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What does gaslighting mean in this context? I thought it meant making the "victim" question their own sanity/perception of reality?
by mahathu 5y ago
What does gaslighting mean in this context? I thought it meant making the "victim" question their own sanity/perception of reality?
- danpalmer 5y agoIn this case it's essentially claiming that Kubernetes is the same as virtualisation or has no other benefits. It's (arguably) gaslighting because it doesn't make clear that it is making that claim, it instead implies it as fact in the way it talks about virtualisation.
- wkrause 5y agoOutside of gaslighting's original context in a relationship, I often see it used to refer to a form of strawman argument. I read the gaslighting comment as saying that the person knows that virtualization in the form before Kubernetes was not sufficient, but tries to make people who express that thought feel like they're wrong at a fundamental level. So the implication is that the author knowingly constructs a strawman argument and then tries to make it sound like anyone who recognizes it for what it is, is "crazy".
- Trasmatta 5y agoGaslighting has almost entirely lost its original meaning because people use it for anything now. Drives me crazy.
- umvi 5y agoSame with "toxic" which now just means "any speech I don't like"
- Trasmatta 5y agoCalling something toxic, problematic, or gaslighting is a great way to silence further discussion
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- arwhatever 5y ago“Labels like that are probably the biggest external clue. If a statement is false, that's the worst thing you can say about it. You don't need to say that it's heretical. And if it isn't false, it shouldn't be suppressed. So when you see statements being attacked as x-ist or y-ic (substitute your current values of x and y), whether in 1630 or 2030, that's a sure sign that something is wrong. When you hear such labels being used, ask why.” Paul Graham - What You Can’t Say http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html
- danpalmer 5y agoToxic or problematic, perhaps, but gaslighting is a specific term that means more than "bad" (or toxic), and I intended it in that very specific way. I think it's a useful term because of this specificity, and because it helps to explain the very specific feeling of confusion that it instils in those it is used against.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- wyufro 5y agoBefore I learnt what it really means I always imagined it as a blowtorch heating things up, which sort of fits the original but obviously has a much wider scope. So maybe GP has the same idea I had.