparently from a movie

1800-10; gas + light1; def 4 in reference to the 1944 movie Gaslight, inwhich an abusive husband secretly and repeatedly dims and brightens thegaslights in the house while accusing his wife of imagining the flickering

 

^^^^
Ah -- a word created from the name of a movie/book title demonstrating the word in action. Is there a word for that? Something like an eponym or a metonymy, but for pop cultural references like book and movie titles.

 

Gaslighting is the new cool word to use. It reminds me of the new cool buzz word 'fake news'. I never heard of it until recently. Now that every crappy blog is using it, everyone feels the need to be hip and let everyone else know what it means.

Back in the day (like six months ago), we called these people manipulative assholes.

 

Huh. I don't recall you using that term for Bannon and Conway, but kudos if you did. Completely appropriate.

Gaslighting -- demean it as a hip term if you want, fine, who cares -- is not just run-of-the-mill manipulation. It's a cult-leader-like break down of a person's confidence in their own cognition. Creepy stuff. Jim Jones, for example, had it down to an art form.

This is a good article, beyond party politics, and it brings to mind the increasingly relevant work of genius that was Orwell's 1984, where a government breaks down their citizens until none of them believe their own senses. Up is down.

 

must be a 40s word given a new revival by someone like Paul Krugman at NYT. Or if William Safire were still alive.

 

Gaslighting has long been a word used to describe what narcissists (as in the actual cluster B personality disorder) do to their victims, particular spouses. The origin of the word does come from the movie, which would hint at its etymology. It's been around for years, especially in online forums for survivors of narcissistic abuse. If this feels like you are experiencing a bit of Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, it's only because a proper narcissist has been elected president.